Completed a Willow Garage internship

Soon after I posted my previous post (wow, that was almost five months ago?) I went on an internship at Willow Garage, to do research for my PhD thesis on motion planning.

No, I'm not going to make PR2s take over the world yet. So far, one of the things I had them do was solve a very simple puzzle, in simulation (and made a couple videos about it: this one, this one, and finally this one). For the other, well, check out the Willow Garage blog, you're bound to find my post there eventually.

The internship was massively useful. I learned a lot by being in an actual robotics research collective; I wish I had gone on such a trip sooner. And also, Silicon Valley is an awesome place to be, at least if you can afford it. A geek nexus, with robotic competitions, museum parties, "crash and compile" events (drinking games + coding; what's not to like?). And then there's the Friday meeting of the Brewers club, made from employees of Willow Garage. There's three things on the agenda: drink beer, drink more beer, oh and also brew beer to have what to drink in a few weeks. *proud* Yep, I brewed beer. It was awesome. Oh and speaking of brewing, there's the Homebrew Robotics club. Less about beer, more about hobby robots, also a great thing.

I started the internship with some ... I suppose negative ideas about the USA. I found out that I don't hate the place as much as I feared. Indeed, fellow interns were amazed as to why I didn't go there sooner, given my penchant for quoting random bits of pop culture trivia. And I met quite a few cool people at Willow Garage. So returning to Silicon Valley? Hm. I wouldn't dismiss it.

How about returning at Willow Garage? Because something changed, and was the talk of the robotics town. What does Willow Garage mean when it says it is changing? I'm not in a position to give details, suffice to say that Willow's focus on research is diminishing, to be replaced by a focus on doing marketable products. It's not yet clear to me whether that means I'd be interested in returning to the new company- it's a new Willow. Maybe I won't care much about what they want to sell. Who knows.

All in all great experience though. And oh wow, almost five months without a post. Hm. Time to rectify that.

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