Tech Briefs Magazine - August 2022 - 53

Technology Development
The faculty and students at Columbia Engineering are doing
pioneering research across departments and disciplines, governed
by the school's vision - Columbia Engineering for Humanity
- that sets a bold path for a sustainable, healthy, secure,
connected, and creative humanity.
Columbia engineers recently created a robot that learns to
visually predict how its partner robot will behave, displaying a
glimmer of empathy. This " Robot Theory of Mind " could help
robots get along with other robots - and humans - more
intuitively. The study, conducted at Columbia Engineering's
Creative Machines Lab led by Mechanical Engineering Professor
Hod Lipson, is part of a broader
effort to endow robots with the
ability to understand and anticipate
the goals of other robots, purely from
visual observations.
Columbia Engineering researchers
have developed a computer vision algorithm
for predicting human interactions
and body language in video, a capability
that could have applications for
assistive technology, autonomous vehicles,
and collaborative robots. Their algorithm
is a step toward machines being
able to make better predictions
about human behavior, and thus better
coordinate their actions with humans.
The mathematical framework developed
by the researchers enables machines
to organize events by how predictable
they are in the future. The
technique could move computers closer
to being able to size up a situation
and make a nuanced decision, instead
of a pre-programmed action, the researchers
say. The algorithm is a critical
step in building trust between humans
and computers.
Engineered tissues have become a
critical component for modeling diseases
and testing the efficacy and safety
of drugs in a human context. A major
advance from Columbia Engineering
team demonstrates first multi-organ
chip made of engineered human tissues
linked by vascular flow for improved
modeling of systemic diseases
like cancer.
A team of researchers from Columbia
Engineering and Columbia University
Irving Medical Center have developed
a model of human physiology in
the form of a multi-organ chip consisting
of engineered human heart, bone,
liver, and skin that are linked by vascuTech
Briefs, August 2022
lar flow with circulating immune cells, to allow recapitulation of
interdependent organ functions.
The researchers have essentially created a plug-and-play
multi-organ chip, which is the size of a microscope slide, that
can be customized to the patient. Because disease progression
and responses to treatment vary greatly from one person to another,
such a chip will eventually enable personalized optimization
of therapy for each patient.
Scientists at Columbia University have developed a highspeed
3D microscope for diagnosis of cancers and other diseases
that they say could eventually replace traditional biopsy and
histology " with real-time imaging within the living body. "
Observer
Actor
Obstacle
Food
An actor robot runs on a playpen trying to catch the visible green food, while an observer machine
learns to predict the actor robot's behavior purely through visual observations. Although the observer
can always see the green foods, the actor, from its own perspective, cannot due to occlusions. (Image:
Columbia Engineering)
The SIFTER system deployed at ColumbiaDoctors. (Image: Columbia Engineering)
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Tech Briefs Magazine - August 2022

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