Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU) reposted this
Computer Engineering at Skyline College | Former Intern @ LBNL | Specializing in Embedded Systems & Robotics
This Fall, I had the opportunity of interning at the Berkeley Lab Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU) through the Department of Energy's Community College Internships (CCI) program. As an intern, I created a prototype system for a robotic arm to autonomously detect and handle test tubes. Here, I was able to familiarize myself with Python libraries OpenCV and PyTorch for image processing and deep learning. To implement the computer vision system, I designed and 3D-printed a custom mount for a standard webcam, attaching it to the arm’s end effector. I then trained the open-source object detection model (YOLOv8 by Ultralytics) on a custom dataset for it to recognize test tubes, and interfaced these detections with the arm’s robotic control software. While this project has helped me learn more about creating and training AI models, computer vision, and robotics, I hope to continue to improve upon these skills in future projects. As we transition into the new year, I’m reflecting on this amazing experience and am grateful for those who helped me succeed. I’d like to thank my mentor Dupeng Liu, Ph.D. for the chance to work on such an exciting project, guiding me throughout the internship, and advocating for reaching my goals. I’d also like to thank the Berkeley Lab Workforce Development & Education, the ABPDU team, and my fellow interns for the valuable support when I needed it. Last but not least, I'd like to thank my Skyline College professors Marco Wehrfritz and Kolo Wamba for helping me in the process leading up to this.