GRADitude in Extraordinary Times: A Virtual Celebration of Rackham Donors and Scholars

Xi Wang, Civil Engineering
Barbour Scholarship

Human-robot collaboration offers a promising paradigm for construction robotics and can allow robots to leverage human expertise and experience to overcome workspace uncertainties and successfully perform construction work on-site. Xi Wang’s dissertation proposes a transformative human-robot collaborative construction system to promote robot autonomy, reduce workers’ physical and mental workload, and create an inclusive and safer working environment. To do this, an immersive process-level virtual reality digital twin is developed for workers to collaborate with on-site robots remotely. Workers demonstrate tasks and robots learn to perform them given the workers’ feedback. Xi’s dissertation establishes the foundation of next-generation construction work by transitioning the role of workers from manual task performers to robot supervisors.

“The Barbour Scholarship supports me in strengthening my robotics technological skills and research record in my final year. It helps a lot as I work on my dissertation and head toward graduation. I believe I can successfully get a research position to continue my research on human-robot collaborative construction after my graduation with the support of the Barbour Scholarship.”

As a Barbour Scholar, Xi joins a community of women who illustrate the importance of a global graduate experience and the impact of donors who see the brilliance in others. Levi Barbour created this fund in 1917, and more than 100 years later, students like Xi are still benefiting from this act of generosity.

Casidy Campbell, American Culture
Roslyn M. Abrams Fund for Graduate Students

Casidy’s dissertation explores how Black girls shape and are shaped by the internet (i.e., social media, codes, networks), focusing on moments when Black girls’ narratives and ways of knowing, or epistemologies, have been flattened by the internet’s infrastructure. Her current project has roots in her experience as a support teacher working with middle school children with learning disabilities. When trying to reach and inspire her Black girl students, she turned to #BlackGirlMagic. However, seeing #BlackGirlMagic circulated online with marginal representation for adolescent Black girls compelled her to wonder about the utility of hashtag activism. With the help of the Roslyn M. Abrams Fund, Casidy can purchase transcription services and compensate her research participants for their time and generosity.

“Their words and stories have transformed the stories I am able to write about Black girls. The trajectory of my dissertation has been shaped by their experiences as Black girls, and I hope my writing will honor them in the ways that they deserve. This is only the beginning of how this award can create new possibilities for my project...By awarding me the Roslyn M. Abrams Fund, you have alleviated some of my financial burden so that I can focus on progressing in my research and giving back to those who make this work possible.”