2016-02-23: 2016 Spring Intern Erica Meszaros

Erica Meszaros, a graduate in linguistics from Eastern Michigan University with a bachelors degree in classical languages (Greek/Latin) from the College of Wooster, has joined the NASA Langley Autonomy Incubator team for the spring 2016 semester. Erica is working on human communication with intelligent machine agents in the system during Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operations. She is studying the utilization of natural communication modalities to define and assess human-drone interactions and interpret the human participants' intent. Imagine the type of  interactions humans have with dogs. This interaction is facilitated by voice-based communication while the human "mission specialist" is within the field of view of the dog or, in this case, a robot or UAV. Our expectation is that in the not-too-distant future, humans will be working in teams with robots by using task-based natural language dialogues to coordinate activities. This approach to human-machine teaming using natural language as part of a mixed-initiative fleet and the ability to update plans and tasks based on perceived and communicated information is a critical aspect of establishing trust in autonomous systems and enabling upcoming NASA missions.

Erica Meszaros