Researching autonomous drone machine learning algorithms in Madrid

When Juan Carlos got to MIT he did not know he would be able to spend his days working with drones and nights on the streets of Spain.

The power of artificial intelligence

Rising junior Juan Carlos Garcia spent his 2017 summer interning at Vision4UAV, a lab group within the Center for Automation at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. Alongside international Phd students who work in making unmanned aerial vehicles autonomous, Juan Carlos researched state of the art machine learning algorithms that teach drones how to make their own decisions in real time and complete missions. Juan wrote Python code and designed neural network structures that taught drones how to complete missions such as landing in a designated location and landing on a moving car. The lab has been using the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradients algorithm as the main teaching method for these drones. Juan Carlos’ was tasked with researching and testing how well the Normalized Advantage Function algorithm taught drones. The results of his experiments gave the lab insight as to how a new reinforcement learning algorithm taught drones how to make decisions, i.e. choose an action, in a continuous action space. Working as a machine learning intern reaffirmed Juan Carlos’ interest in the potential power of artificial intelligence and machine learning. In his following semesters at MIT, Juan Carlos will focus on taking more machine learning courses.

As well as working with drones, Juan Carlos engaged in an open and vibrant culture while living in Madrid. “I found Spanish people to be open and friendly. You could meet a stranger, spend a few hours with them, and later you’d be hugging them as you parted ways,” stated Juan Carlos. This kind of social attitude led to many wonderful experiences that allowed Juan Carlos to connect with people from all over the world. These experiences ranged from dancing ocean-side at a Celtic music festival, kicking around a soccer ball with international friends, and seeing wild bulls on a hike to some natural swimming holes. "MISTI gave me the incredible opportunity to engage in interesting Machine Learning research and live in the most vibrant and open culture that I have encountered in my life. My summer abroad has left me with a wealth of experiences and global connections."