For this month's spotlight, we spoke to Nathalia Céspedes Gómez, a 2nd year PhD student and DeepMind Scholar in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science. She told us about her research, her greatest achievement and what makes her happy.
In 2020, you were working at the Center for Biomechatronics at the Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito in Bogota when you applied for a PhD studentship in Computer Science and DeepMind Scholarship at Queen Mary. Can you tell us about your research and what sparked your interest in this field?
My research is focused on building social robotics for different kinds of health care needs. At the moment, I'm working to develop robots that could help patients with dementia. The need for new therapeutic tools to care for people with dementia is increasing as more and more people are diagnosed with the disease every year. I'm focused on building robots to interact in a natural way with patients and on monitoring how patients respond and are affected by their interactions with the robots.
I got into this area of research during my undergraduate studies. I was studying for a BSc in Biomedical Engineering when I had the opportunity to attend a lab where I saw how robots were being used to support children with autism and cardiac rehabilitation patients. I was so interested to see how well users interacted with the robot and it led me to think about how similar robotic interactions could be adapted and used in different therapeutic areas.
After a period of working on a project that used robotic interactions to provide cardiac rehabilitation for elderly people, where I collaborated with Plymouth University to improve the ability of the robot to provide personalised feedback to the patient, I decided to focus my research on developing robots for use in reminiscence therapy based on nostalgic images, for dementia patients.
Your research sounds fascinating, and I hope it will lead to some positive outcomes for people suffering with dementia. Can you tell us a little about why you decided to apply to Queen Mary University to further your research and embark on a PhD?
I was trying to find a PhD in Colombia, when I found out about the DeepMind Scholarship that was attached to Queen Mary University on FindaPhd.com. I contacted my supervisors to get advice about my application and researched what DeepMind was doing to apply DeepLearning techniques in Robotics.
The opportunity looked interesting for two reasons.
First, DeepMind has a reputation for carrying out world-leading research in the field of AI. I felt that to advance my research and create effective robotic interactions, I would need to know more about and learn to apply DeepLearning techniques, and DeepMind are experts on this so it would be an invaluable opportunity to have access to their knowledge and experience.
Second, when I looked at the Queen Mary website, I learnt that the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science had a strong international programme, which was important to me. I feel that when people from different cultures work together, there are so many more possibilities to learn from one another. I could see that the research projects conducted across the departments were interesting and particularly the robots and dialogue and mental health, so it looked like a good fit for me.
We are very pleased that you applied and made the journey to join us at Queen Mary! Can you tell us a bit about your time here so far?
I was in Colombia for the first 10 months of my PhD because of the COVID pandemic. Colombia was on the 'red list', which meant I couldn't travel to the UK, so it was an unusual start to my studies!
Since arriving in the UK however, my experience of has changed a lot. When I was in Colombia and dealing with everything remotely, I was worried about my work because I couldn't access everything that I needed for my research, but being in the UK has given me the opportunity to use the robot and use the tools I need to build the system like I want to. I also appreciate the in-person interactions and feedback all the more having spent the first 10 months online.
Doing a PhD is like being on a roller coaster, sometimes things are on a high, and then sometimes there are difficult parts and doubts creep in - but this is what doing a PhD is like and I know there will be highs and lows. But overall, the experience has been good. I’ve had the opportunity already to test the robot, to conduct experiments, and to get positive feedback. It is surprising how much people have enjoyed speaking with the robot!
We've mentioned that you were awarded the prestigious DeepMind Scholarship. Can you tell us what support you’ve had from DeepMind?
I’ve been assigned a mentor who works at DeepMind and she worked with me regularly in the first year and I’ve received a lot of feedback. It has been very useful. I was surprised at first because I thought the mentorship would only touch on technical skills, but in fact I received a lot of guidance on softer skills as well.
For example, I had to present my project at the end of the first year before I was able to progress to the second year. My mentor gave some excellent advice on how best to present my findings and how to contextualise them within state-of-the-art developments in the field. I also had a lot of questions about programming libraries and what would be best to use for the interface of the robot.
My mentor recommended papers and libraries to help me decide which path to follow and that was really useful for me. It is also invaluable of course to have my studentship fully funded for three years, including a living stipend, and a budget for travel and equipment expenses.
Who has been your favourite academic and why?
Richard Feynman, a physicist who made a great contribution to science. A Twitter account has been created in his name (@ProfFeynman) where some of his words and contributions are shared. I feel like we see research in a similar way - as an opportunity to grow - and that it is important that we understand that we don’t know everything. He was great at combining soft skills with the academic skills and he understood that it is important to be humble and to recognise when others are doing excellent research. For me, sharing knowledge is so important and I feel that we have a similar mind set in that respect.
At Queen Mary, I also have to say that the guidance from my supervisors and my independent assessor, who is from the psychology department, has been so helpful. I really appreciate the support in different knowledge areas, psychology, robotics and computer science. It is great to receive feedback from different perspectives.
Girls often rule out studying Computer Science and AI because of its reputation for being ‘techy’ and male dominated. What would you say to girls about your experience that might challenge this perception?
For me, this is a challenge that everyone can help with, no matter what your gender is. Girls can do computer science, robotics, or whatever they want to, and shouldn’t hide what interests them. We need to keep challenging the myths about what genders can and can’t do. I learnt this from my family. My father never told me I couldn’t do something and so I didn’t feel restricted. My family has always encouraged me to do what I want to do and what I enjoy doing.
We are lucky to have role models like you to show girls what exciting things they can do with computer science. What do you hope to do with your degree? Do you have any specific plans for the future?
I have another year and a half of funding and at the end of my research, I want to test the interface I have built with healthy participants within dementia institutions to find out what changes to the protype they would recommend before testing with the patients. After that, I will need to do some technical stuff with the robot, experiments with dementia patients and by the end of the PhD, I hope to have built a robot that would be capable of providing effective reminiscence therapy.
What is your greatest career or non-career achievement?
I would say it is winning the DeepMind scholarship. When I applied, I didn’t really realise how competitive the application process was! So yes, my greatest achievement is being here and this experience - it’s my first time living in another country, and it’s my first time in London.
When you’re not at Queen Mary University, what are your interests?
I enjoy cooking, it’s something I enjoy a lot. I’m a sociable person so I like to hang out with friends. Life is a balance - enjoy your life, combine everything - friends and studies. I also love to dance.
And finally, what in your life keeps you feeling happy?
A lot of things, but I would say primarily, it is my family, my sisters - I love them, sharing moments with them. Personal growth is also very important for me - learning is so important, learning through the ups and downs. Being able to wake up each day, live my life and do the things I’m doing, and having the opportunity to share this with people, it all makes me happy.