Diversity Lunch in Space
Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 12:00-13:30
Overview
Space robotics remains a field largely dominated by men, and visible female role models are still rare. We want to help change that by creating an environment that actively fosters diversity, representation, and inspiration for the next generation of engineers and scientists.
There will be two talks by leading academic experts in space robotics. These talks will highlight cutting-edge research, share personal career journeys, and address challenges and opportunities in the field. The session will also include an interactive Q&A segment, giving students the opportunity to engage directly with the speakers, ask questions, and gain valuable insights into both the technical and human aspects of pursuing a career in space robotics.
We warmly welcome participants of all backgrounds, while placing a special focus on engaging female students and early-career researchers.
Speakers
Prof. Chinthaka Premachandra
Professor in AI, Image Processing and Robotics at Shibaura Institute of Technology
Biography
Chinthaka Premachandra (Senior Member, IEEE) was born in Sri Lanka. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Mie University, Japan, in 2006 and 2008, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2011. From 2012 to 2015, he was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo University of Science. He then joined the Department of Electronic Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT), Tokyo, where he served as an Assistant Professor from 2016 to 2017 and an Associate Professor from 2018 to 2022. Since 2022, he has been a Professor with the Department of Advanced Electronic Engineering, School and Graduate School of Engineering, SIT, where he also serves as the Director of the Image Processing and Robotics Laboratory.
His research interests include artificial intelligence (AI), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), image and audio processing, intelligent transport systems (ITS), and mobile robotics. He has received several prestigious awards, including the IEEE Sensors Letters Best Paper Award from the IEEE Sensors Council (2022) and the IEEE Japan Medal from the IEEE Tokyo Section (2022). He is the Founding Chair of the International Conference on Image Processing and Robotics (ICIPRoB), technically co-sponsored by IEEE. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) and a Guest Editor for the IEEE Sensors Journal.
Talk summary
Recent advances in vision–language models (VLMs) are transforming how robots understand and perform tasks through natural language instructions. This talk introduces a vision–language-based approach for robot manipulation that integrates visual perception and language understanding to achieve human-like behavior. By linking visual information with linguistic meaning, robots can recognize objects, grasp spatial relationships, and plan actions directly from spoken or written commands. The talk also discusses how this technology can bridge human communication and robotic autonomy, enabling more intuitive and natural interactions in industrial, domestic, service, and space applications.
Dr. Shreya Santra
Senior Assistant Professor, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, Tohoku University
Biography
Dr. Shreya Santra is a Specially-appointed Lecturer (Research) in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Tohoku University, Japan. She completed her Ph.D. at the Space Robotics Lab (SRL) in Tohoku University in collaboration with DLR Institute of Communications and Navigation, Germany in 2021. She holds a M.Sc. degree in Space and Engineering Systems from Skoltech, Moscow, Russia and B.Tech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, India. She specializes in coordination, control, perception, and motion planning tasks for multi-robot systems integrated with advanced algorithms to operate in unstructured challenging environments. With prior experience in industrial robots and small satellite constellations, her current research focuses on development of intelligent autonomous multi-modular robots that will pave the way to set up future human outposts on planetary surfaces as part of the Japan Science and Technology Agency’s Moonshot Project Goal 3 lead by Prof. Kazuya Yoshida. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) and a Guest Editor for Frontier in Robotics and AI journal.
Talk summary
Recent advances in AI are opening new frontiers for adaptive policy learning and bridging the persistent gap between simulation and real-world performance. Intelligent multi-agent cooperative systems have the potential to significantly enhance the adaptability and autonomy of modular robotic platforms used for in-situ construction and infrastructure development. Our current work focuses on the development of modular, reconfigurable robots that leverage Decentralized Reinforcement Learning (Dec-RL) and Generative AI to acquire generalizable skills, coordinate as teams, plan tasks dynamically, and adapt to unfamiliar environments without explicit reprogramming. This framework reduces reliance on predefined routines, enabling self-organizing behaviors and resilient operation under changing mission conditions. Such autonomy also strengthens human–robot collaboration, promoting efficient construction and maintenance of lunar facilities with minimal human intervention. In addition, I will share insights from my research journey from a small mining town in India, the importance of visible female role models in space technology, and perspectives on emerging trends in space exploration, emphasizing the expanding role of robotics and AI in shaping humanity’s next steps beyond Earth.
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