#Assistive robots

[jcmarchi]

Three MIT students named 2026 Schwarzman Scholars

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Three MIT students named 2026 Schwarzman Scholars

Three MIT students — Yutao Gong, Brandon Man, and Andrii Zahorodnii — have been awarded 2025 Schwarzman Scholarships and will join the program’s 10th cohort to pursue a master’s degree in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

The MIT students were selected from a pool of over 5,000 applicants. This year’s class of 150 scholars represents 38 countries and 105 universities from around the world.

The Schwarzman Scholars program aims to develop leadership skills and deepen understanding of China’s changing role in the world. The fully funded one-year master’s program at Tsinghua University emphasizes leadership, global affairs, and China. Scholars also gain exposure to China through mentoring, internships, and experiential learning.

MIT’s Schwarzman Scholar applicants receive guidance and mentorship from the distinguished fellowships team in Career Advising and Professional Development and the Presidential Committee on Distinguished Fellowships.

Yutao Gong will graduate this spring from the Leaders for Global Operations program at the MIT Sloan School of Management, earning a dual MBA and a MS degree in civil and environmental engineering with a focus on manufacturing and operations. Gong, who hails from Shanghai, China, has academic, work, and social engagement experiences in China, the United States, Jordan, and Denmark. She was previously a consultant at Boston Consulting Group working on manufacturing, agriculture, sustainability, and renewable energy-related projects, and spent two years in Chicago and one year in Greater China as a global ambassador. Gong graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with double majors in environmental science and statistics, where she organized the Duke China-U.S. Summit.

Brandon Man, from Canada and Hong Kong, is a master’s student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where he studies generative artificial intelligence (genAI) for engineering design. Previously, he graduated from Cornell University magna cum laude with honors in computer science. With a wealth of experience in robotics — from assistive robots to next-generation spacesuits for NASA to Tencent’s robot dog, Max — he is now a co-founder of Sequestor, a genAI-powered data aggregation platform that enables carbon credit investors to perform faster due diligence. His goal is to bridge the best practices of the Eastern and Western tech worlds.

Andrii Zahorodnii, from Ukraine, will graduate this spring with a bachelor of science and a master of engineering degree in computer science and cognitive sciences. An engineer as well as a neuroscientist, he has conducted research at MIT with Professor Guangyu Robert Yang’s MetaConscious Group and the Fiete Lab. Zahorodnii is passionate about using AI to uncover insights into human cognition, leading to more-informed, empathetic, and effective global decision-making and policy. Besides driving the exchange of ideas as a TEDxMIT organizer, he strives to empower and inspire future leaders internationally and in Ukraine through the Ukraine Leadership and Technology Academy he founded.

[technically-human]

Dammit Stone, those things have cameras!

A sort of part two to this post

[yes-asil]

Scribbled game!agent Stone, because the concept won't leave me alone

[iraprince]

.💗💗💗.

[logicpng]

Aster Assistant Software (Ukagaka/Desktop buddy)

(UPD: More descriptive page here!)

(UPD2: Aster's appearance no longer matches these screenshots and GIFs. More here.)

You know better than opening suspicious links and files, but this one was deemed safe by your antivirus. It claims to be a TerraByte product, but you swear you've never heard anything about it, let alone TerraByte. It also seems to be almost… nervous to be here. Something's not right, but you may as well enjoy the new company.

A first-time ukagaka project based on my OC, Aster, and the fictional universe they're from. As most ukagakas, requires SSP to run. Link includes an explanation as to what those are and installation instructions. Windows only! Based on Girl & Triangle template by @zarla-s.

Features:

A bunch of dialogue!

Some longer one-sided conversation!

Links to some common Windows tools!

Online search abilities!

Two balloons, for no reason whatsoever!

…That's it?

Content Warnings:

⚠️ Unreality - No 4th wall, meta themes. An optional function addresses some software you've used while the Ukagaka was running, it's not enabled by default.

⚠️ Photosensitivity - Character often vibrates in place, in short bursts. Enable "Ignore SERIKO move" in SSP's Preferences (Ghost (2) > Ignore SERIKO Move) if this may cause an issue.

Download here!

Instructions for installation are linked to in the page. I polished this as best as I could so far, but as this is my first project as large as this, very possible I overlooked something!! Do let me know if that happens

[malachimoet]

Say hello to MS Computer Mouse! Your new Miss Computer Mouse Assistant! Ready to help you at all times on her Website-Surfin-Keyboard! She's on a quest through the Tower from the land of System 32 to defeat an evil Horse named Trojan from taking over! (designed by @AlpacaArtz and I) View her Toyhouse here for more lore information!  https://toyhou.se/31921664.ms-computer-mouse

[tangramkey]

i love my Basketbot Portal AU

[littleghostblogs]

I’m going insane

[deepdreamnights]

The Daily Dæme is…

002 - PomBom

She enjoys, like, whatever sounds cool, your data, and passing the Turing test.

Features: Agile, Electric, Robot

Quirk: Beta Test

The Dæmomancer:  Mass produced trash employed by lame cheaters who lack the spiritual acumen to summon a KrattDæme. Stupid blazing mech-bros, the lot of them. Plus it's creepy how they adapt to their coach's personality.

Prof. Lyrica: You have to appreciate the customization and effort people put into them. Yes, it's an off-the-shelf kit, but you rarely see any two that are quite the same. Too bad about the bugs, but that's the price of artistic exploration.

Warden Parks: The lightning-orbs are dangerous but don't let them distract you. Her real arms are the cable-claws coming out of her head, and they reach a good ten feet, and she can electrify them, too.

Sy Fife: I see how it is. Zeitgeist Steel Concern makes this metal-and-plastic snap-kit and it's 'a technical achievement in Dæmengineering' but when I channel a spirit into a doll-Dæme it's 'creepy' and 'wants to eat my soul'.

Dr. Entendre: PomBom Excelcia model 200, 1.75m, 120 kg. My own Dæme, Mekilyn, started out as an off-the-shelf Pombom Model 50. First Dæme ever instantiated into a chassis I built. She could bring down a mantpira with a plasma sphere from 50 meters.

For as little as $1 you can support Dæme-On and other projects, and get access to new Dæmes a week in advance, on my patreon here.

Other ways of supporting me and my works.

[madamemiz]

Idk if you're still taking votv requests, but I really liked that one omega kerfus sketch where it's getting pet...👀 do you think that opening up its chassis would give you radiation sickness, since it has that capsule inside of it?

(...worth it if you ask me)

good news anon, the radioactive capsule isn't in there! perfectly safe :3

[gentle-hero-blog]

just. really really REALLY thinking hard about the idea of Samus obtaining a little prototype EMMI after the events of Dread (maybe she requested it as part of her payment?) and making it into a funny robot body for adam :] I think it was @truepeaceinspace who had a similar idea...?

[yippee-optimistically]

mods r asleep post humanized 4x

finished catching up on tpot it was peakkkkkk but i am so scared of one. also working on little clay and felt dolls of 4 x and 2

[iggyshippingcorner]

okay so the sickfic has spiraled wildly out of control. it's at 2k words right now and i think the final is going to be around 5k... (sigh)

in the meantime! 1k words of Stone cooking that I wrote after baking dessert for an event last weekend. features: domestic stobotnik, some named badniks, and food as love language. mostly canon compliant, takes place sometime in the crab era :3

working at the hardened mass of brown sugar with slightly damp palms. the cheesecake is in the oven, cyan watching it with rapt focus through the glass. he’s refilling the baking supplies in the crab’s kitchen while he waits for the timer to go off. the brown sugar solidified into a brick of molasses while it waited on the counter, and while there are quicker ways to soften the sugar, he’s always preferred this method. small crystals cling to the grooves of his fingers and palms as he kneads at the brick, humming quietly to the music oni plays from her vantage point. a large clump breaks off from the brick, and he rolls it between his palms until it begins to crumple, and he deposits his fresh handful in the waiting jar. 

he dusts his sugar-coated hands off over the sink. a quick rinse to make sure he isn’t leaving crumbs across the whole kitchen. the terracotta disc gets a quick rinse as well, the old clumps of brown sugar clinging to it sloughing off under the spray. he towels it dry, revealing the familiar sparrow with its forked tail and sparse plumage. it goes in the jar, pressed down into the sugar to tamp it flat. with its labelled lid screwed back on, it returns to its designated spot in the cabinet beyond the marzocco. after the brown sugar comes the flour, a hefty glass jar with a bail lid that came from his own apartment. nearly empty. he scrapes out the last two cups and sets them aside, rolling up his sleeves as he wrangles the new bag of flour. 

alpha’s bzzt-brrp! from his perch above the fridge heralds the doctor’s arrival. stone doesn’t turn around so much as he drifts to a more interruptible task and then allows the doctor to step comfortably into his personal space, arms winding around his middle. his chin digs into stone’s clavicle. they don’t speak, not yet, just stand swaying slightly as he sets the kettle to boil and begins perusing their steadily growing tea collection. as much as the doctor despises switching things up, he’s been surprisingly accepting of stone introducing some diversity to his caffeine intake.

there’s clementines in the bowl by the marzocco, and the doctor reaches past stone to snag one. he rewards the snack choice with a silent shift, his elbow squeezing robotnik’s forearm to his ribs more securely. there’s the gentlest rumble of a laugh against his shoulder-blades. he tips his head to one side, curious, but the doctor doesn’t offer any explanation. just leans in and bumps his cheek against stone’s ear, moustache tickling his jaw and lips. 

“back to the grind,” he says, a touch too loud for how close he is. stone squeezes him again just because he can, and then lets him disentangle himself. “ETA?”

stone flicks the oven light on, and they both crouch in front of the glass once cyan shuttles away with a dejected zzzrr. the cheesecake bubbles quietly. stone checks the egg timer. “another hour. hungry?”

“biding my time,” robotnik hums, and waves the orange at him. “curry tonight?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” stone replies, like he wouldn’t carve the moon from the sky with his bare hands if the doctor asked him to. “what were you thinking?” 

“surprise me,” the doctor says, all magnanimous, which stone knows to mean reasonably spicy, and containing either lamb or pork. he graciously allows stone to steal the clementine from his hands, watching impassively as he quickly, efficiently peels it over the sink, and returns the exposed heart of it to his waiting hand. he pops one of the slices into his mouth and when the flesh splits between his teeth, stone has to take a slow, measured inhale. robotnik eyes him, but he just smiles, easy, agreeable. “I’ll send cyan to you when dinner’s ready.”

“sounds good,” the doctor nods, and leans in for an entirely unprompted kiss on the cheek that leaves stone blushing in the artificial sunlight of the crab’s kitchen windows. he shuffles out of the kitchen, peeled clementine in hand. stone watches him leave. cyan beeps eagerly from her post in front of the oven, and it breaks his reverie. 

“alright, alright. let me get in there,” he laughs, grabbing the oven mitts. 

the cheesecake comes out perfect. he has to swat multiple badniks and one robotnik away from it while it cools, and wrestles it into the fridge to chill properly despite more than a few protests (“this is a perfect time to test the liquid nitrogen chamber!”). 

dinner is a quiet affair crammed side by side at the island, legs tangled beneath the counter. the doctor steals more than a few pieces of lamb off his plate, and begrudgingly eats a few extra pieces of bell pepper in exchange. when they finally cut into the cheesecake, stone drinks in the sight of his doctor’s first bite-- the way his eyebrows raise a little, the way he assesses and catalogues consistency, texture, flavour. how his nose scrunches a little and he grins toothily down at his plate in appreciation. 

“excellent again, stone,” he says. such direct and genuine praise calls for a little preening, even if it causes robotnik to smack his arm and nearly send his own slice of cheesecake flying. the doctor snickers as he rights himself on his stool again, and accepts the retaliatory forehead kiss.

they drink tea on the couch afterwards, watching some telenovela while pretending (badly) to not notice the way they gravitate closer and closer, until robotnik’s head is in stone’s lap and both mugs are on the coffee table. stone is trained better than to fall asleep while the doctor provides running commentary on the anarrative arcs at play in the episode, but he would be a liar if he claimed his eyes never drifted shut listening to the familiar cadence of his doctor’s voice filling the warm space between them. his tangents ebb and lull like the waves overhead, their quiet domesticity concealed within the crab, far from the prying eyes of the world.

[tea-cat-arts]

Actually, I hope Jiaoqiu stays blind (at least for a couple years in our time) and just bullies the Xianzhou alliance into inventing disability aids and treating disabled people better

[logicpng]

actually have this assorted CaelOS doodle dump while im at it too

[ Descriptions in ALT ]

[larkwinged]

𝓣𝐇𝐄 𝓜𝐀𝐃 𝓘𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐑 ── ❛ rusted heart

⟢ INTRO. “the end is a means to a new beginning.” ╱ an energetic inventor from fontaine who spends most of her time locked away in her lab working on her creations. to most, she is simply “the mad inventor” who works at the fontaine research institute. to few, she is just “cassia”; the robot awakened from a five hundred year slumber who is on a journey to find herself.