Alex LaGrassa

Today I learned that my dresser was from the iconic Kauffman’s department store AND seems to have been stamped during the “Pittsburg” days (pre 1911). A little piece of #Pittsburgh history :) #vintage

Had to harvest the potatoes early this year, but still pretty decent! This is about a third of the total. Fed by my house compost :)

2 panels, housemates and cats. In housemates panel, there's a "progress pride" flag, 2 white people in an aquarium named "bec & hazel, 25", Alex & Alyssa (White Latina, white), & Sid, 21 (south indian). There is an empty panel that says "You?" The two cats are orange. One wears a sweater one is in a bag.

Looking for queer #communityliving in Jersey City? We're looking for one more housemate to join our 5 br/3 ba house in JC Heights. We value communication, process, autonomy, and mutual care for each other.

Rent is $1075/mo

Please DM to chat about it and see if we're a fit #FindRoommates

Hello! I and some colleagues are running a @blackinrobotics.bsky.social virtual workshop on July 13th where participants learn basic computer programming by writing code to move a robot arm!

Sign-up at www.eventbrite.com/e/beginning-...

#stemeducation #Robotics #python #coding

Great selection of online summer workshops from the talented @blackinrobotics.bsky.social roboticists who are passionate about inclusive STEM education. This is a great way to get started with programming (and building!) your own robot. Many topics in #Robots #STEM #AI #programming #engineering

Career update: I'll be starting as an Assistant Teaching Professor in Computer Science at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

For now, I'm enjoying a break to work on some personal projects and catch up on reading.

Group photo of 9 people in front of a slide titled “enabling reliable model based planning with inaccurate models”

Belated personal update:
I defended my PhD in #Robotics at #CarnegieMellon!

Thank you to Oliver Kroemer and my labmates for constructing a heartwarming and creative “Doktorhut” ❤️🤖🦾

Now it’s time to play with much less expensive robots.

high-performing model from a new open source AI company that just came out of stealth. It’s on hugging face, so I hope to try it out!

Absolutely MASSIVE service and route cuts for Pittsburgh public transit, making a borderline bus system nearly unusable. *PLEASE* comment to communicate how important public transit is to us and our safety. #Pittsburgh #transit

I’m in Minneapolis and amazed by the public transit here. From my hotel on UMN campus, going through midtown, then to the airport DOOR TO DOOR *including a transfer* was 34 minutes on the train.

Functional public transit is so nice. I didn’t expect it in the Midwest.

This is sooo cooool. I hope something like this catches on so we can have more solar energy collection integrated in our lives.

My thesis defense is coming up on Jan 31 at 11AM ET! It’s called “enabling reliable model-based planning with inaccurate models.”
Dm or email alex.lagrassa@protonmail.com if you’d like the zoom link and don’t have it.

Summary of this week

Mask blocs are a great way to get affordable N95 masks. we have one in Pittsburgh. Please donate so they can continue their great work!

At a hotel for an interview. The room they gave me has a plush husky, a dog bed, and amenities such as peanut butter and blueberry treats. (I do not have a real dog). 10/10 best interview hotel room so far.

It’s super cold this week in #Pittsburgh. As awful as our city’s shelter situation is, there are options for all genders, including drop-in overflow for winter conditions connect.alleghenycounty.us/wp-content/u... Stay warm everyone.