Baltimore and campus
This iconic, red-brick clock tower serves as the definitive visual symbol of the Homewood campus, even if you only see it when sprinting to an exam.
What is GilmanHall?
I CANNOT keep a secret for the life of me
Who is Aiza?
This 4-letter acronym represents the standard middleware framework that keeps our nodes talking, assuming nobody messed up the domain ID.
What is ROS?
The lifeblood of the lab, usually found in a pot that has not been washed since the last conference deadline?
What is coffee?
Semaphor founded in (Month and Year)
When is January 2026?
Named after a university benefactor, if you step on this official seal embedded in the ground, campus myth says you won't graduate on time.
What is the Hopkins Seal
I make dad jokes
Who is Lalith?
This popular simulation or visualization tool is great for checking your robot's state, assuming it doesn’t randomly crash your entire Ubuntu session.
RVIZ
This specific brand or type of snack is the first to disappear from the breakroom whenever there is a free food alert.
What are lollipops?
I am known as the guy with white-framed glasses and a hat 24/7
Who is Mathias?
This iconic, blue-and-white university shuttle system is your lifeline for getting between Homewood, Peabody, and the Medical Campus without walking through the Baltimore elements
What is the JHMI (Shuttle)?
Who is Laura C?
The ultimate "Holy Grail" of autonomous robotics where a machine figures out its own map while simultaneously figuring out where it is on that map, usually ending in a messy point cloud.
What is SLAM?
The legendary and elusive figure known only by a number, famous for tearing apart your perfectly good methodology in a peer review.
Who is Reviewer #2?
I drink beer with banana juice
Who is Axel?
This massive, historic brick structure in the Inner Harbor once generated power for the city's streetcars but is now better known by locals for housing a multi-story Barnes & Noble and a Hard Rock Cafe.
What is the Power Plant?
I go to church so I can steal food from them
Who is Michelle?
The critical, highly visible red button located on or near a robot that you must keep your hand hovered over at all times during a live test to prevent the hardware from destroying itself.
What is the emergency stop?
The typesetting software we love to hate, where changing one image placement can accidentally push your entire bibliography into the shadow realm.
What is LaTeX?
I have a cat named after a star wars character
Who is Mathias?
This neighborhood directly north of the Homewood campus is famous for its eclectic shops, colorful row houses, and the massive avenue covered in Christmas lights every December.
What is Hampden?
I got my car broken into, and that is why I did not drive. I do not have a phone, so I am ignoring Jacob on Slack.
Who is Grayson?
This mathematical tool maps joint velocities to Cartesian velocities, but it turns into an absolute nightmare when your robotic arm hits a singularity and tries to move at infinite speed.
What is the Jacobian matrix?
The tone of voice a PI uses in an email that consists of a single line: "Can you stop by my office for a few minutes?
What is pure psychological terror?
When a PI says a project or feature should be "straightforward" to implement, it usually translates to this realistic timeline for a grad student.
What is "at least a month "?