Profile

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Gerard Canal

    • About Me:

      I was born and raised in Barcelona. In 2019 I moved to London where I live with a couple of friends. I am a lecturer in autonomous systems (for example, robots that act on their own), and I used to be a dancer when I was younger.

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      By background, I am a computer scientist. I also have  Masters degree in Artificial Intelligence, and a PhD in Robotics.

    • My Work:

      My research involves making robots smarter. Not only that, I want robots to be smarter in a way that can help people who cannot live independent lives (and they need someone to help them). Examples of this are helping people eat and dress with a robot, enabling them to perform these activities on their own (with the help of the robot).

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      Apart from research, I am a Lecturer, which means that I teach in University. I teach a module called “Introduction to Robotics”, where students learn how to program robots.

    • My Typical Day:

      I wake up and if not working from home, I go to the office in central London. There, I usually have to manage some emails. Depending on the day, afterwards, I either teach or meet with students or get to do some research, which often involves reading papers from colleagues on the new advances they have made. This also involves programming, and then doing experiments with the robots to see how my program usually fails. Then I go back to my computer to fix the errors and test again… until the robot finally does what it should do!

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      Coffee. My typical day also involves coffee!

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would look into reaching people from underrepresented backgrounds and those who believe (or were made believe) they are not good enough for a career in STEM, so they learn more about robotics and the possibilities of having a career in STEM, probably in collaboration with STEM UK.

    Candidate CV questions (extra)

    • Education:

      I went to school in my hometown, close to Barcelona.

      Then I did my undergrad, master’s and PhD at the Polytechnical University of Catalunya (in Barcelona)

    • Work History:

      Distribution of notices for my local shopping association (as a teen).

      Private tutor (during my undergrad)

      PhD student (2016-2020)

      Research Assistant (2019-2020)

      Research Associate (2020-2021)

      Lecturer in Autonomous Systems (2021- Current)

    • Current Job:

      Lecturer in Autonomous Systems

    • Employer:

      King’s College London

    • My Interview

      • What did you want to be after you left school?

        I was not fully sure, but I liked technology so I went that direction

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Not often, maybe a couple of times.

        What's your favourite food?

        Pizza

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