The INTEGRATE Colloquium will provide trainers and trainees the opportunity to engage other UW–Madison faculty working in relevant areas and invited external “keynote” speakers who are leaders in research at the intersection of robotics, work, and society. The wide range of topics are intentional to enrich trainee perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Participants will be encouraged to engage in follow-up discussion, networking, and socializing and thus serve as a catalyst for communication and community building.
If you would be interested in giving a talk, please contact Kristie Schultz.
Mike Hagenow
Friday, April 10, 2026
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Researchers’ Link
Discovery Building
Light refreshments served
Toward Flexible & Effective Human‑Robot Teaming
Despite nearly seventy years of development, robots are not yet realizing their promise of handling the undesirable day‑to‑day tasks of skilled industrial workers. Recent studies indicate that today’s robots are still too inflexible and difficult to program, particularly for less structured and high‑variability tasks. In this talk, I will present three recent approaches to human‑robot teaming that aim to unlock new opportunities for robots. These approaches address key questions in human‑robot teaming, such as how to optimize human input during teaming and how skilled workers can teach robots complex behaviors. I will conclude by discussing ongoing work and open problems that can help us push toward more widespread human‑robot teaming.
Mike Hagenow
Mike Hagenow is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he leads the Robot Teaching and Teaming Lab (RT²). Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow in CSAIL at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University in 2014 and his M.S./Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2019 and 2023, respectively. His work has been supported by funding from NSF, NASA, the Grainger Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship (WDGF), and the MIT Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Engineering Excellence (PFPFEE). His research interests include human‑robot interaction, shared control/autonomy, and robot learning.
Archived Talks
March 4, 2026 – From Muscles to Metabolism: Rethinking Energy, Actuation, and Intelligence in Robots James Pikul, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UW-Madison
December 3, 2025 – The Race between Academia and Industry for AI Researchers Alice Wu, Assistant Professor of Economics at UW-Madison
November 7, 2025 – Robot Learning and Wearable Interfaces in Pursuit of Robotic Caregivers Zackory Erickson, Assistant Professor, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
March 5, 2025 – Robots and Inequality: Between and Within Occupations Rodimiro Rodrigo, Assistant Professor of International Business and Economics at the George Washington University School of Business (GWSB).
February 26, 2025 – Rethinking Design for Human-Robot Collaboration. EunJeong Cheon, Assistant Professor in the School of Information Studies and Senior Research Associate at the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute (ASPI) at Syracuse University. Zoom recording available, integrate-nrt@wisc.edu.
November 6, 2024 – Automation and Labor: The Role of Robots Hee Rin Lee, Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University.
October 2, 2024 – Mapping the Mind: Neuroergonomics Insights into Human-Machine Interaction. Ranjana Mehta, Grainger Institute of Engineering Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
April 17, 2024 – Economics of Automation, Robots, Competition, and Jobs. Victor Bennett, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at the University of Utah‘s Eccles School of Business.
February 28, 2024 – Blending Reality: The Real-World Impact of XR Technologies Kevin Ponto, Associate Professor at WID and in the Design Studies Department in the School of Human Ecology at UW-Madison.
November 8, 2023 – The Second Robot Problem: Obstacles to Manufacturing Automation at Scale. Ben Armstrong, Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center.
September 27, 2023 – Copyright’s Latent Space: From Fair Use to Generative Art BJ Ard, Law School, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
April 28, 2023 – First Wisconsin Robotics Symposium A collaboration between UW-Madison robotics faculty, grad students and industry.
April 19, 2023 – Enhancing Safety and Efficiency in Human-Robot Collaboration for Future Manufacturing Workspaces Dr. Marvin Cheng, Assistant Coordinator, Center for Occupational Robotics Research (CORR), NIOSH
March 22, 2023 – Exoskeleton-Enabled Future of Work in Construction Zhenhua Zhu, Ph.D., P.Eng., Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison.