Maksym Figat Ph.D., Eng

Maksym Figat is a researcher and academic known for his contributions to the fields of robotics and computer science. His journey is marked by numerous achievements, a strong commitment to academic pursuits, and a passion for social activities. 

Throughout his academic career, Mr. Figat actively engaged in scientific and research projects, both nationally and internationally. His roles ranged from software developer to project manager, showcasing his versatility and dedication. 

In his doctoral research, Mr. Figat focused on the challenging task of automatically generating controllers for robotic systems from a formal specification. His primary goal was to develop a universal method for specifying robotic systems using the embodied agent approach (EAA) and model-driven engineering (MDE). Petri nets were a crucial tool in expressing the actions and behaviors of these systems. By amalgamating EAA and MDE, he created a versatile system model that could be applied at various stages of development, including verification and code generation. 

An essential aspect of his research was determining the appropriate level of detail for specifying robotic systems. In this pursuit, Mr. Figat successfully devised a robotic system specification method that enables in-depth analysis of system models, contributing significantly to the understanding of their behavior.

In recognition of his outstanding doctoral dissertation, Mr. Figat has been awarded three prestigious honors: the XXX Edition of the Polish Prime Minister’s Award for an Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation (2023), the 20th Edition of the ABB Prize Competition for Doctoral Dissertation (2023), and the first award for the best doctoral thesis in XVth National Competition “Young Innovators,” Łukasiewicz Research Network - PIAP Institute (2023).

Moreover, Mr. Maksym Figat was awarded the "Exchange Program to the United States" Fellowship by the Kosciuszko Foundation in 2023, enabling him to conduct research at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). 

Beyond his academic pursuits, Mr. Figat has been actively involved in social activities. He was a scout from an early age and dedicated nearly six years to running weekly mathematics courses for gifted young people from underprivileged families, impacting nearly 300 participants and involving 30 volunteers. His organizational skills extended to cultural and sports events, for which he received recognition and gratitude from the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland. 

Mr. Figat has explored his artistic side, taking an interest in drawing, and participating in an amateur choir formed at the National Opera in Warsaw. 

His diverse range of interests, coupled with the character traits he has cultivated over the years, make him an asset. Mr. Figat's unwavering pursuit of goals, commitment to personal development, and tireless work ethic ensure that he can tackle any challenge with determination. 

In summary, Mr. Maksym Figat is a remarkable individual known for his scientific excellence, dedication to education, unwavering commitment to social causes, and a recipient of prestigious awards. His passion for making a difference in the world, coupled with his diverse skill set and unyielding determination, make him an asset to any endeavor.


Education: 
  • 2022 – PhD with distinction in Automation, Electronics, Electrical and Space Technology, title: “Automatic generation of robotic system controllers based on a specification”, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), Poland,
  • 2013 – Master of Science in computer science (master’s specialization: CAD/CAM systems design), Department of Mathematics and Information Science, WUT, Poland

Research Interests: 

Robotic system specification methodology, formal specification methods, system verification and validation, code generation for controllers, robotic swarm technology, machine learning, autonomous robotics, task and motion planning, and the design of safety-critical systems.


Professional Experience: 
  • Scientific experience:
    • 2013 – currently – conducting research WUT, Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology, Institute of Control and Computation Engineering, Poland, Designer / Developer / Project Manager / Research Associate (from 10/2018) / Assistant Professor (from 01/2023),
    • 11/2021 – 12/2021 – conducting scientific research at the prestigious research institute, i.e., in the French Aerospace Lab-ONERA (The Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales), Toulouse, France,
    • 06/2017 – 12/2017 – conducting six-monthly research at Griffith University, Australia, as part of the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 PANTHER grant, ”Pacific Atlantic Network for Technical Higher Education and Research”,
  • Participation in 10 scientific/research projects (8 national and 2 international) conducted at WUT,
  • Teaching activities at the Warsaw University of Technology, Poland:
    • 2013 – 2023 – laboratory instructor in 9 different subjects, e.g.: “Real Time Systems”, “Introduction to Robotics”, “Modeling and Control of Manipulators”, “Robot Programming Methods”,
    • Problem formulation and supervision of 8 undergraduate students (3 with distinction and two with GovTech, IEEE award):
      • 2023 – Robotic Swarm for Search and Rescue,
      • 2023 – Autonomous robotic system with deep reinforcement learning (IEEE, GovTech award),
      • 2022 – Multilayered cluster-based approach for robotic swarm – distinction,
      • 2021 – A Swarm of Robots Performing Delivery Tasks Based on Embodied Agent Approach,
      • 2021 – Robotic system preparing hot dogs using symbolic planning – distinction,
      • 2021 – Robotic system for constructing a building model based on a formal plan – distinction,
      • 2021 – Motion Synthesis of Legged Robot for Optimized Gaits and Body Balance (IEEE, GovTech national award),
      • 2020 – Graphical editor for defining transition functions in subsystems of the embodied agent,
  • Reviewer, e.g.: The IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) May 31 - June 4, 2020, Paris, France,
    • Chair of the Formal Methods and Planning session at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2023) in Detroit, USA, 1-5 October 2023.

 


Selected Awards: 
  • 2023 – Laureate of the XXX Edition of the Polish Prime Minister’s Award for an Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation,
  • 2023 – Laureate of the ABB Prize Competition, 20th Edition 2022/2023, for Doctoral Dissertation,
  • 2023 – Laureate of the first award for the best doctoral thesis in XVth National Competition “Young Innovators”, Łukasiewicz Research Network - PIAP Institute, Poland,
  • 2023 – Laureate of the “Exchange Program to the United States” Fellowship, the Kosciuszko Foundation,
  • 2022 – Honorable mention for the best conference paper in robotics, awarded by the Polish Branch of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Poland,
  • 2021 – Distinction in the national competition of engineering theses SuperStar 4 Science 2021 in the category ”Supervisor of the thesis of the highest substantive value”, Polish Section of the IEEE and GovTech Poland,
  • 2019 – Laureate of the competition under the PROM PW 2 project regarding participation in short forms of international education, The Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA), Poland
  • 2017 – Laureate of science scholarship Preludium 13, National Science Center, Poland
  • 2017 – Laureate of Erasmus Mundus Action 2 PANTHER (Pacific Atlantic Network for Technical Higher Education and Research),

Selected Publications: 

23 scientific articles, 11 in scientific journals, such as: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, IEEE Access, Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Electronics, Nonlinear-Dynamics. Selected publications:

  1. Maksym Figat, Cezary Zieliński. Synthesis of Robotic System Controllers Using Robotic System Specification Language, in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 688-695, Feb. 2023,
  2. Maksym Figat, Cezary Zieliński, Parameterised robotic system meta-model expressed by Hierarchical Petri nets., Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Volume 150, 2022,
  3. Maksym Figat, Cezary Zieliński. Robotic System Specification Methodology Based on Hierarchical Petri Nets, in IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 71617-71627, 2020,
  4. Maksym Figat, Cezary Zieliński. Methodology of designing multi-agent robot control systems utilising Hierarchical Petri nets. The 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Canada, Montreal, pp. 3363–3369, 2019.
  5. Cezary Zieliński, Maksym Figat, Rene Hexel. Communication within multi-FSM based robotic systems. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, 93(3), pp. 787–805, Mar 2019.

More: https://scholar.google.pl/citations?user=VkDGqfAAAAAJ&hl=pl

Maksym Figat
Address: 
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
Phone: 6268639626