Mishel Johns

Mishel Johns

I'm interested in how humans and intelligent systems collaborate. I work at the intersection of Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Software Engineering, Design and User Experience/Human Factors Research.

Research

I work at Ford Motor Company on driver interaction technologies for SAE Level 2 and Level 3 automated vehicles. I'm also affiliated with the SAE Driving Automation Systems group and the Stanford Future Technologies Lab.

I completed my PhD in Mechanical Engineering with Profs. Wendy Ju and Larry Leifer at the Center for Design Research at Stanford. In my thesis, I explored collaboration between human drivers and automated driving systems.

I designed and evaluated systems that allow drivers and automated systems to share control of the vehicle, and to transition control between them. This process included:

Research Interests

Human-Agent Collaboration

Prototyping interfaces and automation behavior to improve human-agent cooperation performance and safety.

Shared Control of Automated Vehicles

Mixing input from a driver and an automated driving system.

Transitions of Control in Automated Vehicles

Timing and quality of takeover of control by a driver.

Driver Performance & Monitoring

Driver Situational Awareness, Driving Performance, Cognitive Load, and Physiological Measurements.

A full list of my patents and publications is available on my Google Scholar profile.

Projects

LED Steering wheel project cover
Mechatronics / Interface

LED Steering wheel

A Steering wheel cover with LEDs, linked to a driving simulator, providing realtime automation state info.

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Family Album project cover
Design / UX

Family Album

A communication device connecting digital-native children with non-digital-using older relatives in China.

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Tether3D project cover
Hardware / Mobile

Tether3D Input Device

A smartphone clip-on device reading 3D positional input via Arduino, encoders, and retractable cord.

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Jackbot project cover
Robotics / Control

Jackbot Delivery Robot

Winner of the 2014 Botcoin Tournament. Autonomous robot collecting poker chips and delivering them via IR sensing.

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Google Street View analysis cover
UX Research / Systems

Google Street View Cars

Interior design recommendations for data-capturing cars based on FMEA risk modeling and cost-worth analysis.

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Positional Drum Notation cover
Data Vis / JS

Positional Drum Notation

Alternative sheet music for drummers utilizing intuitive layouts and visual mappings built with D3.js.

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Other Projects

Automated Essay Grading (NLP / ML)

Feature and model selection for Automated Essay grading using Python and NLTK. More details here.

Multimodal ADAS Interfaces

Ideation, quick prototyping, testing, and implementation of Advanced Driver Assistance System interfaces.

Autonomous Vehicle Interfaces

Driver interfaces and monitoring in autonomous vehicles utilizing ROS, C++, Eye Tracking, Arduino, and LEDs.

Human Model Balancing Controller

OpenSim controller stabilizing standing models via induced acceleration. More details here.

Vibration Reduction in Trucks

Ashok Leyland truck vibration simulation in MATLAB. Attenuated vibrations via LQR optimal controller design.

Biped Gait Simulation

Simulating bipedal gait and walk-run transitions in MATLAB and Simulink at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology.

Low Cost Slip-Sensing Gripper

Robotic gripper design utilizing an optical mouse to detect slip and dynamically adjust applied force.

Bank of America Campus Challenge

Technical and Business case proposal on improving customer experience (second-placed team, 2012).

Other Interests

I enjoy backcountry camping and backpacking, road biking, running, social dancing, and making kinetic art. I sing tenor in the World Harmony Chorus in Palo Alto and dabble in ceramics and amateur radio.

Contact Me

LED Steering wheel project full size

LED Steering wheel

A Steering wheel cover with LEDs, linked to a driving simulator, able to provide realtime information on the state of an automated driving system.

Family Album project full size

Family Album

My team was tasked with building a device that connects children and young adults in China with their older relatives who do not use digital technology.

Tether3D project full size

Tether3D Input Device

A clip-on device for your smartphone or tablet that reads 3D position input. Arduino + Joystick + retractable cord + encoder + Android app and libraries.

Jackbot project full size

Jackbot Delivery Robot

Winner of the 2014 "Botcoin" Tournament for the ME210 Mechatronics class. Built an autonomous robot that collected poker chips on a field following black tape markings, located baskets by sensing IR beacons, and delivered the chips to the baskets.

Google Street View analysis full size

Google Street View Car Driver Interface

Worked with the Google Street View team to provide recommendations for a redesigned interior for the data-capturing cars. Examined VoCs, conducted cost-worth analysis of solution elements, modeled cost of design choices, and conducted a Monte Carlo and FMEA analysis of risks.

Positional Drum Notation project full size

Positional Drum Notation

An attempt to simplify sheet music for drummers with a logical layout and intuitive icons. Built using Javascript, d3.js, HTML, CSS.