Jakub Suchánek

I co-founded Fabrica AI with Keefe and Ron. We aim to speed up the process of developing robots by a couple orders of magnitude. To get there we started by building tile grouting robots, so that we can test our approaches in real environments at scale.

I studied Engineering at Cambridge University spending my free time on robotics and machine learning projects. I was also the president of Cambridge University Robotics and started an initiative to give inexperienced students exposure working on beginner projects in any technical field. Before Cambridge, I have done two years of the undergraduate course in Computer Science at Charles University in Prague alongside high-school.

During uni I spent 2 summers as a machine learning research intern, first developing models for organ segmentation achieving top accuracy on PROMISE12, this summer working on multitask perception models and designing, developing and testing attention based and other approaches to passing data in image space into the control model. My projects include an autonomous steering system for rowing boats, a disaster response robot, a planetary probe (CanSat), weigh-in-motion sensors and reinforcement learning for grasping with a passive anthropomorphic hand. I've gotten bronze medals at International Olympiads in Physics and Informatics, won Techfest Munich, one of the top hackathons in Germany, and NASA SpaceApps, a global hackathon.

Please feel free to reach out (my contact details can be found below) if you are interested in getting in touch. For your interest, my resume can be found below. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

My Skills

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My Projects

Cancer detection in MRI images of prostate

Contributed to Granta Innovation's AI system for detecting cancer. Created modules for automatic data annotation and segmentation models for both the organ and cancer. Created state-of-the-art segmentation models using fast.ai and PyTorch, achieving better resuts on public datasets than are in published research.

Self-driving perception and policy models at Wayve

Have been working on multitask perception models and designing, developing and testing attention based and other approaches to passing data in image space into the control model.

RL for grasping with a passive hand

Using a passive anthropomorphic hand developed by the Bio Inspired Robotics Lab at CUED, we work both in real life and in simulation to have it learn to pick up objects. It is motivated by the idea that with a smarter controller, you can reduce complexity of the physical manipulator while being able to do the same things.

Autonomous rowing steering system

In small sweep rowing boats, steering is done with the stroke's foot which is very uncomfortable and leads to knee problems. We replace it with an autonomous system that follows the course of the river, gives audio instructions in sharp turns and can be controlled by buttons on the oar in case of obstacles.

Disaster response robot

Developing a disaster response robot capable of autonomously navigating through complicated terrain, detecting objects and manipulating objects. My work is on control systems and object detection. For object detection I use YOLOv3 trained on a custom generated dataset.

European CanSat competition

Designed a planetary probe the size of a soft drink can that was launched by a rocket into 2km altitude from where it landed whilst making measurements and sending them to the base station. We measured spectroscopic, chemical and mechanical properties of the atmosphere and looking for direct signs of life. The probe used custom SMD circuits and could propulsiely land as a drone. I did the mechanical and electronic design and wrote the on-board software.

ImMortar Journey - making construction more sustainable

At TECHFEST Munich 19 we teamed up with WACKER to use computer vision to breach the skill gap that is limiting the use of more sustainable mortars in developing countries. We made an app that gives workers real time instructions and is able to precisely detect the amount of water in the mortar. We placed 1st out of ~40 teams. We then continued working on the project and our MVP is currently being tested by WACKER in India.

Weigh-in-motion sensors

Developing cheap sensors that can be placed into the road and measure the weight of any vehicles passing over them. They achieve it by using change of capacitance during mechanical deformations. The potential of the sensors is to offer a cheap option to check overweight trucks that damage the road.

We created a browser app to help coordinate communities during a wildfire.


My Career

University of Cambridge

Engineering

• 1st Year Grade: First Class

• 2st Year Grade: Passed (classes not awarded due to remote examination)

Activities: Cambridge University Robotics (CUR) - VP -> President, Hackbridge - Research projects director

October 2018 - June 2022
Engineering Student

Wayve, London

Worked on developing machine learning systems for multitask perception and passing perception data to policy.

June 2020 - September 2020
Machine learning research intern

Granta Innovation, Cambridge

Worked on developing machine learning systems and automatic data annotation for cancer detection in MRI images.

June 2019 - September 2019, June 2020
Machine learning research intern

Cambridge University Robotics

Formulated values to lead a disciplined expansion and growth into meaningful areas like outreach and research and forming partnerships to enable that effectively.

• Expanding the society's activities into academic research and coordinating the projects.

• Organizing an introductory course into robotics for first year students.

• Running a summer outreach camp to introduce six-form students to robotics and engineering at Cambridge through a series of exciting games, workshops and interesting lectures.

• Connected with Oxford to run a competition at the end of the fresher project.

• Formed partnerships with Autodesk and other companies.

• Leading a joint effort with most other technical societies at Cambridge to offer a range of introductory projects and workshops in all technical areas.

March 2019 - March 2021
CUR President (previously VP)

Hackbridge

• Expanding the society's activities into robotics, mechanical engineering and other areas.

• Sourcing projects from academics and entrepreneurs.

• Coordinating students in projects and organizing clusters to discuss the projects and learn from the others' experience.

March 2019 - June 2020
Hackbridge Research Project Director

Charles University - extraordinary studies

Computer science

Extraordinrily studying the undergraduate course whilst still at grammar school.

Notable courses: Algorithms & data structures I-V, Linear algebra I-II, Mathematical analysis I-II, Computer principles & architectures, Artificial intelligence I-II, Deep learning

October 2016 - June 2018
Extraordinary Computer Science Student

CanSat

• Lead design of the probe and all the surrounding devices.

• Sourced over 3000€ from private companies and public institutions to support the project.

July - August 2015
Technical Team Leader

My Awards

Global winners of NASA Spaceapps

We built a community wildfire mitigation app and recieved the Best Mission Concept award, placing top 6 out of over 2000 teams worldwide

October 2019

Mars lander project award

Simulation and a neurevolution based controller

September 2019

Winners of TECHFEST Munich 19

An international hackathon in Munich, awarded for an app that tries to bring sustainable building materials into developing countries.

September 2019

Structural design project award

Designed the strongest and cheapest skewed cantilever in a competition for 1st year Cambridge Engineers.

March 2019

Bronze medal at International Physics Olympiad

August 2018

European CanSat competition

National winners

International best final report - detailing our project and its scientific impact

July 2018

Bronze medal at International Olympiad in Informatics

August 2017