Harrison Saperstein
Robotics Engineer · AI Forward
Senior Software Verification Engineer at Medtronic, specialized in surgical robotic software. Outside of work, I'm building an RL pipeline from data generation in Blender through training in NVIDIA's Isaac Lab. Along the way, I'm exploring agentic architectures and solution development.
Current project
Robotic DnD
DnD is a game of chance, and control is an illusion. Training a robot to hand me the right die felt like the next best thing.
Tools & Frameworks
What I reach for, and what I've actually built with it.
Isaac Sim / Isaac Lab
GPU-parallel RL environments, camera sensors, and differential-IK control - the platform under the Franka demo.
See it in a project →Blender
Headless and fully scripted: procedural dice assets, randomized scenes, and COCO-annotated synthetic datasets.
See it in a project →PyTorch
Where my training runs - PPO policies for the Franka work, YOLO detectors for the dice pipeline.
See it in a project →TensorFlow
Real-time object detection on video streams during my Hubbell R&D internship, accelerated with TensorRT.
OpenCV
Classical perception where it earns its keep: ground-plane removal, shape classification, tracking.
See it in a project →ROS 2
Kinematics and control work on a real 6-DOF arm.
See it in a project →Claude Code + Copilot CLI
Multi-agent workflows with spec, plan, and review gates - most of this site shipped through them, and the same discipline runs on Copilot CLI at work.
See it in a project →Google Cloud
Compute Engine for training, Cloud Storage for every run, Cloud Run for the TensorBoard that reads them.
See it in a project →KiCad
Schematic capture and PCB layout for the keyboard prototype board.
See it in a project →Models & Methods
Languages & Environments
Experience
5
years in surgical robotics
MS + BS
Robotics Engineering at WPI
15+
manual processes automated
WEEKS → DAYS
per verification cycle
Senior Software Verification Engineer · July 2024 - Present
Hugo is Medtronic's robotic-assisted surgery platform. I architect the automated testing frameworks that verify it. I migrated legacy manual processes to automated pipelines and built the Python tooling that cut verification cycles from weeks to days. I work with systems teams to turn requirements into testable protocols, and mentor other engineers on automation and troubleshooting.
Software Verification Engineer II · Aug 2021 - July 2024
I built the team's automated test framework - Python and Squish - for real-time UI verification. I converted 15+ manual test processes to automated ones and developed the system-in-loop and software-in-loop verification protocols.
Machine Learning Intern
I built a real-time object detection system for video streams. Motion detection ran in OpenCV, the detection models were TensorFlow with TensorRT acceleration to keep inference real-time, and a cloud pipeline handled the training data.
WPI - MS Robotics Engineering '21 · BS Robotics Engineering '20
Download resumeProjects
Procedural Dice Asset Generator
A headless-Blender pipeline that procedurally generates a labeled library of TTRPG dice, grown into a full synthetic-to-real object detection pipeline: rendered scenes, COCO annotations, and a trained YOLO detector.
Agentic AI Experiments
A running log of experiments with agentic AI tools and workflows.
6-DOF Robotic Arm
Exploration of the kinematics and control of the Annin-Robotics AR4 6-DoF robotic arm using ROS2.
About
Hi, I'm Harrison (Harry) Saperstein. I graduated from WPI with my MS/BS in Robotics Engineering in 2021, and somewhere between solving the kinematics of a serial manipulator and watching it actually move, I was hooked for good.
I verify software for a surgical robot at work. On my own time I build the projects on this page - RL, perception, control, whatever I'm chasing this month. I like solving problems and making robots move, and I want to keep getting better at both.
Off the clock
What I'm into when I'm not building.
Winters
Skiing.
Summers
Golf and a rec softball league.
Boston sports
The Sox, Pats, B's and C's.
Maker YouTube
Adam Savage's Tested, Jeremy Fielding, StuffMadeHere, Nerdforge, Alec Steele.
Science YouTube
Veritasium, Smarter Every Day.
Tech YouTube
Linus Tech Tips, MKBHD, JayzTwoCents.