Hao Su is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at University of California, San Diego . He serves as Chairman & CTO of Hillbot Inc , and leads the SU Lab which focuses on building autonomous systems that learn actively in physical environments. His affiliations include the Institute for Learning-enabled Optimization at Scale , Artificial Intelligence Group , Contextual Robotics Institute , Halicioğlu Data Science Institute , and Center for Visual Computing . As a researcher in Computer Vision, Robotics, and Neural Geometry , he has made significant contributions to 3D foundation models, reward-free world models, diffusion policy frameworks, and GPU-accelerated simulation environments. His 2024-2025 publications include advancements in hand-eye calibration, dynamic mesh reconstruction, and multi-stage robotic manipulation. His scientific awards include: Frontiers of Science Award (2025) TPAMI Young Research Award (2025) NSF CAREER Award (2023) ACM SIGGRAPH Best Doctorate Thesis Honorable Mention (2019) He has served as Program Chair for CVPR 2025 and Area Chair for ICLR 2022 and NeurIPS 2023 , while previously serving as Publication Chair for 3DV 2016 and Program Committee for SIGGRAPH Asia Workshops .
Chris Donahue is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University . He also serves as a part-time Research Scientist at Google DeepMind on the Magenta team. His work focuses on leveraging generative AI to enhance human creativity, particularly in music. Education: PhD in Computer Science (UC San Diego), Postdoctoral Scholar (Stanford University) His research spans controllable generative modeling of music and audio , with a focus on real-time interactive systems. Projects like Piano Genie , Beat Sage , and Copilot Arena demonstrate his commitment to real-world deployment. His Generative Creativity Lab (G-CLef) explores AI applications beyond music, including programming and natural language. Recent publications highlight advancements in multimodal music evaluation , real-time adaptation , and AI-driven sound morphing . He co-developed Magenta RealTime , an open-weight real-time music generation model, and MusicFX DJ Mode . Scientific Awards: Best Paper Award (top 1) at NAACL Student Research Workshop 2025 Best Paper Award (top 1% of submissions) at CHI 2025 Best Paper Runner-up at ISMIR 2021 He co-advises PhD students like Wayne Chi (NDSEG Fellow) and mentors Irmak Bukey . His lab receives support from the AIxArts incubator fund at CMU .
Sicun Gao is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on practical algorithms for NP-hard search and optimization problems in computational systems, emphasizing combinatorial perspectives in numerical and statistical contexts to achieve reliable autonomy. Research Interests: Automated reasoning, Hamilton-Jacobi reachability, safe reinforcement learning, control barrier functions, and optimization in cyber-physical systems. Teaching: Courses on AI search, optimization, and graduate research seminars. The 15 most recent publications highlight advancements in safe AI control, motion planning, and policy optimization, often integrating neural networks with formal verification. Awards include the IEEE Power & Energy Society Technical Committee Prize Paper Award and the IROS RoboCup Best Paper Award. He advises PhD students working on AI-driven control and robotics, with alumni placed at institutions like Seoul National University, Amazon, and Apple. Grants include NSF Career, Air Force Young Investigator, and DARPA Assured Autonomy funding. His lab develops tools like dReal for automated reasoning in nonlinear theories over the reals.
Nima Fazeli is an Assistant Professor of Robotics at the University of Michigan (2020–Present), holding courtesy appointments in Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) and Mechanical Engineering. He directs the Manipulation and Machine Intelligence (MMint) Lab, focusing on enabling dexterous robotic manipulation through multimodal representation learning, tactile sensing, and model-based reasoning. His work integrates mechanics, perception, controls, and planning to achieve autonomous interaction with uncertain environments. Education: PhD, MIT (2019); MSc, University of Maryland (2014); BSc, Amirkabir University of Technology (2011) Research interests emphasize embodied intelligence , including visuo-tactile fusion, contact dynamics modeling, and cross-modal learning. Recent work explores tactile shadows, deformable object manipulation, and language-guided robot control. His research is supported by the NSF CAREER grant and National Robotics Initiative, with applications in manufacturing, assistive robotics, and space systems. Publications span topics like tactile sensing hardware (e.g., GelSlim 4.0), visuo-tactile implicit representations (ViTaSCOPE), and failure recovery policies (Racer). His team’s work has been featured in outlets like The New York Times and BBC. Key Awards: NSF CAREER Grant (2024) Teaching includes Introduction to Robotic Manipulation . Collaborations involve cross-disciplinary projects with mechanical, electrical, and biomedical engineering groups.
Alex Wong is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Yale University, specializing in computer vision, robotics, and medical imaging. His research focuses on sensor fusion, unsupervised learning, 3D vision, robust perception under adverse conditions, and medical image analysis. He holds degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), including a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Computer Science. Wong’s work bridges theoretical advances with practical applications, particularly in depth estimation, autonomous systems, and medical diagnostics. He has received prestigious awards such as the NeurIPS Outstanding Student Paper Award (2011) and the ICRA Best Paper Award in Robot Vision (2019). His research often addresses challenges in unstructured environments, emphasizing robustness and adaptability. Recent projects include developing novel frameworks for unsupervised depth completion, adversarial robustness in vision systems, and multimodal fusion techniques. His contributions span conferences like CVPR, ICCV, and ICRA, with a strong focus on advancing AI for real-world applications in healthcare and robotics. Education: B.S., Computer Science, UCLA M.S., Computer Science, UCLA Ph.D., Computer Science, UCLA Awards: NeurIPS Outstanding Student Paper Award (2011) ICRA Best Paper Award in Robot Vision (2019) His lab at Yale Engineering focuses on AI-driven solutions for perception challenges, collaborating across disciplines to advance medical imaging and autonomous systems. Current efforts explore generative models, continual learning, and vision-language integration for robust scene understanding.
Supratik Guha is a Professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and Senior Advisor to Argonne National Laboratory's Physical Sciences and Engineering directorate. His work bridges industrial R&D with academic and national lab research, focusing on quantum computing , semiconductor materials , and sensor networks for water and soil monitoring. Guha leads Argonne’s quantum information science strategy and serves as Faculty Director for the University of Chicago Center in Delhi. Education: PhD in Materials Science (USC, 1991), BTech in Engineering Physics (IIT Kharagpur, 1985) Research interests span multiple domains: Quantum technologies focusing on erbium-doped oxides for quantum memory and quantum interconnects Sensor networks for soil and water quality monitoring using cyberphysical systems Nanofabrication techniques including controlled spalling for heterogeneous material integration Advanced memory technologies exploring ferroelectric and optically addressable memory at atomic scales Scientific awards include: Election to National Academy of Engineering (2015) APS Prize for Industrial Applications of Physics (2015) Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow (2018) Fellow of Materials Research Society and American Physical Society IBM Corporate Award (2013) Advising notable students like Manish Kumar Singh (co-founder memQ ), Cheng Ji (now at Intel), and Vamsi Nittala (now at Micron Technology). His group contributes to major DOE , NSF , and USDA funded projects including: Q-NEXT - DOE National Quantum Information Center AIFARMS - NSF/USDA AI for Agriculture Institute Thoreau Project - Geospatial sensor networks Labs and teams operate across University of Chicago and Argonne National Lab , with facilities for molecular beam epitaxy , nanofabrication , and optical/electrical characterization . The group has spawned startups like memQ (quantum networking) and K1 Semiconductors (wide-bandgap material transfer).
Animesh Garg is an Assistant Professor at the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, where he leads the People, AI, and Robotics (PAIR) research group . He holds a Senior Researcher position at Nvidia Research and has courtesy appointments at the University of Toronto and Vector Institute. Previously, he served as Chief Scientific Officer at Apptronik (2024-2025) and Senior Staff Research Scientist at Nvidia Research (2018-2024). Education : Ph.D. in Operations Research from UC Berkeley (2011-2016), MS in Computer Science and Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and University of Delhi. Research Focus : Building Generalizable Autonomy through Reinforcement Learning , Control Theory , and 3D Vision , with applications in Surgical Robotics , Self-Driving Labs , and Manufacturing . Key Article Themes : His recent work emphasizes Foundation Models for robotics, Differentiable Simulation , Language-Guided Autonomy , and Structured Inductive Biases in sequential decision-making. Scientific Awards : Stephen Fleming Early Career Professorship at Georgia Tech. Teaching : Courses on AI, Deep Reinforcement Learning, and Algorithmic Intelligence in Robotics at Georgia Tech. Labs & Collaborations : Affiliated with Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM) and ML@GT at Georgia Tech; collaborates intensively with Nvidia Robotics.
Dinesh Jayaraman is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with primary and secondary appointments in the Department of Computer and Information Science (CIS) and Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE), respectively. He leads the Perception, Action, and Learning (PennPAL) Research Group at the GRASP Laboratory, focusing on interdisciplinary research at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, and computer vision. Research Interests: Robotics, computer vision, reinforcement learning, and autonomous systems. Recent Publications: His work explores vision-language models for robotic tool use, symmetry-based control acceleration, articulated object modeling, and in-context learning frameworks. Awards: Recipient of the 2022 NSF CAREER Award for innovative contributions to robotics and AI. Teaching: Co-teaching a robot-learning seminar (CIS 7000/ESE 6800) with Antonio Loquercio in Spring 2025. Students: Advising PhD candidates including Edward Hu, Arjun Krishna, and co-advised students with Osbert Bastani, Vijay Kumar, and Rajeev Alur.
David John Procter is a Professor of Organic Chemistry and Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Manchester. His career includes academic roles at the University of Glasgow (Lecturer, Senior Lecturer) and a Readership at the University of Manchester, where he became a Professor in 2008. His research focuses on developing new synthetic methods, catalysis, and materials chemistry, with applications in drug discovery, biocatalysis, and organic electronics. Education: BSc Chemistry (University of Leeds, 1992), PhD (1995, supervised by Prof. Christopher Rayner). Postdoctoral work: Florida State University (Prof. Robert Holton, Taxol analog synthesis). Research interests include samarium diiodide-mediated reactions, metal-free coupling processes, and sustainable synthesis methods. He leads projects funded by EPSRC, Industry (30 grants), and international collaborations. Awards include the EPSRC Established Career Fellowship (2015–2020), Bader Prize (2014), and Young Heterocyclic Chemist Award (2015). Key contributions: Total synthesis of natural products (e.g., pleuromutilin), development of copper-catalyzed multicomponent couplings, and innovative methods for organic materials. His work aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals related to affordable and clean energy and responsible consumption. Collaborations span academic and industrial partnerships in chemistry, physics, and biology. He supervises 60+ students and contributes to the Organic Materials Innovation Centre (OMIC). His group’s research is detailed at proctergroupresearch.com .
Danica Kragic is a Professor of Computer Science at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. She serves as the Director of the Centre for Autonomous Systems and leads the Robotics, Perception and Learning Lab at KTH. Her research focuses on advancing robotics capabilities through computer vision and machine learning approaches. MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Rijeka, Croatia (1995) PhD in Computer Science from KTH (2001) Professor Kragic's research primarily centers on robotics, computer vision, and machine learning, with particular emphasis on robotic manipulation, grasp planning, and human-robot interaction. Her work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications, exploring how robots can understand and interact with objects in complex environments. She investigates how visual and tactile sensing can be integrated to improve robotic perception and manipulation capabilities, with applications ranging from industrial automation to assistive robotics. Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on advanced grasp planning techniques, tactile sensing for manipulation, and mathematical representations for robotic control. Kragic's research shows increasing integration of machine learning approaches with traditional robotics frameworks, particularly in the areas of grasp synthesis, object recognition, and human-robot collaboration. Her work spans theoretical contributions in mathematical representations of grasps to practical implementations of robotic systems capable of adapting to novel objects and situations. 2007 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Academic Career Award IEEE Fellow ERC Starting Grant (2012) Member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences Honorary Doctorate from Lappeenranta University of Technology Professor Kragic's research has been supported by major funding bodies including the EU, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, and Swedish Research Council. While specific student names aren't listed in the provided information, her publication record suggests extensive mentorship of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in robotics and computer vision. Her lab, the Robotics, Perception and Learning Lab, serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research connecting computer science, engineering, and cognitive science perspectives on robotic systems. As Director of the Centre for Autonomous Systems at KTH, Kragic oversees a major research initiative focused on advancing autonomous technologies. Her Robotics, Perception and Learning Lab brings together researchers working on visual perception, machine learning, and robotic manipulation, with particular emphasis on developing systems that can understand and interact with objects in unstructured environments. The lab's work spans theoretical foundations of robotic manipulation to practical implementations of systems capable of learning from experience.
Wim Gevers is a faculty member at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and leads the CS4S – Cognitive Control & Sleep laboratory within the CRCN research centre. His work bridges cognitive psychology, neuroscience and sleep research to understand how the brain exerts control over thoughts and actions and how sleep contributes to these processes. Research Interests Cognitive Control & Metacognition: Investigating how subjective experiences such as confidence and the "urge-to-err" guide strategic adjustments in behaviour. Working Memory & Ordinal Cognition: Examining how order information is maintained and manipulated, and how these processes relate to mathematical competence. Sleep, Memory & Decision Making: Exploring how sleep-dependent consolidation influences motor learning and decision strategies. Across his 2022–2025 publications a clear trend emerges: a focus on metacognitive monitoring —how humans evaluate their own cognitive states—and the role of emotional and temporal context in shaping those evaluations. Studies range from reaction-time introspection and confidence judgements in perceptual tasks to the impact of aging and depression on metacognitive accuracy. Doctoral Supervision & Mentoring Whitney Stee (PhD 2024) – Sleep-dependent structural brain reorganization & motor learning Gaia Corlazzoli (PhD 2024) – Subjective experience in decision-making Myrtille Dewulf (PhD 2023) – Ordinal coding mechanisms in working memory Rebeca Sifuentes-Ortega (PhD 2023) – REM sleep and memory reactivation All dissertations were defended at ULB, Faculté des Sciences psychologiques et de l’éducation, with Wim Gevers formally listed as Promotor . Laboratory & Collaborative Networks As head of CS4S, Gevers coordinates a multidisciplinary team that combines behavioural experimentation, EEG/MEG, computational modelling and sleep polysomnography. The lab is embedded in the larger CRCN ecosystem, fostering collaborations with groups such as CO3 (consciousness), LCLD (language & deafness), and UR2NF (neurofunctional imaging).
Erkut Erdem is a Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering at Hacettepe University, where he leads the Computer Vision Laboratory (HUCVL). His research focuses on computer vision and machine learning, particularly on incorporating different kinds of context (spatial, temporal and cross-modal) into visual processing across all levels from low to high-level vision. He received his Ph.D. (2008), M.Sc. (2003), and B.Sc. (2001) from Middle East Technical University. Prior to joining Hacettepe University in 2010, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (2009-2010) and held visiting researcher positions at UCLA (2007) and Virginia Tech (2004). His current research interests include Visual Saliency Prediction, Automatic Image Description, Video/Photoset Summarization, Image Filtering, and Image Editing. Recent work has focused on multimodal learning with video-language models, diffusion-based image editing, and event-based vision for low-light conditions. His research has been published in top venues including NeurIPS, ICLR, ICCV, SIGGRAPH, and ACL. He has received significant recognition including The Young Researcher Award from Turkish Academy of Sciences and being named a 2022 Outstanding Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia. He has secured multiple research projects funded by TUBITAK and received gift funds from Adobe Research for text-guided image synthesis work. Current Teaching: BBM202: Algorithms, AIN434/BBM444: Fundamentals of Computational Photography Graduate Supervision: 6 current Ph.D. students, numerous recent graduates including Burak Ercan (2024) and Aysun Kocak (2023) Professional Affiliations: Co-affiliated with Koç University and İş Bank AI Center (KUIS AI)
Alexei A. Efros is the Howard Friesen Professor in the EECS Department at UC Berkeley, affiliated with the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab. Previously, he spent a decade at CMU's Robotics Institute and held a postdoc at the University of Oxford under Andrew Zisserman. He collaborates with INRIA/École Normale Supérieure in Paris. His research focuses on self-supervised learning, generative models, and visual data mining, with applications to robotics, computational photography, and art. Education & Academic Roles: Postdoc at Oxford (with Andrew Zisserman), faculty at CMU (2005–2015), currently at UC Berkeley. Teaches courses like CS 180/280A (Computer Vision) and CS 280 (Graduate Computer Vision). Research Interests: Self-supervised learning, generative models (e.g., diffusion models, inpainting), visual commonsense, and cross-modal reasoning. His work bridges computer vision and graphics, emphasizing data-driven approaches. Recent projects include Visual Jenga, Diffusion Models as Data Mining Tools, and Prioritized Generative Replay. Grants & Labs: Leads the Efros Research Group, advised over 40 PhD students (e.g., Jun-Yan Zhu, Tinghui Zhou). Collaborates with institutions like INRIA and NVIDIA. Active in grants related to AI, vision, and robotics. Labs/Teams: BAIR Lab (UC Berkeley), former affiliations with CMU Robotics Institute and Willow Team (INRIA/ENS Paris). Current lab focuses on generative AI, 3D perception, and visual reasoning.
Leo Schwinn is a Lecturer at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) within the Department of Computer Science (I26), working in the Data Analytics and Machine Learning group supervised by Prof. Stephan Günnemann at the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology. His research focuses on robust machine learning with particular emphasis on data-efficient learning and robustness vulnerabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs). Dr. Schwinn's research interests span multiple critical areas in contemporary machine learning including: Robustness against adversarial attacks in LLMs Embedding space vulnerabilities and defenses Model unlearning and privacy preservation Efficient training methodologies for large models Time-series forecasting with probabilistic frameworks Graph-based machine learning approaches His work bridges theoretical understanding with practical security implications of modern AI systems. Analysis of his recent publications (2023-2025) reveals a strong focus on LLM security, with multiple papers accepted at premier conferences including ICML, CVPR, ICLR, and NeurIPS. His research demonstrates consistent innovation in identifying novel attack vectors while developing practical defense mechanisms, particularly through embedding space manipulation techniques. The work shows increasing sophistication in handling both theoretical aspects of model robustness and practical deployment concerns. His notable scientific achievements include: Receiving the ATE dissertation price for his PhD work at FAU Securing an oral presentation at ICLR 2025 Organizing the ICLR BlogPost Track Becoming a member of ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems) Dr. Schwinn has served as review process chair for the 2024 Conference on Lifelong Learning Agents (CoLLAs) and actively collaborates with researchers at Mila Quebec AI Institute. His research group at TUM focuses on addressing fundamental challenges in machine learning robustness, particularly as they apply to real-world deployment scenarios where security and reliability are paramount. He maintains active GitHub repositories related to LLM security research, including circuit-breakers-eval and LLM_Embedding_Attack, demonstrating his commitment to open science and reproducible research in the field of AI security.
Kayvon Fatahalian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University. His research focuses on real-time graphics, high-efficiency simulation engines for entertainment and AI, and large-scale image/video analysis platforms. He explores intersections of computer graphics, machine learning, and high-performance computing to advance systems for interactive applications and AI-driven tasks. His work includes innovations in rendering pipelines, embodied AI simulations, and generative models for 3D content creation. Recent projects address challenges in multi-agent systems, motion synthesis, and scalable rendering architectures. Fatahalian’s contributions span technical systems, algorithmic frameworks, and foundational research in graphics and AI. Notable areas of exploration include: Real-time rendering optimizations for complex scenes AI-driven motion and style generation from sparse inputs Efficient simulation frameworks for deep reinforcement learning Weak supervision techniques for rare category detection His publications emphasize practical systems with theoretical grounding, often bridging hardware/software co-design principles with modern AI methodologies. Current work includes developing agile hardware accelerators and scalable architectures for next-generation interactive systems.
