Md Jahidul Islam

Md Jahidul Islam is the Yangbin Wang Rising Star Professor at the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, part of the College of Engineering at the University of Florida. His research focuses on underwater robotics, autonomous systems, and machine vision with applications in marine environments.

Education:

• PhD in Robotics, University of Minnesota (2021)
• MSc in Artificial Intelligence, BUET (2015)
• BSc in Computer Science & Engineering, BUET (2012)

Research Interests: His work spans robot perception, underwater robotics, and machine vision. He develops autonomous systems for underwater cave exploration, acoustic communication, and environmental monitoring. His RoboPI Lab advances technologies like semantic guidance for marine robots and edge-centric real-time processing for underwater scenes. Key innovations include CavePI for autonomous cave navigation and LightViz for distributed light pollution monitoring.

Publications: Recent work emphasizes underwater data center acoustics, natural language-driven mission programming, and robust communication systems. His research bridges robotics, computer vision, and environmental science, often with practical deployments in marine surveillance and resource management.

Awards:

• Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (University of Minnesota, 2019–20)
• RAS Travel Grant (ICRA 2019)
• IEEE/RSJ Travel Grant (IROS 2017)
• ADC Graduate Fellowship (Wireless Tech, 2015–16)

Advising & Labs: Leads the RoboPI Lab, focusing on underwater robotics and autonomous systems. His research is supported by grants in robotics, environmental monitoring, and edge computing. Collaborations span academia and industry to advance marine technology and AI-driven environmental solutions.