Pratik Chaudhari

Pratik Chaudhari serves as an Assistant Professor in Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science, with secondary appointments in Computer and Information Science and membership in the Applied Mathematics graduate group. He is a core faculty member of the GRASP Laboratory and affiliated with the Penn Institute for Computational Science (PICS), Center for AI-enabled Systems (ASSET), and Center for AI And Data Science For Integrated Diagnostics (AI2D). Additionally, he holds an Amazon Scholar position at Amazon Web Services focused on large language models.

His educational background includes:

• PhD in Computer Science, UCLA (2018)
• Engineer's degree (2014) and Master's degree (2012) in Aeronautics & Astronautics, MIT
• Undergraduate studies in Aerospace Engineering, IIT Bombay (until 2010)

Chaudhari's research investigates theoretical foundations of deep learning and visual perception in robotics through interdisciplinary approaches blending information theory, neuroscience, and physics. His group explores 'sloppiness' in learning systems—where biological and artificial networks maintain robustness while adapting to new tasks—and develops methods for learning with minimal data, particularly applied to medical diagnostics like Alzheimer's disease. This work bridges microscopic protein networks, neural processing, and machine learning efficiency.

His scientific recognition includes:

• NSF CAREER Award for unraveling universal learning principles across biological and artificial systems

Chaudhari actively mentors students across multiple levels, supervising 12 PhD candidates (including primary advisees Jialin Mao and Rahul Ramesh) and 12 Master's students. His NSF-funded research examines how 'sloppiness' enables deep networks to function with minimal neuron adjustments, with applications in small-data medical diagnostics. He also organizes workshops including NeurIPS 2020 on Information Geometry and RSS 2025 on Aerial Autonomy.

He leads research initiatives within the GRASP Laboratory and collaborates with Penn's AI2D center on integrated diagnostics, while developing educational programs like 'Greater Philly Machine Learning Day' to foster regional industry-academia partnerships.