Pulkit Agrawal

Pulkit Agrawal is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), holding dual appointments in the departments of Artificial Intelligence and Decision-making (AI+D), Computer Science (CS), and Electrical Engineering (EE) within the School of Engineering. He is a core member of the Embodied Intelligence Community of Research, focusing on advancing intelligent systems that interact with the physical world through robotics, AI, and machine learning. His work emphasizes bridging simulation and real-world applications in robotics, human-robot interaction, and medical technology.

Key research areas include reinforcement learning for robotic manipulation, simulation-to-real transfer, and embodied intelligence. Notable projects include developing methods for robust home robot training using real-to-sim-to-real approaches, tactile-driven object retrieval systems, and AI-driven glucose control models for post-surgical care. He also explores ethical AI in healthcare and assistive technologies for cognitive impairment monitoring.

Dr. Agrawal’s contributions span robotics hardware design (e.g., DEXOS hand exoskeleton), neuro-inspired algorithms (e.g., grid cell-based map building), and scalable robot learning via crowdsourced environments. His work often integrates interdisciplinary methods from control theory, computer vision, and biomedical engineering. He leads the MIT CSAIL Embodied Intelligence group and collaborates on projects like OpenEQA for embodied question answering and DexHub for large-scale robot data collection.

His research has been recognized through promotions within EECS and featured in outlets like MIT News for innovations in home robotics and AI-driven medical solutions. He advises on grants related to intelligent systems and maintains active collaborations across academia and industry.