Somil Bansal

Somil Bansal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, part of the School of Engineering. Previously, he served as an Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department at the University of Southern California. He holds a B.Tech. from IIT Kanpur, an MS, and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley’s EECS department.

• Research Focus: Development of mathematical tools and algorithms for safety-critical autonomous systems, emphasizing learning-enabled systems’ safety.
• Key Collaborations: Waymo, Skydio, Google, Boeing, NASA AMES/JPL.
• Awards: NSF CAREER Award, Eli Jury Award, RSS Pioneer Award, and Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award.

His research integrates control theory and machine learning to ensure safety in autonomous systems, focusing on safe learning frameworks, anomaly detection, and real-time safety guarantees. He leads the Safe and Intelligent Autonomy (SIA) Lab, which explores applications in robotics, autonomous driving, and aerospace systems.

Teaching: Courses include Introduction to Control Design Techniques and Principles of Safety-Critical Autonomy. He advises doctoral students and supervises research projects in his lab.