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.
Stefano NASINI is an Associate Professor at the University of Lille 3, specializing in Quantitative Methods within the Economics and Mathematics Sciences. He holds a HDR (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches) from the University of Lille 3 (2021), a Ph.D. in Statistics and Operations Research from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (2015), and a Master in Statistics (2011). His research focuses on optimization, complex networks, statistical inference, and microeconomic applications. He has held academic positions including a post-doctoral role at IESE Business School (2014–2016) and a visiting researcher role at the University of Lisbon (2014). His work spans scheduling optimization, network analysis, financial contagion modeling, and energy system planning. Key contributions include specialized algorithms for large-scale optimization problems and frameworks for decentralized portfolio management. He is a member of the LEM research group and teaches courses in optimization, econometrics, and social network analysis at the Grande École and MSc levels. Publications highlight interdisciplinary applications, including network-based diffusion models, multi-market financial strategies, and dynamic choice analysis. His research bridges theoretical advancements in operations research with practical challenges in economics, energy, and transportation systems. No scientific awards are explicitly listed in the provided materials. His advising roles and grants are not detailed here, but his extensive publication record reflects active collaboration within academic and applied domains.
Wengong Jin is an Assistant Professor at the Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University, and a visiting research scientist at the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center at the Broad Institute. He holds a PhD from MIT CSAIL, advised by Prof. Regina Barzilay and Prof. Tommi Jaakkola. Research Interests: His work focuses on geometric and generative AI models for drug discovery, biology, and chemical engineering. Key areas include equivariant neural networks (e.g., FAFormer), diffusion models for binding energy prediction, antibody/enzyme design (RefineGNN, SurfPro), and molecular design through graph neural networks (Junction Tree VAE). He also explores domain generalization and systems for autonomous molecular discovery. Publications: His research has been published in top venues like NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, Nature, Science, and Cell. Recent breakthroughs include discovering novel antibiotics using explainable AI and designing synergistic drug combinations for cancer treatment. Awards: He has received the BroadIgnite Award, Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize, and MIT EECS Outstanding Thesis Award for his contributions to computational biology and AI-driven drug discovery. Teaching: Currently teaches a PhD seminar on AI for Science, focusing on integrating machine learning into scientific discovery processes.
Roles and Affiliations: Professor David Levinson is a Professor of Transport in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney since 2017. He holds adjunct faculty status at the University of Minnesota's Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering (since 1999–2016). He previously directed the Accessibility Observatory and the Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems (NEXUS) research group. He is a member of The Net Zero Institute and leads the TransportLab research group. Education: PhD 1998 in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. Research Interests: Focuses on transportation networks, urban systems, accessibility analysis, and policy. Key themes include spatial equity, transport economics, and the co-evolution of land use and transport infrastructure. His work emphasizes data-driven approaches to urban mobility challenges, including modeling transport networks and evaluating infrastructure impacts on accessibility and equity. Grants and Projects: Recent grants include Design of micro-decisions in automated transport (2022, ARC) and Reducing pedestrian crashes through better intersection design (2021, Australian Road Safety Innovation). Collaborates internationally on projects like the Accessibility Observatory. Labs and Teams: Leads the TransportLab and collaborates with the NEXUS group. Active in interdisciplinary research, including urban analytics and transport policy.
Dr. Wei Peng is a Professor in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University, specializing in health communication technology design and human-computer interaction. Her research explores behavior change mechanisms through interactive media. Ph.D. in Communication from University of Southern California (2006) Key research areas include: Psychological and social effects of interactive media AI-driven health promotion systems Conversational agents for wellness Digital games for physical activity Mobile health applications Combating health misinformation through technology Her 2024-2021 publications demonstrate expertise in AI ethics, health gamification, and technology-based behavior change. Grant collaborations include: National Science Foundation (NSF) - Sensor-enabled family routines for child obesity prevention Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) - Exergame development Scientific recognition includes multiple ICA Top Paper Awards and MSU Teacher-Scholar honors. She actively serves on editorial boards of: Journal of Communication Health Communication Games for Health Journal BMC Public Health Currently advising in AI applications for health misinformation and persuasive technology research.
Professor Christian Bizer is a leading figure in web-based systems and data integration at the University of Mannheim , where he chairs Information Systems V: Web-based Systems . His research focuses on integrating data from multiple sources using large language models and LLM-based agents, with applications in product data extraction and DBpedia knowledge graph construction. He co-founded the DBpedia project and initiated the WebDataCommons initiative. Current research areas: Entity matching, schema matching, table annotation, information extraction, data discovery Key projects: WebMall benchmark, WInte.r integration framework, Schema.org analysis His work applies to e-commerce data integration and knowledge graph construction, with empirical studies on schema.org adoption. He supervises PhD students including Alexander Brinkmann and Ralph Peeters. Scientific Awards: Best Paper at iiWAS 2024 SWSA Ten-Year Award at ISWC 2019 Yahoo FREP Award 2015 Semantic Web Challenge winners Teaching includes courses on web data integration, web mining, large language models, and data mining for master's programs. He leads the DWS PhD colloquium and team projects on LLM agents for data integration.
Georgia Gkioxari is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Caltech , with a part-time affiliation at Meta AI . Her work focuses on extending visual perception models through advanced 2D and 3D representation learning, spatial reasoning, and generative models. Education: Not explicitly mentioned in the text Research interests span 3D perception , spatial reasoning , and vision-language integration , with projects like Visual Agentic AI for Spatial Reasoning and Token-by-Token Multimodal Alignment . Her publications emphasize 3D object detection , reconstruction , and generative modeling techniques including diffusion models and transformers . Scientific recognition includes the Meta LLM Evaluation Research Grant , Okawa Research Grant , Google Faculty Scholar Award 2024 , and Amazon Research Award . She teaches courses like Large Language & Vision Models (EE/CS 148) and Learning & 3D (CS 101) at Caltech. Labs & Teams: Leads Glab with members including Ilona Demler, Ziqi Ma, and Damiano Marsili
Prof. Dr. Otmar Hilliges is a Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich. He leads the AIT lab and serves as the head of the Institute of Intelligent Interactive Systems. His research focuses on spatio-temporal understanding of human movement and interaction, leveraging algorithms and representations from videos, images, and sensor data for applications in Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Human-Robot Interaction. Education: Diplom (MSc) in Computer Science, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany PhD in Computer Science, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), Germany (2009) Research Interests: Hilliges' work spans computer vision, robotics, and human-computer interaction. He develops methods for 3D human pose estimation, generative models for realistic avatar creation, and physically plausible simulation of human-object interactions. His research emphasizes practical applications in AR/VR and assistive robotics, aiming to bridge the gap between perception and action. Grants & Contributions: ERC Consolidator Grant (2022-2027): 'AI-Perceive: Robust Human-Centric Computer Vision for Advanced AI-Agents' Google Research Agreement (2020-2025): 'Generative Modelling of Humans' Microsoft Research Grants: Focus on human-centric robotics and interactive technologies Labs & Teams: Leads the AIT Lab at ETH Zurich, which pioneers research in intelligent interactive systems, emphasizing human-centric AI and robotics. The lab collaborates on projects ranging from drone cinematography to haptic feedback systems.
Wei Zhang is a tenured Professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) , Shenzhen, China, and a Senior Member of IEEE. He serves as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Control System Technology and leads the CLEAR Lab (Control & Learning for Robotics and Autonomy) within the School of Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (AiM). His career spans institutions including the University of California, Berkeley (postdoc), and The Ohio State University (Assistant/Associate Professor). Education: PhD in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University (2009), MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Kentucky (2005), BS in Automation from University of Science and Technology of China (2003) Research Interests focus on integrating control theory, optimization, and machine learning to develop intelligent systems. Key areas include: Legged Robots: Dynamic locomotion control, bio-inspired gait design, and push recovery mechanisms Autonomous Systems: Real-time motion planning, obstacle avoidance, and safe navigation in adversarial environments Smart Grids: Distributed control for energy systems and transactive energy optimization Machine Learning: Reinforcement learning for robotics, Q-learning convergence analysis, and hybrid control-learning frameworks Publication Trends highlight interdisciplinary work at the intersection of robotics and control systems. His recent 2024 papers address: Whole-body control for wheeled-quadrupedal robots Geometric object pose refinement in computer vision Task-space Riccati feedback for underactuated systems Teacher-student reinforcement learning architectures Scientific Awards include: 2016 : NSF CAREER Award 2015 : Lumley Research Award (Ohio State University) 2013 : AFOSR Summer Faculty Fellowship 2018 : National Distinguished Expert (Young, China) 2019 : International Underwater Robot Competition 2nd Prize (team advisor) Academic Leadership involves editorial roles at IEEE Transactions on Control System Technology and IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. His lab provides state-of-the-art robotics platforms including quadruped robots, Kuka manipulators, and UAVs for algorithm validation. Research collaborators span The Ohio State University , UC Berkeley , CMU , and The University of Hong Kong .
Theo Damoulas is a Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Warwick with a joint appointment in the Department of Computer Science and Statistics. He is a Turing AI Fellow (2021-2026) through UK Research and Innovation, an ELLIS member, and a Visiting Professor at New York University's Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP). He founded and leads the Warwick Machine Learning Group and has directed major projects at The Alan Turing Institute including Project Odysseus and the London Air Quality project. Education includes: PhD in Probabilistic Multiple Kernel Learning (University of Glasgow, 2009) MSc in Informatics (Distinction, University of Edinburgh, 2004) MEng in Mechanical Engineering (1st Class, University of Manchester, 2003) His research focuses on probabilistic machine learning and Bayesian statistics, emphasizing the integration of structural priors, spatiotemporal dependencies, physical laws, and causal relationships. Key applications include Digital Twins, urban science, and computational sustainability. His work advances robust and scalable inference methodologies for complex real-world systems. Publications demonstrate strong emphasis on Bayesian methods, spatiotemporal modeling, and uncertainty quantification, with applications spanning battery modeling, urban mobility, federated learning, and causal inference. Recent work shows increased focus on physics-informed models, federated learning frameworks, and causal abstraction techniques. Major scientific awards: Turing AI Acceleration Fellowship (2021-2026) Best Paper Awards (Wilkes 2024, AISTATS 2022, IEEE ICMLA 2010) ACM SIGMOD Most Reproducible Paper (2017) Dissertation Award (Classification Society 2012) Teaching Excellence nominations (Warwick 2015-2017) He actively advises PhD students and secured significant grants including the £multi-million Turing AI Fellowship. Current doctoral researchers investigate federated learning, causal inference, and spatiotemporal modeling. He leads the Warwick Machine Learning Group, a cross-departmental team developing foundational ML methods for scientific and societal challenges.
Javier Alonso-Mora is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Delft University of Technology, specializing in Learning & Autonomous Control. His research focuses on autonomous systems, robotics, motion planning, and transportation logistics, with applications in mobile manipulation, dynamic environments, and urban mobility. He leads key projects such as INTERACT (Intuitive Interaction for Robots among Humans) and ACT (Perceptive Acting Under Uncertainty), exploring human-robot interaction, autonomous vehicles, and healthcare robotics. Notable achievements include an ERC Starting Grant (2022) and a Veni Grant (2017). His work addresses challenges in robot navigation, control systems, and fleet optimization, with contributions to both theoretical advancements and practical implementations. Projects like TRiLOGy focus on sustainable water transportation, while HARMONY advances assistive robotics in healthcare. Alonso-Mora’s research leverages geometric fabrics for motion planning, probabilistic modeling for dynamic environments, and multi-agent coordination. He collaborates internationally and contributes to open-source frameworks for robotics. His recent publications emphasize safety-aware control, instance-aware semantic mapping, and adaptive systems for cluttered environments.
Navid Azizan is the Alfred H. (1929) and Jean M. Hayes Career Development Assistant Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), holding dual appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (in Control, Instrumentation & Robotics) and the Schwarzman College of Computing's Institute for Data, Systems & Society (IDSS). He is also a Principal Investigator in the Laboratory for Information & Decision Systems (LIDS), and a faculty member of the MIT Statistics and Data Science Center, the Center for Computational Science and Engineering, and the Operations Research Center. Dr. Azizan received his PhD in Computing and Mathematical Sciences from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2020, his MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2015, and his BSc in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Physics from Sharif University of Technology in 2013. Prior to joining MIT, he completed a postdoc at Stanford University's Autonomous Systems Laboratory and was a research scientist intern at Google DeepMind. His research spans the intersection of machine learning, systems and control, mathematical optimization, and network science. Dr. Azizan's work focuses on developing principled learning and optimization algorithms for reliable intelligent systems, with applications to autonomy and sociotechnical systems. His research has significant implications for creating trustworthy AI systems that can operate effectively in complex, uncertain environments. Dr. Azizan's recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on uncertainty quantification, reliable AI systems, constrained optimization, and control-oriented learning. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications, particularly in autonomous systems where safety and reliability are paramount. His research group has made notable contributions to areas including neural network verification, multi-agent reinforcement learning, and adaptive inference techniques for large language models, with several papers featured on MIT News and selected for oral presentations at top conferences. Alfred H. (1929) and Jean M. Hayes Career Development Professorship (2025-present) Frank E. Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising (2025) List of Outstanding Academic Leaders in Data from the CDO Magazine (2024, 2023) Amazon Science Hub Research Award (2023) Outstanding UROP Faculty Mentor (2023) Esther and Harold E. Edgerton (1927) Career Development Chair (2022-2025) Information Theory and Applications (ITA) Gold Graduation Award (2020) Dr. Azizan has been recognized for his excellence in graduate advising, receiving the Frank E. Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising in 2025. During the pandemic, he founded and co-organized the 'Control meets Learning' virtual seminar series, connecting researchers across disciplines. His work has attracted significant research funding from industry partners including Google, Amazon, and MathWorks, supporting both fundamental research and practical applications in reliable intelligent systems. The Azizan Lab at MIT brings together researchers from mechanical engineering, computer science, and applied mathematics to tackle challenges at the intersection of learning and control. The lab emphasizes both theoretical foundations and practical implementations, with a particular focus on developing algorithms that provide guarantees of performance and safety. Current research directions include uncertainty quantification in AI systems, constrained optimization for neural networks, and control-oriented learning for autonomous systems, with applications spanning robotics, transportation, and complex sociotechnical systems.
Fei-Fei Li is the Sequoia Capital Professor in Computer Science at Stanford University and Founding Co-Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI). She holds courtesy appointments in the Graduate School of Business and is a Senior Fellow at HAI. Her work bridges AI research with interdisciplinary applications in healthcare, robotics, and policy. Dr. Li pioneered the ImageNet dataset, instrumental in the AI revolution, and co-founded World Labs to advance spatial intelligence and generative AI. Education: B.A. in Physics, Princeton University (1999) Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Caltech (2005) Doctorate (Honorary), Harvey Mudd College (2022) Research Interests: AI ethics, computer vision, robotic learning, healthcare applications, and human-AI collaboration. Her teams developed frameworks like MOMA for activity recognition and BEHAVIOR for embodied AI benchmarks. She advocates for diversity in tech and co-founded AI4All to mentor underrepresented students. Key Contributions: ImageNet and ImageNet Challenge Stanford Vision and Learning Lab (SVL) Policy advisory roles for U.S. Senate, UN Secretary-General, and California Governor Labs & Initiatives: Leads the People, AI & Robots Group (PAIR), Partnership in AI-Assisted Care (PAC), and the Human-Centered AI Institute. Her work emphasizes ethical AI deployment and societal impact. Awards: VinFuture Prize (2024), IEEE Fellow, National Academy memberships (Engineering, Medicine, Arts & Sciences), and recognition as one of Time’s AI100 Influencers.
Dr. Ly Fie Sugianto is an Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting at Monash Business School, Monash University. Her research focuses on the integration of data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning in accounting and business systems, with applications in the energy sector and organizational behavior. Monash Business School, Monash University Department of Accounting Specialization: Accounting Information Systems, Data Analytics, AI Her research interests span Accounting Information Systems , Agent-Based Simulation , Decision Support Systems , and Technology Adoption . She applies computational methods to study competitive dynamics in deregulated electricity markets and the impact of digital tools on employee well-being and organizational resilience. The recent publications reflect a strong trend in using AI and simulation to analyze complex socio-technical systems, particularly in energy markets and leadership dynamics. Keywords across her work include agent-based modeling , data analytics , servant leadership , and enterprise social media , indicating interdisciplinary research at the intersection of information systems, management, and public policy. Her scientific awards include competitive grants from the ARC (SPIRT/Linkage) , the Australia Indonesia Governance Research Partnership (AIGRP) , and the Sumitomo Foundation . ARC Grant: Dispatch Optimisation in the Australian National Electricity Market Sumitomo Foundation: Technology Use and Employee Well-Being AIGRP: Governance and MSME Resilience during Pandemic Dr. Sugianto has advised research projects and collaborated with industry partners such as Western Power , Ecogen Energy , and AEMO . She is currently accepting PhD students and leads externally funded research initiatives. Her work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to industry innovation and responsible consumption. She is affiliated with research teams focusing on intelligent decision support systems and digital transformation in business , with active collaborations in Australia and Indonesia.
Emma Brunskill is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in Education. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT (2009). Her research focuses on reinforcement learning, educational technology, and healthcare applications, aiming to develop AI systems that support human learning and decision-making. Notable projects include AI tutoring systems, policy evaluation methods, and behavior change interventions using large language models. Her work bridges theory and practice, addressing challenges in off-policy evaluation, fairness-aware decision making, and scalable educational tools. Brunskill has contributed to foundational research in reinforcement learning algorithms and their applications in real-world scenarios such as healthcare, education, and human-AI collaboration. She also leads initiatives to improve equity and efficiency in educational technologies through data-driven approaches. Brunskill's research has been supported by grants such as the NSF RI: Small grant for data-efficient reinforcement learning. She actively explores the ethical implications of AI systems, particularly in healthcare and education settings. Her recent work emphasizes leveraging large language models (LLMs) for personalized feedback and simulated training environments, as seen in studies like GPTCoach and LLM-based counselor upskilling.
