Aaron M. Dollar is the Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Yale University, affiliated with the Yale Grab Lab. His research focuses on robotics, mechatronics, robotic grasping, and prosthetics, emphasizing adaptive mechanisms and human-robot interaction. He holds a PhD from Harvard University (2008) and degrees from UMass Amherst. Key research areas include dexterous manipulation, underactuated mechanisms, and assistive devices. His work bridges theory and practical applications, with contributions to prosthetic hands, robotic hands, and modular robotics systems. Recipient of prestigious awards: TR35 Innovator (2010), NSF CAREER Award (2010), DARPA Young Faculty Award (2013), and Air Force Young Investigator Award (2011). Developed the Yale MyoAdapt Hand, a single-actuator prosthetic with high functionality. Pioneered methods in real-to-sim transfer, modular lattice printing, and energy-aware robotic exploration. His lab, the Yale Grab Lab, explores robotics, prosthetics, and human motion analysis. Recent projects include autonomous calibration systems (ARC-Calib) and low-cost robotic hardware (RB5 Explorer).
Lerrel Pinto is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at New York University's Courant Institute, where he leads the General-purpose Robotics and AI Lab (GRAIL). His research focuses on enabling robots to generalize and adapt in unstructured environments through advancements in robot learning, decision making, and multimodal sensing. Before joining NYU, he completed a postdoc at UC Berkeley, a PhD in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, and an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at IIT Guwahati. Key research areas include large-scale robot learning, representation learning for sensory data, reinforcement learning for adaptability, and open-source robotics hardware. Notable achievements include the Sloan Fellowship (2025), NSF CAREER Award (2024), and Best Paper Awards at multiple robotics conferences. Pinto's lab has developed influential systems such as the AnySkin tactile sensing framework and the OPEN TEACH teleoperation system. Education highlights include a PhD from CMU (2019) under Abhinav Gupta, a postdoctoral stint with Alexei Efros and Pieter Abbeel at Berkeley, and undergraduate studies at IIT Guwahati. He has authored over 65 publications in top conferences like ICRA, NeurIPS, and CVPR. Pinto teaches courses on robotics, reinforcement learning, and AI at NYU. His service contributions include roles on program committees for ICML, NeurIPS, and IROS, as well as organizing workshops on topics like Dexterous Manipulation and Vision-Language Models for Robotics. His team actively collaborates through the GRAIL lab, with current projects exploring tactile sensing, zero-shot policy deployment, and multimodal robot learning systems. Ongoing research emphasizes bridging the gap between human and robotic dexterity through novel reward structures and adaptive control frameworks.
Daniel E. Koditschek is the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. He also holds primary appointments in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering and a research affiliation with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. He is a leading figure in the GRASP Lab, where he leads the Kod*lab, a specialized group focused on physical interaction and locomotion in autonomous robots. His research lies at the intersection of dynamical systems theory and robotics, emphasizing legged locomotion, hybrid control systems, and bio-inspired design. Koditschek's work integrates formal mathematical modeling with empirical testing of physical robots that run, jump, climb, and manipulate objects. He actively explores how biological insights into animal mobility can inform robotic autonomy and control. His group maintains strong collaborations with biologists and emphasizes embodied intelligence in machine behavior. The recent publications reflect a strong trend in applying theoretical control frameworks—such as hybrid dynamical systems, averaging methods, and navigation functions—to practical robotic challenges in unstructured environments. Topics include terrain adaptation, energy-efficient locomotion, reactive planning, and affordance-based interaction. There is a clear focus on bridging abstract mathematical models with real-world robotic performance, particularly in legged and mobile manipulation systems. IEEE RAS Pioneer Award Heilmeier Research Award AFOSR MURI Award (2010) Daniel Koditschek has advised numerous PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, many of whom now hold faculty positions or leadership roles in robotics companies like Ghost Robotics and Boston Dynamics. His research is supported by major grants from the NSF and AFOSR, including the MURI award and REU/RET programs that engage K-12 and undergraduate educators. He has also been involved in international outreach, including activities at the Penn Wharton China Center. Koditschek leads the Kod*lab within the GRASP Lab’s PERCH facility, which houses advanced legged robots such as the Ghost Minitaur, XRHhex, Inu, Delta Hopper, and Jerboa platforms. The lab emphasizes experimental validation of control theories using custom hardware and real-world terrain challenges.
Marilena Vendittelli is a Professor at Sapienza University of Rome, affiliated with the Robotics group. Her research spans control systems, biomedical robotics, motion planning, and autonomous systems. Research Areas: Control systems for robotics and nonholonomic systems Biomedical applications (hyperthermia therapy, needle insertion) UAV navigation and obstacle avoidance Haptics and human-robot interaction Adaptive estimation algorithms Recent Publications focus on adaptive control of bio-heat equations, safe UAV motion planning, soft robotics actuation, and haptic feedback in medical procedures.
Nikolai Matni is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Computer and Information Science and is a member of the Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences (AMCS) graduate group. His research focuses on integrating learning, optimization, and control for safety-critical and data-driven cyber-physical systems, with applications in robotics, autonomy, and distributed control. Secondary Appointment: Computer and Information Science (University of Pennsylvania) Labs/Centers: GRASP Lab, PRECISE Center His research bridges machine learning, robust control, and autonomous systems, particularly in developing guaranteed-safe strategies for cyber-physical systems. He emphasizes the importance of reliability and robustness in learning-based control for applications like self-driving vehicles and agile robots, where failures could be catastrophic. Recent publications highlight advancements in vision-based robotic control, neural ODEs for motion planning, adversarial exploration strategies, and stability-constrained learning. These works span conferences such as ICRA, CoRL, WACV, IROS, and L4DC, with a focus on safety-critical applications. Notable scientific awards include the NSF CAREER Award, George S Axelby Award (for his work on System Level Synthesis), AFOSR YIP award, and Google Research Scholar Award. He was also elevated to IEEE Senior Member. Matni advises Ph.D. students in Computer and Information Science (CIS), Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE), and Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences (AMCS). His teaching includes courses like ESE 2030 (Linear Algebra with Engineering/AI applications) and others focused on control theory and robotics.
Tara Boroushaki is an incoming Assistant Professor in Electrical & Computer Engineering at Yale University. She completed her Ph.D. at MIT (expected May 2025), advised by Prof. Fadel Adib, with a focus on sensing and mobile technologies. Her research spans wireless networking, robotics, and human-computer interaction, emphasizing multi-modal sensing for environmental perception. Key achievements include the Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship (2022–2024) and the IEEE RFID '23 Best Paper Award. Her work on RF-based 'X-ray vision' has been featured in TEDxMIT and media outlets like the BBC and World Economic Forum. She co-founded Cartesian Systems, deploying sensing technologies in retail and supply chain. Research interests include non-line-of-sight perception, RFID localization, and robotic grasping. She has developed systems like FuseBot and RFusion, highlighted as transformative in MIT's '103 Ways to Make the World Better' initiative.
Özer Özkahraman is a postdoctoral researcher at the Division of Robotics, Perception and Learning (RPL) at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. He works under Ivan Stenius and John Folkesson, focusing on underwater mission planning, simulation, and integration of autonomous systems. His email is ozero@kth.se . He completed his PhD at KTH under Petter Ögren, researching large-scale multi-agent coverage planning for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Current projects include the SMaRCSim multi-domain simulation platform and development of underwater vehicles like LoLo, SAM, and Evolo. Research interests span autonomous underwater systems, multi-agent coordination, control systems, and simulation infrastructure. He emphasizes modular, accessible frameworks for vehicle testing and real-world deployment. His work bridges theoretical methods (e.g., control barrier functions) with practical applications in marine robotics. Publications focus on AUV navigation, environmental sensing, and adaptive control. Projects like Real2Sim aim to align simulation with real-world vehicle dynamics using motion capture data. He collaborates internationally on topics like data-driven damage detection and model compression for resource-constrained robots. No academic awards are explicitly mentioned. He actively seeks collaborators for projects in sonar simulation, flow field modeling, and cyber-physical system integration.
Bryan Tripp is an Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo, specializing in computational neuroscience, deep learning, robotics, and medical AI. He leads the BRAIN Lab, which focuses on developing neural system models that interact with the physical world through robots. His research integrates neurobiological models with advanced machine learning techniques to study visuomotor processes and robotic applications. Tripp teaches courses such as Computational Neuroscience (SYDE 552), Deep Learning (SYDE 577), and Biomedical Engineering Design Workshops (BME 461/462). His lab has achieved milestones including the OREO robotic head, the first spiking neural network model for complex action planning, and comprehensive datasets for robotic grasping. His recent work emphasizes Medical AI applications, with graduate positions available. The BRAIN Lab is affiliated with the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience and Waterloo.AI, contributing to interdisciplinary AI research initiatives.
Markus Vincze is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Automation and Control Engineering (ACIN) at Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien). He founded the Vision for Robotics (V4R) group in 1996 to advance robotic perception, particularly in real-world environments and homes. His work focuses on cognitive computer vision techniques for robotics. Education: Diplom in Mechanical Engineering (1988) and PhD (1993) from TU Wien; M.Sc. (1990) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. V4R coordinates EU projects like ActIPret, robots@home, HOBBIT, and national initiatives like vision@home. Markus has edited a book on Robust Vision with Gregory Hager and authored 62 peer-reviewed journal articles and over 400 reviewed publications. His recent research explores zero-shot 6D pose estimation, sim-to-real transfer, and transparent object detection. Markus has served as program chair for ICRA 2013 and organized HRI 2017 in Vienna. He has advised numerous students and secured grants from the Austrian Academy of Sciences for work at HelpMate Robotics and Yale's Vision Laboratory. The V4R group leads innovations in robotic vision, including frameworks for synthetic data generation (Unrealgensyn), depth completion (CAGT), and educational robotics applications for sustainability. Their work spans household robotics (RH3), agricultural robotics (EdgeSoil), and human-robot collaboration.
John McDonald is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Maynooth University, where he has held a faculty position since 2001. He is affiliated with the Maynooth University Hamilton Institute and the Assisted Living and Learning Institute (ALL). His research focuses on computer vision, robotics, and AI, emphasizing spatial perception and autonomous systems. He has contributed to areas such as visual SLAM, intelligent vehicle systems, and digital holography, with funding from SFI, EU, and other agencies. Currently, he is a Funded Investigator in Lero (SFI Research Centre for Software) and collaborates on the SFI Blended Autonomy Vehicles Spoke. Key research themes include simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), robotic navigation, 3D reconstruction, and applications in autonomous driving. His work integrates cutting-edge techniques in computer vision and machine learning to address challenges in spatial intelligence and perception. Publications highlight advancements in dense mapping, fisheye camera systems, and geospatial analysis. He has held visiting roles at MIT’s CSAIL and the National Centre for Geocomputation. His contributions span academic journals, conferences, and technical reports, reflecting a strong emphasis on both theoretical and applied robotics research. John McDonald has supervised numerous research projects and contributed to initiatives like the John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarships. His work bridges academia and industry, with a focus on real-world applications of autonomous systems and AI-driven robotics.
Dr. Philipp Allgeuer is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Knowledge Technology Research Group within the Department of Informatics at the University of Hamburg. His work focuses on humanoid robotics, bipedal locomotion, and sensor fusion. He holds a PhD from the Autonomous Intelligent Systems Group at the University of Bonn, alongside dual bachelor's degrees in Mechatronic Engineering and Mathematical/Computer Sciences (both with First-Class Honors). His research contributions include the development of the igus Humanoid Open Platform and the NimbRo-OP series of humanoid robots, recognized with awards like the RoboCup HARTING Open Source Award (2016) and the Best Humanoid Award (2018). He has authored influential papers on fused angles for robot balance, tilt phase space representations, and neuro-inspired control architectures. Allgeuer's teams have dominated RoboCup competitions, winning titles in AdultSize and TeenSize leagues multiple times. His open-source software frameworks (e.g., rot_conv_lib , attitude_estimator ) and hardware designs are widely used in robotics research. Recent work explores multimodal human-robot interaction and AI-driven robotic task coordination. He is affiliated with the Knowledge Technology Research Group and contributes to projects like the NICOL humanoid robot, bridging social interaction and reliable manipulation. His research spans from low-level control algorithms to high-level behavior planning systems.
Chao Liu is a Research Scientist at CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) since 2008, affiliated with the DEXTER team and the Department of Robotics, LIRMM at University of Montpellier, France. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2006). Current research focuses on surgical robotics , haptics , teleoperation , and nonlinear control theory with applications in computer vision. His work addresses challenges in robotic-assisted telesurgery, including: Stable and transparent human-robot interaction through wave variable compensators and passivity filters Physiological motion compensation using spatio-temporal LSTM and dual Kalman filters EMG-based motion recognition for surgical skill assessment 3D soft-tissue reconstruction with stereo-endoscopes and deep learning Dr. Liu leads European and French projects like: TS2RT (CNRS-funded): Safer teleoperation with motion compensation ROBACUS (ANR-funded): Needle positioning with MPC control HaTUMoCo (CNRS-funded): Haptic teleoperation with uncertainty handling ARAKNES (EU-funded): Microrobotic systems for endoluminal surgery Scientific honors include Senior Member of IEEE and Member of Sigma Xi . He supervises Ph.D. and Master's students working on topics such as concentric tube robot optimization, haptic teleoperation, and EMG-based force estimation. Dr. Liu serves on IEEE Technical Committees for Telerobotics and Haptics , and as Technical Editor of IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.
Professor Kaspar Althoefer is a Professor of Robotics Engineering at the School of Engineering and Materials Science , Queen Mary University of London. He leads the Centre for Advanced Robotics @ Queen Mary (ARQ) and serves as Programme Director for BEng/MEng Robotics Engineering. His research focuses on robot autonomy, soft robotics , and tactile sensing with applications in healthcare, nuclear engineering, and manufacturing. Research Highlights: Soft Robotics, Tactile Sensing, Haptic Perception, Minimally Invasive Surgery, Human-Robot Interaction Key Collaborations: St Thomas Hospital London, EU Horizon Europe, EPSRC, Innovate UK Accomplishments: £10M+ as Principal Investigator, 500+ peer-reviewed papers, 7 patent applications His work spans robot autonomy , soft robotics , and machine learning , particularly in modeling tool-environment interactions and developing tactile sensors for surgical and nuclear applications. Recent projects include intelligent endoscopic microsurgery robots and eversion robots for radiation mapping . Scientific Awards: Senior Member, IEEE He supervises a team of 6 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, with completed projects in soft robotic gloves , pneumatic actuators , and eversion robot navigation .
Stéphane Doncieux is a University Professor in Computer Science at Sorbonne University, where he is affiliated with the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR), a joint research laboratory with CNRS. Since January 2024, he has served as Director of ISIR, following a term as Deputy Director from 2019 to 2023. He leads the ASIMOV research team and is based at the Pierre and Marie Curie Campus in Paris. His primary research interests lie in cognitive and developmental robotics, with a strong focus on open-ended learning, evolutionary algorithms, and adaptive systems. He investigates how robots can autonomously learn diverse skills through mechanisms such as novelty search, quality-diversity optimization, and intrinsic motivation. His work bridges theoretical foundations in artificial life and practical applications in robotic manipulation, perception, and control. The recent publications highlight a consistent trend in advancing robotic learning under sparse rewards and in open-ended environments. Key themes include quality-diversity optimization for grasping, state representation learning, sim-to-real transfer, and the development of behavioral repertoires. These works are published in high-impact journals such as IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Evolutionary Computation, and Frontiers in Robotics and AI. Coordinator, DREAM FET H2020 project (2015–2018) Principal Investigator, ANR projects on Creative Adaptation by Evolution, Learning Movement Skills, and Grasping with Multimodal Feedback Involved in European initiatives including VeriDREAM and HumanE-AI-Net He has supervised numerous PhD and Master’s students, including Leni Le Goff, Giuseppe Paolo, Alban Laflaquière, and Achkan Salehi, often in collaboration with leading researchers like Olivier Sigaud and Jean-Baptiste Mouret. He teaches computer science and robotics at both undergraduate and graduate levels at Sorbonne University. Doncieux has been instrumental in shaping research directions in evolutionary and developmental robotics, notably through his leadership in the IEEE Task Force on Evo-Devo-Robotics and his editorial contributions. His lab, ASIMOV, fosters interdisciplinary research integrating computer science, neuroscience, and engineering to create more autonomous and intelligent robotic systems.
Taskin Padir is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University and concurrently serves as an Amazon Scholar. He holds a PhD and MS from Purdue University and a BS from Middle East Technical University. His research focuses on experiential robotics, human-robot teaming, and embodied AI, with leadership roles in the Robotics and Intelligent Vehicles Research Laboratory (RIVeR Lab) and the Institute for Experiential Robotics. Padir has led projects for DARPA, NASA, and industry partners, advancing autonomous systems for extreme environments and human-robot collaboration. Education: PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University (2004) MS, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University (1997) BS, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Middle East Technical University (1993) Research Interests: Shared autonomy and human-in-the-loop robotics Embodied artificial intelligence Human-robot teaming in extreme environments (e.g., space, disaster zones) Collaborative robotics for industrial applications His work bridges robotics, AI, and real-world challenges, with recent projects addressing seafood processing automation, robotic navigation in unstructured terrains, and spectroscopy-based environmental monitoring. Awards: Recipient of the 2024 Faculty Research Team Award, 2023 Impact Award, and 2022 Amazon Scholar distinction. His research has been funded by NSF, DARPA, NASA, and industry collaborators like Amazon Robotics and Intel. Labs: Director of the RIVeR Lab and Institute for Experiential Robotics, fostering interdisciplinary research in autonomous systems and intelligent vehicles. Current projects include CRISP (Co-worker Robots for Seafood Processing) and PROSPECT (robotic spectroscopy tools).
