I’m an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. My research integrates robotics, computer vision, and machine learning.

I’m enthusiastic about robotics: creating machines that can perceive their environment to acquire task-relevant information, learn and plan a course of action towards a desired new environment configuration, and execute the plan safely and robustly, even under uncertainty and noisy actuation. We know a solution is possible just by looking at humans; understanding and getting inspired by human cognition through psychology and cognitive science is often part of my methodology. In my research, I integrate AI, artificial perception, planning, and control and view them as machine learning problems. I develop solutions for simple skills such as pick-and-place, navigation, door opening, and more complex tasks like cooking, assembling furniture, or mobile manipulation problems that combine navigation and manipulation.

Previously, I worked as an AI Researcher at Salesforce AI and a Postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Vision and Learning Lab with Professors Silvio Savarese and Fei-Fei Li. I coordinated research projects in two groups: the People, AI & Robots (PAIR) team, where we studied visuomotor learning skills for manipulation and planning, and the iGibson/BEHAVIOR team, where we examined problems in long-horizon mobile manipulation and human cognition. I also led the Jackrabbot team, where we studied mobile manipulation in human-populated environments. Before coming to Stanford, I received my doctoral and master’s degrees from Technische Universität Berlin (TUB) at the Robotics and Biology Laboratory (RBO) from Professor Oliver Brock, integrating perception and action, and my BSc. degree from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. My work has been awarded the RSS Best System Paper Award, elaborating on our winning entry to the Amazon Picking Challenge, ICRA Best Paper Award, and finalist for IROS Best Paper Award, IROS Best Student Paper Award, and IROS Best Cognitive Science Paper Award, ICRA Best Robot System Paper Award, and RSS best student paper award. I’m also an RSS Pioneer, Area Editor for IROS and ICRA, and chair of the IEEE/RAS Technical Committee in Mobile Manipulation.

Prospective students and applicants: due to the large number of requests, I may be unable to reply to your email. If you want to apply with my group, take a look here.