Speaker: Ruohan Zhang

Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Northwestern University

Presentation Title: "What shall we work on? Challenges and opportunities for academic labs in the era of robot learning"

Date: Thursday, September 3 at 12:00 PM

Location: Tech B211 and Zoom

https://tinyurl.com/CRBSeminar

Abstract:

In this talk, I will begin with a brief overview of my past and ongoing research in robotics and machine learning. I will then share recent findings and reflections on three questions: (1) What are the most exciting research opportunities for robotics researchers today? (2) What challenges do academic labs face relative to frontier industry labs, and where can academia still lead? (3) What research directions will my new lab pursue, and what collaboration opportunities do they open up?

Bio:

Ruohan Zhang has received several paper awards or nominations from robotics conferences and workshops, including two CoRL best paper nominations (2022, 2023), ICRA best paper (2024), best paper nomination (2025), and multiple best paper awards at CoRL, RSS, ICRA, and AAAI workshops. He has also published articles in cognitive science journals such as Neural Computation and PLoS Computational Biology. He has served as a program committee member, reviewer, or editor for conferences and journals in machine learning, robotics, and cognitive science, including NeurIPS, ICCV, ECCV, CoRL, RSS, ICRA, IROS, CogSci, Frontiers, and the Journal of Vision.

His research focuses on embodied AI, human-robot interaction, brain-computer interfaces, cognitive science, societal impact of AI and automation, and AI for art and design. The goal is to develop human-centered, human-inspired, and human-compatible AI and robotics.