Biosketch

Alap Kshirsagar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi - Abu Dhabi. Before joining IIT Delhi - Abu Dhabi, he worked as a Scientist in the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC), A*STAR, Singapore and as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group led by Prof. Jan Peters in the Computer Science Department of TU Darmstadt, Germany. He obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, with a minor in Computer Science, from Cornell University, USA, where he was a member of the Human-Robot Collaboration and Companionship Lab led by Dr. Guy Hoffman. He was also a visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley (2016), RWTH Aachen University (2016-17), and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2019-20).

Alap's research spans robotic manipulation, human-robot interaction, visuo-tactile perception, and robot learning. His long-term vision is to develop robots that can understand and physically interact with their environment leveraging multimodal perception, learning from experience, and collaborating seamlessly with people in dynamic and unstructured environments. His work aims to advance the next generation of intelligent robotic systems capable of assisting society in domains ranging from manufacturing and healthcare to exploration in extreme and extraterrestrial environments.

He has published at leading robotics conferences and journals and was selected as a member of the Robotics Science and Systems Pioneers 2024 cohort, comprising 30 outstanding early career robotics researchers, and a member of Human-Robot Interaction Pioneers 2022 cohort, comprising 14 outstanding early career human-robot interaction researchers. Beyond his research, he actively contributes to the robotics community through conference organization, mentoring, and service as a reviewer and associate editor for leading robotics and AI venues.