Dr. Vijay Kumar
Current Position
Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics,
University of Pennsylvania
Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
Academic Advisory Board, Plaksha University
Education
The Ohio State University (Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering)
IIT Kanpur (B.Tech. Mechanical Engineering)
Bio
Dr. Vijay Kumar is the Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering with appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Computer and Information Science, and Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.
His group group works on creating autonomous ground and aerial robots, designing bio-inspired algorithms for collective behaviors, and on robot swarms. They have won many best paper awards at conferences, and group alumni are leaders in teaching, research, business and entrepreneurship.
Dr. Kumar is a fellow of ASME and IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is the founder of Exyn Technologies, an advisor to Treeswift, and serves on the board of WeRobotics and O2Micro. He has held many administrative positions in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, including director of the GRASP Laboratory, chair of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, and the position of the Deputy Dean. He served as the assistant director of robotics and cyber physical systems at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.