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Russ Tedrake

Toyota Professor of EECS, Aero/Astro, MechE.
Founder of a Stealth Startup in Physical AI (more soon!).

MIT 32-380
32 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA

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GitHub

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Research Interests

    My research journey really took shape when I first fell in love with the rich dynamics of legged robots, and the control problems they pose. From there I got interested in control with complex fluid dynamics, epitomized by flying vehicles in post-stall or flapping flight, or moving at high speeds through dense obstacles. My work on legged robots matured into work on full humanoids including, as computer vision came to fruition, work on dexterous manipulation.

    The latest breakthroughs in physical AI represent a culmination of what I've been pushing towards for my entire career. Truly dexterous and capable robots are here and there has never been a better time to deploy these machines into real applications, and to dig in and try to deeply understand their underlying principles.

 

Teaching

 

Software

    Drake -- a C++/Python toolbox for simulation and optimization-based design/analysis of complex dynamical systems (esp. robots).

 

Biography

    Russ is the Toyota Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Russ is also leading a stealth startup in physical AI.

    He is a recipient of the 2024 MIT School of Engineering Distinguished Educator Award, the 2024 MIT EECS Digital Innovation Award, the 2023 MIT Teaching with Digital Technology Award, the 2021 Jamieson Teaching Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the MIT Jerome Saltzer Award for undergraduate teaching, the DARPA Young Faculty Award in Mathematics, the 2012 Ruth and Joel Spira Teaching Award, and was named a Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellow. He was the leader of Team MIT's entry in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, and spent 10 years as the Senior Vice President of Large Behavior Models at the Toyota Research Institute.

    Russ received his B.S.E. in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1999, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2004, working with Sebastian Seung. After graduation, he joined the MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department as a Postdoctoral Associate. During his education, he has also spent time at Microsoft, Microsoft Research, and the Santa Fe Institute.

    Curriculum Vitae: pdf ( 81K).