Vaibhav Unhelkar

I am an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Rice University, where I direct the Human-AI Teaming Lab. I am also a member of the Ken Kennedy Institute, the Rice Robotics Initiative, and Rice Digital Health.

Teamwork is central to the human enterprise. Yet, despite impressive advances, today’s AI & robotic systems still cannot team up effectively with people. This gap limits how much these systems can help us, and worse, risks unintended consequences for the very humans they are designed to support. To ensure seamless coordination between humans and machines, my group’s research advances algorithms for understanding human intent and explaining machine behavior.

In collaboration with subject-matter experts, I have applied these algorithms to build AI coordinators to improve teamwork, collaborative robots that work alongside humans, and robotic tutors to support clinical training.

I am also engaged in the broader AI & robotics community, serving on the editorial board of IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters and on program committees for several leading conferences (such as AAAI, ICRA, and AAMAS). I am most proud of my research advisees, several of whom have earned prestigious fellowships and now advance human-AI teaming as independent researchers in academia and industry.