PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Abhinav Valada

Abhinav Valada is a robotics researcher whose AI work applies machine learning to robot perception, including multimodal scene segmentation and objects hidden by occlusion. He earned engineering and robotics degrees at VIT and Carnegie Mellon, worked at Carnegie Mellon's robotics centers, and co-founded a Pittsburgh company that developed autonomous boats. At Freiburg, he completed a PhD under Wolfram Burgard, served as a postdoctoral researcher and assistant professor, and is now Full Professor and Chair of Autonomous Intelligent Systems. His research includes self-supervised multimodal segmentation and amodal panoptic segmentation; he received the IROS Toshio Fukuda Young Professional Award in 2024. He directs the Robot Learning Lab, and his group was scheduled to present AI-controlled robotics at Freiburg's Käpsele Innovation Festival in June 2025.

Born
1988
Works
4,966
Citations
3,916
h-index
33
Badges
Links
Website

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2010–2015

    Degrees and autonomous boats

    He earns a BTech in Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering at VIT University in 2010, then an MS in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University in 2013. From 2011 to 2014, he works at Carnegie Mellon's Field Robotics Center and National Robotics Engineering Center; he co-founds Platypus LLC in Pittsburgh in 2013 and serves as Director of Operations through 2015 as it develops autonomous robotic boats.

  2. 2018

    Self-supervised multimodal segmentation

    In 2018, he coauthors “Self-Supervised Model Adaptation for Multimodal Semantic Segmentation” with Rohit Mohan and Wolfram Burgard. The method uses self-supervision to adapt the fusion of modality-specific features to object category, spatial location and scene context.

  3. 2019

    A Freiburg PhD

    He completes a PhD at the University of Freiburg under Wolfram Burgard in 2019, graduating summa cum laude.

  4. 2020–2023

    Postdoctoral and assistant professor

    From 2020 to 2023, he works as a postdoctoral researcher and then an Assistant Professor (W1) at the University of Freiburg. ELLIS lists him as a Scholar at its Freiburg unit.

  5. 2022

    Amodal panoptic segmentation

    In 2022, with PhD student Rohit Mohan, he develops amodal panoptic segmentation, a task that predicts complete object shapes when other objects hide parts of them.

  6. 2024

    The Toshio Fukuda Award

    In 2024, he receives the IROS Toshio Fukuda Young Professional Award.

  7. June 2025

    AI-controlled robotics at Käpsele

    For the June 2025 Käpsele Innovation Festival, Freiburg's Faculty of Engineering schedules AI-controlled robotics with his Robot Learning Lab. The program pairs robotic arms that respond to speech with an AI-enabled four-legged robot.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and lab director

    As of October 2026, he is a Full Professor (W3) and Chair of Autonomous Intelligent Systems at the University of Freiburg, where he directs the Robot Learning Lab.

Career

  1. Since 2020University of FreiburgPostdoctoral Researcher
  2. 2020–2023European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent SystemsScholar
  3. 2013–2015Platypus LLCCo-Founder, Director of Operations
  4. 2011–2014Carnegie Mellon University

Education

  1. 2019University of FreiburgPhD
  2. 2013Carnegie Mellon UniversityMS
  3. 2010Vellore Institute of Technology UniversityBTech

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Abhinav Valada. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  2. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Freiburg. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Freiburg. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Freiburg. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Abhinav Valada yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Prof. Dr. Abhinav Valada — Robot Learning Lab rl.informatik.uni-freiburg.de. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Self-Supervised Model Adaptation for Multimodal Semantic Segmentation arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Abhinav Valada | European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ellis.eu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Unlocking human-like perception in self-driving vehicles neuroscience.uni-freiburg.de. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Experience the future up close: robotics & medical technology live news.vm.uni-freiburg.de. Checked 22 October 2026.