PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Alice Agogino

Alice Agogino is a mechanical engineer whose AI research connects expert systems, machine learning, and robotics. She earned a mechanical-engineering bachelor's degree in 1975, completed a Stanford Ph.D. in 1984, and joined Berkeley's faculty as an assistant professor in 1984. Her 1987 expert-system paper with Lambert presented a graphical interface for influence diagrams, and she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997 for applying AI to manufacturing and reforming engineering education. NASA funded her Berkeley lab in 2014 for tensegrity-robot mobility research, and by 2018 she led Berkeley and Squishy Robotics researchers in developing shape-shifting robots that could survive falls from 600 feet. As of October 2026, she is Professor of the Graduate School at UC Berkeley and CEO of Squishy Robotics, with a Fall 2026 project applying machine learning to methane-leak detection.

Now at
University of California, Berkeley and Squishy Robotics
Works
341
Citations
10,333
h-index
44
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1975

    An engineering degree

    She earns a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1975.

  2. 1984

    Doctorate and Berkeley appointment

    She completes a Ph.D. in engineering-economic systems at Stanford and joins Berkeley's mechanical-engineering faculty as an assistant professor in 1984.

  3. 1987

    An expert system interface

    Her 1987 paper with M. Lambert presents a graphical interface to an influence-diagram-based expert system.

  4. 1995–1999

    Associate dean

    From 1995 to 1999, she serves as associate dean of Berkeley's College of Engineering.

  5. 1997

    National Academy election

    She is elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997 for applying artificial intelligence to manufacturing and reforming engineering education.

  6. 2014

    NASA tensegrity research

    NASA awards Agogino and her UC Berkeley lab Early Stage Innovations funding in 2014 to research tensegrity-robot mobility using gas thrusters.

  7. By 2018

    Impact-resistant tensegrity robots

    By 2018, she leads researchers at Berkeley and Squishy Robotics in developing shape-shifting robots that can drop 600 feet and remain unscathed.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and robotics CEO

    As of October 2026, she is Professor of the Graduate School at UC Berkeley and CEO of Squishy Robotics. Her Fall 2026 URAP project applies machine learning to methane-leak detection.

A language model matched the links in this timeline to people, organizations and papers (provisional, model-judged).

Career

  1. Since 1984University of California, BerkeleyAssistant Professor, Associate Dean
  2. NowSquishy RoboticsCEO
  3. 2014–2016University of California, Santa Cruz
  4. 2014–2021NASA

Education

  1. 1984Stanford UniversityPhD

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

Most-cited works

  1. Engineering Design Thinking, Teaching, and Learning2005 · Journal of Engineering Education · 2,955 citations
  2. Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering2007 · Bulletin of the American Physical Society · 321 citations
  3. Chez Panisse: Building an Open Innovation Ecosystem2014 · California Management Review · 219 citations
  4. System design and locomotion of SUPERball, an untethered tensegrity robot2015 · IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation · 205 citations
  5. Reinforcement Learning on Variable Impedance Controller for High-Precision Robotic Assembly2019 · IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation · 195 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of California, Berkeley. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  2. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of California, Berkeley. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  3. The median h-index is 55 at universities and 20 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of California, Berkeley. The median h-index is 55 at universities and 20 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, citations and moves to estimate how universities and frontier labs contribute to AI research.
  4. 44% of AI career moves go from one university to anotherIncludes University of California, Berkeley. We estimate how 12,174 AI career moves link universities, companies, labs and government research centers, with net flows and the most common paths.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. Alice Agogino en.wikipedia.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. Alice M. Agogino – Education and Professional Employment best.berkeley.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. Alice M. Agogino – Publications best.berkeley.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. Alice M. Agogino – Honors and Awards best.berkeley.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. NASA Ames Astrogram – May/June 2023 nasa.gov. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. Alice Agogino: Diversity by design engineering.berkeley.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  7. Squishy Robotics AI for Good: Machine Learning and Data Science for Deployable Robot-Driven Sensing and Detection of Methane Leaks urapprojects.berkeley.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  8. Alice M. Agogino | Research UC Berkeley vcresearch.berkeley.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  9. About – Squishy Robotics squishy-robotics.com. Checked 18 October 2026.