Aude Billard
Aude Billard studies how machine learning can help robots learn physical skills from people. She studied physics at EPFL and artificial intelligence at Edinburgh before research and faculty posts at USC and EPFL. At LASA, her group worked on learning from failed demonstrations; her Skill Acquisition in Humans and Robots project received a 2017 ERC Advanced Grant, and IEEE named her a Fellow in 2020. She directed ELLIS's Robot Learning program from 2020, served as IEEE Robotics and Automation Society president in 2024–2025, and joined the advisory board of IEEE Transactions on Robot Learning in March 2026. As of October 2026, she is a full professor and head of LASA at EPFL and academic director of its Robotics Center.
Timeline
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1994–2013
From physics to a professorship
She earns a BSc in physics at EPFL in 1994 and an MSc there in 1995, then an MSc in knowledge-based systems in 1996 and a PhD in artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh in 1998. After postdoctoral work at EPFL and IDSIA through 1999, she serves as a research associate and research assistant professor at the University of Southern California through 2002. At EPFL, she becomes an assistant professor in 2002, associate professor in 2006, and full professor in 2013.
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2011
Learning from failed demonstrations
An LASA team used failed or inaccurate demonstrations to develop robot-learning algorithms. Billard and Daniel Grollman published “Donut As I Do: Learning From Failed Demonstrations.”
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2017
Funding a robot learning project
The European Research Council awarded her an Advanced Grant for her proposal “Skill Acquisition in Humans and Robots.”
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2020
Recognition for robot learning
IEEE named her a Fellow in 2020 for contributions to robot task learning and programming by human demonstration.
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Since 2020
A European robot learning program
She directs ELLIS's Robot Learning Program. It studies how machine learning can help robots move, act, and interact in real-world settings.
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2024–2025
Leading the robotics society
She served as president of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and as Associate Dean for Education at EPFL's School of Engineering during this period.
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March 2026
Joining a robot learning board
IEEE listed her among the experts joining the advisory board of its Transactions on Robot Learning.
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As of October 2026
Leading EPFL robotics
She is a full professor and head of LASA at EPFL, and academic director of the EPFL Robotics Center. LASA develops methods that let people teach robots dexterous skills.
Sources and credits
Photo: EPFL-MEDIACOM, via Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY 4.0. Source: commons.wikimedia.org. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.
- EPFL - Aude Billard
- Aude Billard - Wikipedia
- When robots learn from our mistakes - EPFL
- Prof. Billard was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant - EPFL
- 2020 IEEE RAS Fellow Class Announced - IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Website
- ELLIS Robot Learning: Closing the Reality Gap! | European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems
- Meet the IEEE Transactions on Robot Learning Advisory Board! - IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Website
- Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory ‐ EPFL
- Two New Interdisciplinary Centers on Campus - EPFL