PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Gugan Thoppe

Also known as குகன் தொப்பே, गुगन थोप्पे

Gugan Thoppe is a computer scientist whose work includes stochastic approximation, reinforcement learning, and topological data analysis. He earned an information technology degree in Mumbai, taught at Shah & Anchor Kutchhi Engineering College, and completed an MS and PhD in Systems Science at TIFR in 2016. He worked at Technion and Duke, joined IISc in 2019, and coauthored studies of two-timescale stochastic approximation, policy gradients, and policy iteration. In 2022, he received IISc's Award for Excellence in Teaching and a Pratiksha Trust Young Investigator appointment. Since December 2025, he is an associate professor in IISc's Department of Computer Science and Automation.

Works
68
Citations
344
h-index
8
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2007–2016

    Studying and teaching in Mumbai

    He earns a BE in information technology from Shah & Anchor Kutchhi Engineering College in 2007 and teaches there from 2007 to 2009. At TIFR Mumbai, he completes an MS and PhD in Systems Science in 2016 with Vivek Borkar.

  2. 2013–2015

    IBM PhD fellowships

    He receives IBM PhD fellowships in 2013–2014 and 2014–2015.

  3. 2015–2019

    Roles at ISI, Technion and Duke

    He visits the Indian Statistical Institute in Bengaluru from July 2015 to August 2015. From October 2015 to October 2017, he is an ERC Senior Researcher at Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa; from December 2017 to November 2019, he is a postdoctoral associate at Duke University.

  4. 2017

    A thesis award and RL paper

    His PhD work wins the TAA-Sasken best thesis award in 2017. He coauthors “Finite Sample Analysis of Two-Timescale Stochastic Approximation with Applications to Reinforcement Learning,” which derives convergence rates for GTD(0), GTD2, and TDC.

  5. 2019

    Joining IISc's CSA

    In December 2019, he joins IISc's Department of Computer Science and Automation as an assistant professor.

  6. 2022

    A teaching award and investigator role

    In April 2022, he begins a two-year appointment as a Pratiksha Trust Young Investigator in CSA. In September 2022, he receives IISc's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

  7. 2025–2026

    Policy gradient and iteration papers

    In 2025, he coauthors “Policy Gradient with Tree Expansion,” which introduces SoftTreeMax, a planning-based extension of softmax that reduces policy-gradient variance. In 2026, he coauthors “Monotone and Conservative Policy Iteration Beyond the Tabular Case,” which extends reinforcement-learning guarantees to settings with function approximation.

  8. Since December 2025

    Associate professor at IISc

    Since December 2025, he is an associate professor in IISc's Department of Computer Science and Automation. His research includes stochastic approximation, random topology, reinforcement learning, and topological data analysis.

Career

  1. Since 2019Indian Institute of ScienceAssistant Professor, Associate Professor
  2. 2017–2019Duke UniversityPostdoctoral Associate
  3. 2015Indian Statistical Institute
  4. 2015–2017TechnionERC Senior Researcher
  5. 2007–2009Shah & Anchor Kutchhi Engineering CollegeTeacher

Education

  1. 2016Tata Institute of Fundamental ResearchMS and PhD
  2. 2007Shah & Anchor Kutchhi Engineering CollegeBE

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

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Indian Institute of Science. 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.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Indian Institute of Science. 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.
  3. Universities keep AI researchers for a median of 6 years, compared with 2 years at frontier labsIncludes Technion. Across 15,811 dated work stays (6,529 people), median role tenure runs from 6 years at universities to 2 years at frontier labs. We compare all five organization types, starting decades from the 1970s to the 2020s, and the organizations that keep people longest.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Duke University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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

  1. Gugan Thoppe | Home sites.google.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Gugan Thoppe | Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence rbcdsai.iitm.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Finite Sample Analysis of Two-Timescale Stochastic Approximation with Applications to Reinforcement Learning arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Gugan Thoppe joins CSA as Assistant Professor. csa.iisc.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Pratiksha Trust Young Investigators brain-computation.iisc.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Young Investigators iisc.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. The art of teaching eecs.iisc.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Policy Gradient with Tree Expansion proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Feb 2026 | CNI cni.iisc.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Gugan Thoppe | Division of EECS, Indian Institute of Science eecs.iisc.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.