PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Harold Soh

Also known as Harold Soh Soon Hong

Harold Soh is a computer scientist and robotics researcher whose work focuses on machine learning, tactile perception, and human-robot interaction. He earned degrees in computer science and economics at the University of California, Davis in 2004, software engineering at the University of Melbourne in 2005, and artificial intelligence and robotics at Imperial College London, followed by a SMART postdoctoral fellowship from 2014 to 2016. His work includes a 2018 variational-autoencoder method for group recommendation, an IROS Best Paper Award in October 2021 for neuromorphic tactile sensing, and the Selective Amnesia continual-learning method in September 2023. After his promotion to Associate Professor with tenure at NUS in January 2025 and an NRF Investigatorship in July 2026, as of October 2026 he is an Associate Professor in Computer Science at NUS, Director of the Computing Horizons Office, and Associate Director of the NUS AI Lab.

Timeline

  1. 2004–2016

    Degrees and a SMART fellowship

    He earns a B.A.Sc. in computer science and economics at the University of California, Davis in 2004 and an M.S. in software engineering at the University of Melbourne in 2005. At Imperial College London, where his 2012 paper on online spatio-temporal Gaussian process experts for tactile classification is an IROS Best Cognitive Robotics Paper finalist, he completes a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence and robotics with Yiannis Demiris on online learning for assistive robots. From 2014 to 2016, he holds the SMART Postdoctoral Scholar Fellowship Award at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology.

  2. 2018

    Group recommendation and robot trust

    With Thanh Vinh Vo, he coauthors a 2018 RecSys paper that trains a variational autoencoder to propose new items for groups of users, which is named ACM RecSys Best Long Paper Award runner-up in 2018. His paper on the transfer of human trust in robot capabilities across tasks is also a 2018 RSS Best Paper Award finalist.

  3. 2021

    Tactile perception wins at IROS

    In October 2021, he and his collaborators win the Best Paper Award at IROS 2021 for Extended Tactile Perception. The paper introduces a neuromorphic fast tactile sensor and machine-learning framework for reading micro-vibrations through tools, which the team tests in robot handovers and food classification.

  4. 2022

    Probabilistic programming for affective computing

    In 2022, his paper on applying probabilistic programming to affective computing, coauthored with Desmond Ong, Jamil Zaki, and Noah Goodman, is selected for the Best of IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing 2021 Paper Collection.

  5. 2023–2024

    Selective Amnesia and an RSS spotlight

    As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at NUS leading the CLeAR lab, he is selected for the RSS 2023 Early Career Spotlight talk on physical and social human-robot interaction. In September 2023, he and Alvin Heng publish Selective Amnesia, a continual-learning method that lets users remap undesired concepts in deep generative models. After serving as Technical Advances Theme Chair of HRI in 2023, he serves as Program Co-Chair of the ACM/IEEE HRI conference in 2024.

  6. 2025

    Tenure at NUS and ICRA 2025

    He is promoted to Associate Professor with tenure at NUS in January 2025. At ICRA 2025, he gives a keynote on foundation models for agents in embodied AI systems, and CLeAR's GeNIE system wins first place in the Earth Rover Challenge.

  7. 2026

    REAL-I victory and an NRF Investigatorship

    In June 2026, his CLeAR team wins Overall Champion at REAL-I 2026, the first Real-World Embodied AI Learning Challenge at ICRA 2026. In July 2026, he receives an NRF Investigatorship from the National Research Foundation in Singapore for learning persistent agent-centric representations for embodied AI.

  8. As of October 2026

    Associate professor at NUS

    As of October 2026, he is an Associate Professor in Computer Science at NUS, Director of the Computing Horizons Office, and Associate Director of the NUS AI Lab.

Career

  1. NowNational University of SingaporeLead

Education

  1. 2005University of MelbourneM.S.
  2. 2004University of California, DavisB.A.Sc.
  3. Imperial College LondonPh.D.

From the biography.

  1. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes National University of Singapore. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes National University of Singapore. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes National University of Singapore. 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 National University of Singapore. 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.

Sources and credits

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

  1. Harold SOH Soon Hong - NUS Computing comp.nus.edu.sg. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. CV - Harold Soh haroldsoh.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Generation meets recommendation: proposing novel items for groups of users clear-nus.github.io. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Assistant Professor Harold Soh and collaborators win Best Paper Award at IROS 2021 - NUS Computing comp.nus.edu.sg. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Harold Soh haroldsoh.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Early Career Spotlight · Robotics: Science and Systems rss2023.github.io. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Selective Amnesia: A Continual Learning Approach to Forgetting in Deep Generative Models clear-nus.github.io. Checked 22 October 2026.