PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Jaime Fernández Fisac

Jaime Fernández Fisac is a robotics researcher whose work connects machine learning with safety methods that help robots operate around people. He earned an engineering diploma in Madrid, a master’s in aeronautics at Cranfield, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley. At CHAI, he studied human-robot cooperation and coauthored a 2017 framework for safe learning-based robot control. After working on autonomous vehicle safety at Waymo, he joined Princeton in 2020; his designs there explored simulated traffic, synchronized flight, and human dance, and his work received a Google Research Scholar Program award in 2022 and an NSF CAREER Award by 2025. As of October 2026, he is an assistant professor at Princeton and directs the Safe Robotics Laboratory.

Works
86
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 2012–2019

    Engineering and aeronautics degrees

    He earns an engineering diploma from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 2012 and an M.Sc. in aeronautics from Cranfield University in 2013. He completes a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley in 2019.

  2. 2013–2018

    Human-robot research at CHAI

    From 2013 to 2018, he is a Ph.D. student in Control, Intelligent Systems, and Robotics affiliated with CHAI. With Anca Dragan and Tom Griffiths, he studies cooperative inverse reinforcement learning using models of human inference and decision making.

  3. 2017

    A general safety framework

    In 2017, he coauthors “A General Safety Framework for Learning-Based Control in Uncertain Robotic Systems.” The paper proposes a safety framework based on Hamilton-Jacobi reachability methods that can work with an arbitrary learning algorithm.

  4. 2019–2020

    From Waymo to Princeton

    From 2019 to 2020, he works as a research scientist at Waymo on autonomous vehicle safety and interaction. In fall 2020, he joins Princeton’s Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty.

  5. 2022

    Systems for traffic, flight and dance

    In 2022, he designs systems intended to navigate simulated street traffic, maneuver gusts in synchronized flight, and lead human dance partners in a back spot turn.

  6. 2022

    A Google Research Scholar award

    The Google Research Scholar Program lists his “Safe Reinforcement Learning via Adversarial Imagination” project among its 2022 recipients.

  7. 2023

    Co-founding Vault Robotics

    In 2023, he co-founds Vault Robotics to help bring safe autonomy into robotic systems deployed at scale to work alongside people.

  8. By 2025

    An NSF CAREER Award

    By 2025, he is an NSF CAREER Award recipient for the project “Towards a game theory of safe human-centered robotics.”

  9. 2026

    On the IASEAI Council

    In 2026, he is appointed to the Council of the International Association for Safe and Ethical Artificial Intelligence (IASEAI).

  10. Since 2020

    Assistant professor at Princeton

    As of October 2026, he is an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Princeton and directs the Safe Robotics Laboratory. His research integrates control systems, game theory, and machine learning to equip robots and AI systems with transparent safety assurances; he joins the faculty in fall 2020.

Career

  1. NowPrinceton UniversityAssistant Professor, Director, Safe Robotics Laboratory
  2. From 2023Vault RoboticsCo-Founder, Vault Robotics
  3. 2019–2020WaymoResearch Scientist

Education

  1. 2019University of California, BerkeleyPhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
  2. 2013Cranfield UniversityMSc in Aeronautics
  3. 2012Technical University of MadridEngineering Diploma

From the biography.

Checked career sources: engineering.lehigh.edu, humancompatible.ai, engineering.princeton.edu, saferobotics.princeton.edu.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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  1. Lehigh MechE Seminar Speaker Series: Dr. Jaime Fernández Fisac | P.C. Rossin College of Engineering & Applied Science engineering.lehigh.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. Jaime Fernandez Fisac – Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence humancompatible.ai. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. A General Safety Framework for Learning-Based Control in Uncertain Robotic Systems arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. To guarantee safety, these robots dance the bolero engineering.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. Research Scholar Program recipients (2020-2025) research.google. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. Jaime — Safe Robotics Laboratory saferobotics.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. Three engineering faculty members receive NSF CAREER awards engineering.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.