Sethu Vijayakumar
As of October 2026, Sethu Vijayakumar holds a Personal Chair in Robotics at the University of Edinburgh and directs the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics. He earned a PhD at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1998 and was a research assistant professor at the University of Southern California from 2001 to 2003. In 2005 he co-wrote Incremental Online Learning in High Dimensions, published in Neural Computation. He received a Royal Academy of Engineering senior research fellowship in 2007, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh elected him a Fellow in 2013. He became a Fellow of ELLIS, the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems, in 2020, and he delivered the keynote address at Automatica 2025.
Timeline
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1998–2003
From Tokyo Tech to USC
He completes a PhD in computer science and engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1998. He then works with Stefan Schaal at the University of Southern California, and from 2001 to 2003 he is a research assistant professor there.
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2003–2007
Edinburgh and a Royal Academy fellowship
He joins the University of Edinburgh as a lecturer in 2003. In 2007 he is awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellowship in Learning Robotics, co-funded by Microsoft Research.
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2005
Incremental online learning in high dimensions
He co-authors Incremental Online Learning in High Dimensions, a paper in Neural Computation published in December 2005.
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2013
Royal Society of Edinburgh fellowship
In 2013 the Royal Society of Edinburgh elects him as a Fellow.
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2016
The Valkyrie humanoid robot project
In 2016 he works on a collaboration with NASA Johnson Space Centre on the Valkyrie humanoid robot, which is being prepared for unmanned robotic pre-deployment missions to Mars.
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2020
A Fellow of ELLIS
In 2020 he becomes a Fellow of ELLIS, the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems.
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2025
Keynote at Automatica 2025
He delivers the keynote address at Automatica 2025.
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As of October 2026
Personal Chair in Robotics
He holds a Personal Chair in Robotics at the University of Edinburgh and directs the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics. He is also programme director for robotics and AI at The Alan Turing Institute.
Sources and credits
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- Sethu Vijayakumar - Wikipedia
- Sethu Vijayakumar, Professor of Robotics, University of Edinburgh, UK
- Incremental online learning in high dimensions - University of Edinburgh Research Explorer
- Edinburgh academics join RSE | Staff news | The University of Edinburgh
- Prof. Sethu Vijayakumar FRSE | Edinburgh Centre for Robotics
- Sethu Vijayakumar | European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems
- Professor Sethu Vijayakumar Delivers Keynote at Automatica 2025 | SLMC | School of Informatics