Stelian Coros
Stelian Coros is a computational robotics researcher whose work brings learning, simulation and motion control to robots that adapt to physical tasks. He earned a computer science PhD at the University of British Columbia in 2011, received the Alain Fournier dissertation award, and moved from Disney Research Zurich to Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute. He joined ETH Zurich as a tenure-track assistant professor in 2017, received an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2019, and coauthored a reinforcement-learning method for legged locomotion in 2023. As of October 2026, he is an associate professor at ETH and a core faculty member of its AI Center, where his interests include robotics, motion modeling and motor learning.
- Now at
- ETH Zurich and Flink Robotics
Timeline
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2011–2012
A PhD on motor control
He earns a computer science PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2011. His dissertation on motor-control models for physically simulated virtual humans wins the Alain Fournier Ph.D. Dissertation Annual Award, and he gives a TEDxZurich talk on that work in 2012.
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By 2015
From Disney to Carnegie Mellon
By 2015, he is an assistant professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute after working as a research scientist at Disney Research Zurich.
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2015
An Intel Early Career Award
In 2015, he receives one of six Intel Early Career Faculty Awards.
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2017
Joining ETH Zurich’s robotics faculty
ETH appoints him as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computational Robotics in 2017. His Computational Robotics Lab forms in 2017 with two doctoral students as its first doctoral students.
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2019
An ERC Consolidator Grant
In 2019, he receives an ERC Consolidator Grant for research on computational foundations for robots that use compliant materials.
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December 2021
Associate Professor at ETH
In December 2021, ETH promotes him from Tenure Track Assistant Professor to Associate Professor of Computational Robotics in its Department of Computer Science.
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2023
Learning versatile legged locomotion
In 2023, he coauthors a framework that combines model-based optimal control and reinforcement learning to train versatile, robust legged locomotion. The framework uses reference motions generated by finite-horizon optimal control as targets for the learned policy.
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2023
Advising Flink Robotics
In 2023, Moritz Geilinger and Simon Huber found Flink Robotics after work on flexible package-handling robotics in Coros’s lab.
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2025
Learning for adaptive robots
In 2025, Coros describes his lab’s approach as combining learned data with physical models to fill gaps in robot demonstrations. His team also uses teleoperation and motion capture to generate robot training data.
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As of October 2026
Associate Professor at ETH Zurich
He is an Associate Professor in ETH Zurich’s Department of Computer Science and leads the Computational Robotics Lab. The ETH AI Center includes him among its Core Faculty and lists his interests as robotics, motion modeling, control, physics-based simulation and motor learning. He also serves as an adviser to Flink Robotics.
Career
- Since 2021ETH ZurichAssociate Professor of Computational Robotics, Head, Computational Robotics Lab
- NowFlink RoboticsAdviser
- Disney ResearchResearch Scientist
- Carnegie Mellon UniversityAssistant Professor
Education
Colleagues
Sources and credits
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- Computational Robotics Lab
- Computational Design, Fabrication and Control for Personalized Robotic Devices
- Stelian Coros Wins Intel Early Career Award
- Eight professors appointed at ETH Zurich
- Readying robots for new tasks
- ETH researchers on the road to success
- Ten professors appointed
- RL + Model-based Control: Using On-demand Optimal Control to Learn Versatile Legged Locomotion
- Getting a grip: AI and robotics
- Faculty – ETH AI Center | ETH Zurich
- About – Flink