PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Vandi Verma

Also known as Vandana Verma, Vandi Verma Tompkins

Vandi Verma is a space robotics engineer whose work brings autonomous planning and artificial intelligence to Mars rover operations. She studied electrical engineering at Punjab Engineering College and robotics at Carnegie Mellon, where she built rover health-monitoring software and earned a PhD. At NASA Ames, she helped originate PLEXIL before moving to JPL for Mars rover operations and contributing to Perseverance autonomy. Her MSL CHIMRA team earned a 2017 NASA award, and a paper she coauthored on Perseverance’s first extended mission won a 2025 conference award. After Perseverance completed its first AI-planned drives in 2025 and began using Mars Global Localization in 2026, she is a JPL Principal Engineer, Deputy Section Manager for Mobility & Robotics, and Chief Engineer of Robotic Operations for Mars 2020.

Now at
NASA
Badges

Timeline

  1. By 2005

    Education and rover fault monitoring

    Raised partly in Halwara, India, she earns an electrical engineering degree at Punjab Engineering College, then studies robotics at Carnegie Mellon and develops an interest in robots in unknown environments. In April 2003, she field-tests the Life in the Atacama rover, which uses onboard health monitoring for terrain, power, and navigation faults. She earns a robotics PhD at Carnegie Mellon in 2005.

  2. By 2011

    PLEXIL and Mars rover operations

    Before joining JPL, she leads the NASA Ames team that originates PLEXIL, a formally verifiable plan-execution language used on rovers and human spaceflight projects. She moves to JPL for Mars Exploration Rover flight operations in 2007 and joins the rover team in 2008. By August 2011, she retraces Spirit’s climb of Husband Hill to prepare Opportunity for similar terrain.

  3. 2017

    An MSL CHIMRA award

    She receives a 2017 MSL CHIMRA team award for tunnel anomaly recovery.

  4. 2025

    Perseverance’s first extended mission

    In 2025, she coauthors the Mars 2020 team’s paper on Perseverance’s first extended mission; the paper wins the M. Charles Fogg Best Conference Paper Award.

  5. December 2025

    First AI-planned Mars drives

    In December 2025, Perseverance completes its first AI-planned drives using vision-language models that analyze orbital imagery and terrain data to select waypoints. Verma is part of the Perseverance engineering team and describes the AI approach as promising for autonomous rover navigation.

  6. As of October 2026

    Mars Global Localization at JPL

    In February 2026, Perseverance begins using Mars Global Localization to match its navigation-camera panoramas with orbital maps and pinpoint its position within about 10 inches; the team began developing the technology in 2023. As of October 2026, she is a JPL Principal Engineer and Deputy Section Manager for Mobility & Robotics and Chief Engineer of Robotic Operations for Mars 2020.

Career

  1. Since 2007NASATeam lead

Education

  1. 2005Carnegie Mellon UniversityPhD
  2. Punjab Engineering CollegeElectrical engineering degree

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Vandi Verma. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes NASA. 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. 19% of people shaping AI who founded a dated organization have founded two or more, waiting a median of 7 years before a secondIncludes NASA. Across 1,136 people shaping AI who founded or co-founded a dated company, standalone lab or nonprofit, 221 (19%) founded at least two organizations, accounting for 36% of all 1,421 founding events.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. 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.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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

  1. Vandi Verma en.wikipedia.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Vandi’s home page at CMU cs.cmu.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. JPL Robotics: Vandi Verma robotics.jpl.nasa.gov. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. A Day in the Life of a Mars Rover Driver jpl.nasa.gov. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. NASA’s Perseverance rover now has its own 'GPS' on Mars: 'We've given the rover a new ability' space.com. Checked 20 October 2026.