PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Vivian Chu

Vivian Chu is a roboticist whose work spans tactile sensing, robot learning and hospital service robots. She studied how robots map touch to language at Penn, completed a robotics Ph.D. at Georgia Tech, and co-founded Diligent Robotics, whose team built Poli and Moxi for hospital logistics. MIT Technology Review named her to its 2019 Innovators Under 35 list, and Fortune named her a 2022 40 Under 40 honoree. As of October 2026, she is Head of Product, Robotics Systems & Firmware at Serve Robotics.

Born
1987
Badges

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2009–2011

    Berkeley and IBM Research

    She earns a B.S. in EECS at UC Berkeley in 2009 and works on natural language processing and intelligent information integration at IBM Research, Almaden, from 2009 to 2011.

  2. 2011–2013

    A robotics M.S.E. at Penn

    In 2011, she leaves IBM to study robotics at the University of Pennsylvania. She earns an M.S.E. in Robotics in 2013 and works in Katherine J. Kuchenbecker’s Haptics Research Group in the GRASP Lab.

  3. 2013

    Learning haptic adjectives

    In 2013, she coauthors “Using Robotic Exploratory Procedures to Learn the Meaning of Haptic Adjectives,” a study that trains a PR2 to link tactile sensor readings with human descriptions of object feel. The robot then tests those labels on unfamiliar objects.

  4. 2013–2018

    A robotics Ph.D. at Georgia Tech

    She starts Georgia Tech’s Robotics Ph.D. program in 2013, defends “Teaching Robots about Human Environments” in December 2017, and completes the degree in 2018. Andrea Thomaz of the Socially Intelligent Machines Lab and Sonia Chernova of the Robot Autonomy and Interactive Learning Lab co-advise her.

  5. 2017–2018

    Co-founding Diligent Robotics

    She co-founds Diligent Robotics with Andrea Thomaz in 2017 to develop robots with mobile manipulation, social intelligence and human-guided learning. By 2018, their one-armed robot Poli is being tested in Austin hospitals to fetch supplies for nurses.

  6. 2018–2019

    Moxi for hospital logistics

    Diligent’s hospital robot evolves from Poli into Moxi, a mobile manipulator for routine deliveries to clinical staff. In 2019, MIT Technology Review names Chu to its Innovators Under 35 list and credits her with developing Moxi’s AI software.

  7. 2022

    A Fortune 40 Under 40 honor

    In 2022, she is Diligent Robotics’ co-founder and chief technology officer. Fortune names her to its 2022 40 Under 40 list.

  8. As of October 2026

    Product leadership at Serve

    She is Head of Product, Robotics Systems & Firmware at Serve Robotics.

Career

  1. NowServe RoboticsHead of Product, Robotics Systems & Firmware
  2. From 2017Diligent RoboticsCo-founder, Chief Technology Officer
  3. 2011–2013GRASP LabResearcher
  4. 2009–2011IBM ResearchResearcher

Education

  1. 2018Georgia Institute of TechnologyRobotics Ph.D.
  2. 2013University of PennsylvaniaM.S.E. in Robotics
  3. 2009University of California, BerkeleyB.S. in EECS

From the biography.

  1. Google alumni have founded or led 133 other organizations, more than any other AI labIncludes Vivian Chu. We estimate that alumni of 17 major AI labs went on to found or lead 350 other organizations, including 226 they founded, and we trace 472 career moves directly between 23 labs since 2010.
  2. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Vivian Chu. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  3. 23% of people shaping AI who left a university for a company later returned to a universityIncludes IBM. We estimate that 468 of the 2,011 people shaping AI who left a university for a company (23%) later returned to a university after a median of 5 years, and 163 of 829 (20%) made the reverse round trip.
  4. Universities keep AI researchers for a median of 6 years, compared with 2 years at frontier labsIncludes IBM. Across 15,811 dated work stays (6,529 people), median role tenure runs from 6 years at universities to 2 years at frontier labs. We compare all five organization types, starting decades from the 1970s to the 2020s, and the organizations that keep people longest.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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

  1. Vivian Chu vivianchu.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. News — Vivian Chu vivianchu.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Vivian Chu | Chief Innovation Officer at Diligent Robotics diligentrobots.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Finally: Robots Learn What 'Squishy' Really Means spectrum.ieee.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. About Diligent Robotics | Robots for Hospital Logistics diligentrobots.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Diligent Robotics Bringing Autonomous Mobile Manipulation to Hospitals spectrum.ieee.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Moxi Prototype from Diligent Robotics Starts Helping Out in Hospitals spectrum.ieee.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. Vivian Chu | Innovators Under 35 innovatorsunder35.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  9. To prevent nurse burnout, a 35-year-old engineer built a time-saving robot that’s now deployed at top U.S. hospitals fortune.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  10. Vivian Chu - Head of Product, Robotics Systems & Firmware at Serve Robotics | The Org theorg.com. Checked 20 October 2026.