Pulkit Verma

I am a Postdoctoral Associate in the Interactive Robotics Group at CSAIL and AeroAstro, MIT, working with Prof. Julie Shah. I’ll soon be joining Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras as an Assistant Professor. I completed my Ph.D. from the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence at Arizona State University, working with Prof. Siddharth Srivastava. During my Ph.D., I was also affiliated with UC Berkeley’s Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, and ASU’s Center for Human, Artificial Intelligence, and Robot Teaming. I have completed M.Tech. from Department of Computer Science & Engineering at IIT Guwahati, advised by Prof. Pradip K. Das.

My primary interests lie in AI safety, AI planning, action-model learning, interpretability, and analysis of abstractions. My research focuses on safe and reliable behavior of AI agents. I am currently investigating the minimal set of requirements in an AI system that would enable a user to assess and understand the limits of its safe operability.

In the past, I have worked in the areas of bio-inspired robotics, speech processing, and internet of things.