Pragathi Praveena

🚀 I am on the job market for tenure-track faculty positions in CS (or related) starting in Fall 2026! Please reach out if you think there might be a good fit. Here is a 2-minute overview of my research. More on my research and teaching: research statement and teaching statement.

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Robotics Institute, CMU where I contribute to the NSF AI-CARING Institute. I have a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UW–Madison, where I was part of the People and Robots Lab. I have been recognized as an MIT EECS Rising Star, as well as an HRI Pioneer and RSS Pioneer.

My research vision is to help architect the future of human–AI hybrid collective intelligence. My work pursues opportunities for robots and AI to amplify what human groups can know, do, and create. This is essential for a future where artificial agents participate meaningfully in families, teams, classrooms, and institutions. My work contributes (1) interaction paradigms that articulate new ways for robots and AI to support group interaction, (2) algorithms and prototypes that extend state-of-the-art methods in robotics and AI to multi-user and real-world settings, and (3) behavioral insights into how these new human–AI hybrid groups function.

My teaching and mentoring is guided by the belief that CS education should prepare students to integrate technical mastery with the analytical, creative, and collaborative skills necessary to shape the future of computing. I put this into practice by designing learning experiences that emphasize active, social, and project-based learning. I recognize that students bring diverse backgrounds and ways of knowing; I treat these as strengths and work to create learning environments where all students can thrive. I have mentored 40+ students at the PhD, MS, and BS levels at UW–Madison and CMU.

Prior to graduate school, I worked for two years as a Junior Research Scientist at the Xerox Research Center India, where I developed algorithms to monitor a person’s breathing using webcams (see video). I hold a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

My work has been published in top-tier venues in robotics and HCI, including HRI, ICRA, IROS, CSCW, UIST, and DIS.

Dissertation | Towards Effective Robotic Groupware

CSCW | Periscope: A Robotic Camera System to Support Remote Physical Collaboration

CHI LBW | Exploring the Use of Collaborative Robots in Cinematography

DIS | REX: Designing User-centered Repair and Explanations to Address Robot Failures

UIST | NarraGuide: an LLM-based Narrative Mobile Robot for Remote Place Exploration

HRI | Understanding Control Frames in Multi-Camera Robot Telemanipulation

HRI 🏅 | Supporting Perception of Weight through Motion-induced Sensory Conflicts in Robot Teleoperation

HRI | Characterization of Input Methods for Human-to-robot Demonstrations

ICRA | User-Guided Offline Synthesis of Robot Arm Motion from 6-DoF Paths

ICRA | RangedIK: An Optimization-Based Robot Motion Generation Method for Ranged-Goal Tasks