India-West News Desk

BROOKLYN, NY – The NYU Tandon School of Engineering has formally launched the Center for Robotics and Embodied Intelligence, marking a major expansion of its role in shaping the future of robotics and physical artificial intelligence on the East Coast. The new center, based in Downtown Brooklyn, is a cornerstone of NYU’s $1 billion investment in engineering and global science and places Tandon at the center of interdisciplinary AI driven robotics research.

The center will operate under the direction of Juan de Pablo, NYU’s Executive Vice President for Global Science and Technology, and is housed primarily within Tandon’s growing Brooklyn campus.

“The intersection between robotics and AI offers unprecedented opportunities for technological developments that will bring enormous benefits to industry and society,” de Pablo said. “NYU’s Center for Robotics and Embodied Intelligence will serve as a hub for discovery and innovation at the forefront of this exciting area of research.”

Lerrel Pinto, an assistant professor of computer science at NYU’s Courant Institute is one of the founding co directors. The Indian American will play a key role in shaping the center’s research agenda, which focuses on embodied intelligence, an approach that enables robots to learn movement and decision making by interacting with the physical world and studying human motion. He joins co directors Ludovic Righetti and Chen Feng in leading a research team of more than 70 faculty members, postdoctoral scholars, and students.

Tandon provides the physical backbone of the center, with 10,000 square feet of shared experimental space designed to encourage daily collaboration across disciplines. The flagship facility, a 6,800 square foot lab, supports advanced robotics testing, while an additional 2,200 square foot Tandon facility is dedicated to large scale multi robot experiments.

Chen Feng said the center is intended to elevate Tandon and New York City as a national focal point for robotics research. “We want people to think of the East Coast, not just Silicon Valley, when they think about robotics and embodied AI,” he said.

The center’s faculty have already secured more than $30 million in research funding, supported by industry partnerships with companies including NVIDIA, Google, Amazon, and Qualcomm..

Beyond research, the NYU Tandon School of Engineering is also launching the nation’s first Master of Science degree in Robotics and Embodied Intelligence through the center.