Nadia Figueroa

Nadia Figueroa is the Shalini and Rajeev Misra Presidential Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania and a faculty advisor in the GRASP Laboratory. Her research centers on developing human-aware robotic systems capable of safe, intelligent, and physically grounded interaction with people in dynamic, shared environments. Figueroa’s work spans robot learning, motion planning, control theory, manipulation, perception, and embodied intelligence with a particular emphasis on enabling robots to collaborate, deform and manipulate complex objects, and anticipate human motion in real time. Prior to joining Penn, she was a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT CSAIL’s Interactive Robotics Group, advised by Julie A. Shah. She earned her Ph.D. in Robotics, Control, and Intelligent Systems from EPFL, advised by Aude Billard, where her thesis was a finalist for the 2020 Georges Giralt Ph.D. Award for best European robotics dissertation. Her earlier work on coordinated multi-arm motion planning earned recognition including the KUKA Innovation Award finalist distinction and Best Student Paper Award at RSS. Her research sits at the intersection of robotics, AI, control, psychology, and human-centered design, aiming to build robots that collaborate with people safely and intuitively.