Rachel Holladay

Rachel Holladay is the Asness Family Foundation Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania, with secondary appointments in Computer and Information Science and Electrical and Systems Engineering. She is also a core faculty member of the GRASP Lab and the founder of the Autonomous Manipulation @ Penn (AMP) Lab. Holladay’s research focuses on developing models and algorithms that enable robots to perform long-horizon, contact-rich manipulation tasks in everyday environments—ranging from household assistance to medical logistics and classroom organization. Her work addresses the complex interplay of discrete and continuous decision-making, physical constraints, and uncertainty that arise when robots must carry out extended sequences of actions in the real world. By leveraging physics-based modeling, geometric reasoning, data-driven learning, and tools from task and motion planning, her group develops robust systems capable of reasoning, adapting, and acting under partial information. Prior to joining Penn, Holladay completed her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT under the supervision of Tomás Lozano-Pérez and Alberto Rodriguez, following a B.S. in Computer Science and Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. She leads interdisciplinary efforts toward practical, reliable, and expressive robot manipulation.