Postdoctoral Researcher at CALTECH (USA)
Thomas Berrueta is an interdisciplinary roboticist and Postdoctoral Scholar at the California Institute of Technology’s Computing and Mathematical Sciences Department. Since joining Prof. Soon-Jo Chung’s Autonomous Robotics and Control Laboratory, Thomas has led algorithm design and development for high-performance robotic hardware platforms, such as spacecraft and autonomous race cars traveling at over 250kph. He received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University under the supervision of Prof. Todd Murphey, where he was awarded the Presidential Fellowship—the highest honor conferred to a graduate student by the university—and named a Microsoft Future Leader in Robotics and AI. Moreover, his work has been featured in coverage from news outlets like Ars Technica, Popular Mechanics, Scientific American, Gizmodo, and Science. Thomas Berrueta’s research explores the role of embodiment in robot learning and control, seeking to make autonomous systems more adaptable, robust, and life-like by integrating physical self-awareness with techniques from reinforcement learning, stochastic processes, and optimal control.