In a remarkable achievement, Assistant Professor Bolei Zhou has been honored with the prestigious Intel® Rising Star Faculty Award (RSA) for 2023. Zhou’s ground-breaking work in the realm of computer vision and machine autonomy has earned him this recognition, making him one of the 15 esteemed recipients selected this year.
Zhou’s research stands at the confluence of computer vision and machine autonomy, with a core focus on developing interpretable and generalizable embodied AI for autonomous systems. The rapid advancement of autonomous systems driven by AI has transformed various industries, from autonomous vehicles reshaping transportation to warehouse robots automating packaging processes. Zhou aims to harness machine learning and simulation to enhance autonomous system safety before real-world deployment. His research goal is to create a data-driven approach where AI learns to simulate diverse realistic scenarios and behaviors to assess AI safety. This will benefit various domains such as autonomous driving, home robots, and warehouse automation.
Each year, the RSA program selects early-career academic researchers who are leading the advancements in technology research that demonstrate the potential to disrupt the industry. The 15 award winners chosen for 2023 are being recognized for their novel works in computer science, electrical engineering, computer engineering, and chemical engineering. The program proudly recognizes community members who are doing exceptional work in the field and hopes to facilitate long-term collaborative relationships with senior technical leaders at Intel. Award recipients are also chosen for their innovative teaching methods and for their efforts to improve the fields of computer science and engineering.
The research conducted by the selected faculty provides novel solutions to challenges spanning various topics, including computer architecture, software systems, quantum computing, AI for autonomous systems, graph neural networks, 3D fabrication, deep neural networks, and robotics.