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About

Raj Korpan is a robotics and artificial intelligence researcher whose work sits at the intersection of autonomous navigation, human-robot interaction (HRI), and technology ethics. His early contributions focused on making robots smarter navigators: his crowd-sensitive path planning system (2018, 10 citations) used Bayesian approaches to help robots intelligently avoid congested areas, while his work on natural language explanations (2017, 7 citations) enabled robots to communicate their navigation decisions in human-understandable terms. He further advanced this line of research by developing robots that learn cognitively-inspired spatial models to plan and reason in complex real-world environments. Beyond technical innovation, Korpan has become a leading voice in responsible and inclusive robotics. His work on diversity, equity, and inclusion in HRI — including multiple workshops and the widely noted "Inclusive HRI II" (2023, 11 citations) — challenges the field to confront how unchecked biases in AI systems can perpetuate societal discrimination. His paper on language-capable robots (2023, 9 citations) critically examines the ethical stakes of deploying conversational AI. Notably, Korpan has also championed LGBTQ+ representation in STEM through initiatives like Queer in Robotics, reflecting a commitment to building a more equitable research community alongside more equitable technology.