{"692137":{"#nid":"692137","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Incoming Professor Envisions World of Humans and Robots Working Together","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen Siddharth Karamcheti watches robot demonstration videos, he pays attention to how close humans are to the robot.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti said there are times when he doesn\u2019t see any humans at all. Those instances reinforce the perception that robots are replacing humans rather than assisting them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou have humanoid robots doing things like folding laundry, and you see videos of it on social media,\u201d Karamcheti said. \u201cIt bothers me that in all these videos, I see the robot doing these tasks alone without a single person around them. True human-robot collaboration is missing.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs he joins the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing as an assistant professor, Karamcheti seeks to improve human-robot collaboration and maximize output through his research.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti comes to Tech after earning his Ph.D. in computer science (CS) from Stanford University. He also holds bachelor\u2019s degrees in CS and literary arts from Brown University.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to human-robot interaction, he has conducted research on fine-tuning vision-language-action (VLA) models.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EVLAs are artificial intelligence (AI) systems typically built by fine-tuning vision-language models (VLMs) or large language models (LLMs). They use visual perception, natural language, and physical action to perform tasks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI have a high-level vision of what I think robotics should be, but there are many winding paths I like to take along the way as I try to understand why something works the way it does,\u201d Karamcheti said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti said his vision was inspired by the movie \u003Cem\u003EIron Man\u003C\/em\u003E and by how the main character, Tony Stark, interacts with robots in his lab.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI don\u2019t want a robot that replaces all the work I\u2019m doing in my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI want a robot that\u2019s embedded in my life like my laptop or smartphone.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThey\u2019re making it possible for me to do more things. I also want to make it so that robots start doing more and learning more when I leave the room.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti said the School of IC is a \u201cdream\u201d job for him because of its renowned faculty in human-robot interaction. It\u2019s the ideal place to keep humans at the center of his research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe must design models around interaction and the idea that there\u2019s going to be a person in the room. Robots don\u2019t need to be perfect at any one thing. They just need to be able to ask for help when it\u2019s needed and learn from those teaching interactions.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramecheti said many robotics researchers are pursuing robots that are as close to perfect as possible so they can operate without human oversight. However, the amount\u0026nbsp;of money and data needed to get there is substantial.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think you see diminishing returns with scale. If a robot performs tasks correctly 90% of the time, the data required to go from 90% to 95% is much less than that required to go from 95% to 99%. Many robotics companies and labs are investing to reach a 99% success rate,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti added that the pursuit of perfection shouldn\u2019t prevent a robot from being deployed. They could be deployed at 95% and increase their success rate by working with and learning from humans.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOnce I have a robot that\u2019s 95% capable, I understand that 5% of failures will occur for a specific task. If I know a human is always going to be near the robot, I can design a system that sequences tasks and anticipates human intervention.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti is recruiting students to join his lab who bring new perspectives to robotics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019m looking for students who aren\u2019t afraid to challenge common assumptions and who enjoy hacking and building,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to work with students who have strong opinions about how robotics should look.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs he joins the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing as an assistant professor, Karamcheti seeks to improve human-robot collaboration and maximize output through his research.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti comes to Tech after earning his Ph.D. in computer science (CS) from Stanford University. He also holds bachelor\u2019s degrees in CS and literary arts from Brown University.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to human-robot interaction, he has conducted research on fine-tuning vision-language-action (VLA) models.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"As he joins the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing as an assistant professor, Siddharth Karamcheti seeks to improve human-robot collaboration and maximize output through his research. "}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-08-31 22:06:47","changed_gmt":"2026-08-31 22:09:07","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-08-31T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-08-31T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681022":{"id":"681022","type":"image","title":"Siddarth-Karamcheti_86A6595.jpg","body":null,"created":"1788214030","gmt_created":"2026-08-31 22:07:10","changed":"1788214030","gmt_changed":"2026-08-31 22:07:10","alt":"Siddharth Karamcheti","file":{"fid":"265370","name":"Siddarth-Karamcheti_86A6595.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/31\/Siddarth-Karamcheti_86A6595.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/31\/Siddarth-Karamcheti_86A6595.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":135773,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/08\/31\/Siddarth-Karamcheti_86A6595.jpg?itok=hMwXvcuz"}}},"media_ids":["681022"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}