Utsha Kumar Roy

My name is Utsha Kumar Roy, and I am a robotics researcher and teacher with a strong interest in learning-based robot control, autonomous navigation, robot kinematics, and optimization. I am currently a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at BRAC University, where I teach undergraduate robotics courses, design hands-on laboratory sessions, and supervise student projects, while actively pursuing research on robot control, learning-enabled robotic systems, and end-to-end robotic process design, spanning modeling, perception, learning, and control.

I completed both my M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Dhaka, ranking first in both programs. My master’s research focused on human-aware robot navigation in dynamic crowds using reinforcement learning, where I developed principled state representations, reward formulations, and evaluation protocols for socially compliant navigation. During my undergraduate studies, I worked on 3D mapping for autonomous navigation using graph neural networks, which further strengthened my foundation in perception-driven robotic systems.

My research interests span robot kinematics and task-space control, reinforcement learning, optimization-based control methods, model predictive control, and GPU-accelerated simulation. Across multiple funded research projects in medical robotics, autonomous navigation, and underwater robotic systems, I have worked on integrating perception, learning, and control into complete end-to-end robotic pipelines. Alongside academia, I also bring industry experience, having developed ROS2-based simulation pipelines and control frameworks for industrial manipulation and autonomous systems. My current research efforts are directed toward publication in top-tier robotics conferences and journals, including IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) and Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS).

From a research philosophy perspective, I strongly believe in quality over quantity. Rather than pursuing a large number of loosely connected projects, I prefer to focus on a small set of well-defined problems, following a disciplined timetable and a structured research process. My aim is to construct work that is technically rigorous, reproducible, and capable of making a lasting impact, rather than producing rapid but shallow outputs.

Outside of research, I enjoy indoor games such as chess and table tennis. I am also keen on traveling, as it offers opportunities to experience diverse environments and ideas beyond the laboratory. In my free time, I enjoy playing the ukulele as a way to maintain creativity, balance, and mindfulness alongside academic work.

A comprehensive version of my curriculum vitae is accessible through the CV link in the footer.