Nikhil Uday Shinde

I am a Ph.D. student at UC San Diego advised by Professors Michael Yip and Sylvia Herbert, where I am part of ARCLab, SASLab, and The Contextual Robotics Institute.

Before joining UC San Diego, I did my undergraduate education at UC Berkeley, where worked with Professor Anant Sahai. I am a Regents and Chancellor's Scholarship Recepient and a NDSEG Fellow.

Email: nshinde@ucsd.edu  /  LinkedIn  /  CV (09/25)

My research interests lie at the intersection of robotics and machine learning. I am motivated by applications in medical robotics and improving the consistency and accessiblity of lifesaving healtchare procedures through intelligent automation. Specifically, I am interested in 1) using techniques from traditional robotics and machine learning for deformable object manipulation 2) Developing and enforcing safety guarantees for autonomous systems in interaction rich environments and 3) Developing algorithms that can constantly learn and adapt in new and changing environments.

When not tinkering with technology I can be found doing all things active and outdoors. I enjoy hiking, rock climbing, backpacking, mountaineering and surfing!

[RSS'25 OOD workshop paper] [RSS'25 OOD workshop poster]

[project page] [arXiv]

Best workshop paper at Reflections on Representations and Manipulating Deformable Objects ICRA 2025