Dr. Aravinda Ramakrishnan Srinivasan - Education & Experiences

My passion is to write codes that mimics intelligence. I have enormous interest in practical applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and strive to keep pace with the current trends and innovations. I strive to be a pioneer in developing AI powered technologies. My focus is on projects that have potential to impact the society positively. Outside research, I love to play basketball, listen to music, and read novels.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy - Mechanical Engineering

Aug 2013 - Apr 2018
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA

Master of Science - Mechantronics Engineering

Aug 2013 - Dec 2015
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA

Bachelor of Technology - Electronics & Communication Engineering

Aug 2013 - Apr 2018
SASTRA University, Thanjavur, India

Work experience

September 2024 - present

Institute for Highway Engineering (ISAC), RWTH University, Germany

Research Group Leader: Human Factors & Safety

As the research group leader in Human Factors & Safety at ISAC, RWTH Aachen University, I am dedicated to shaping the future of road usage. My vision is to foster seamless collaboration between humans and machines, enhancing safety and efficiency on our roads. Currently, I focus on understanding human-machine interactions in various contexts, including pedestrian-vehicle dynamics, vehicle-vehicle interactions, and the integration of delivery robots into pubic roadways. I welcome collaboration with fellow professionals committed to advancing the field of human factors in transportation.

May 2020 - August 2024

Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, UK

Research Fellow

I worked with Prof. Gustav Markkula on COMMOTIONS project. We modelled naturalistic human interactions between vehicles (V2V) and vehicles with pedestrians (V2P). The overarching goal was to have benchmarked machine learned models combined with cognitive models of interactions. The intended application is autonomous vehicle safety and comfort testing through better simulation of the interactions.

May 2018 - April 2020

Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems (LCAS), University of Lincoln, UK

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

I worked with Prof. Marc Hanheide and Prof. Gerhard Neumann on the National Centre for Nuclear Robotics (NCNR) project. The NCNR is a diverse consortium of leading experts in robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), sensors, radiation and resilient embedded systems. My research was focused on understanding the user experience during tele-operation of robot manipulators (over the internet from remote locations). In particular, we studied and analysed the operator experience of haptic feedback/guidance and different grippers. I had additional responsibility of scheduling and maintaining the robot manipulators in operational condition (both hardware and software) for the wider research group.

August 2013 - April 2018

Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering department, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA

Graduate Research & Teaching Assistant

I worked with Dr. Subhadeep Chakraborty on several research topics and graduated with a Masters and PhD in 2015 and 2018 resepectively. Some of the projects I worked on are: 1) Developing improved Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL) technique for naturalistic Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), 2) Modeling human opinion evolution and interactions during emergency evacuation, and 3) Optimal egress guidance during emergency evacuation.