Vikas Shivashankar

Vikas Shivashankar has a diverse range of work experience in the field of Artificial Intelligence and robotics. Vikas is currently working as a Staff Software Engineer at Aescape since April 2023. Prior to that, they worked at Amazon Robotics, where they held the position of Senior Research Scientist from October 2017 to April 2021. In this role, they developed planning and optimization algorithms to improve efficiency in order fulfillment at Amazon Robotics fulfillment centers. Vikas also worked as a Research Scientist at Amazon Robotics from April 2021 to April 2023, where they focused on researching planning and scheduling algorithms for micro-fulfillment centers.

Before joining Amazon Robotics, Vikas worked as a Senior AI Scientist at Knexus Research Corporation from July 2015 to September 2017. During this time, they collaborated with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory on developing novel decision-making algorithms for human-robot teaming in civilian search-and-rescue operations.

Prior to that, Vikas worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Maryland from August 2009 to May 2015. Vikas'sdoctoral research focused on developing a new automated planning framework called Hierarchical Goal Networks (HGNs). Vikas'sresearch was published at multiple AI conferences, such as AAMAS, IJCAI, and ICAPS.

Additionally, Vikas has prior experience as a Research Intern at the Technical University of Munich in 2008 and as an Undergraduate Intern at Strand Life Sciences in 2007.

Vikas Shivashankar completed their Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, from 2005 to 2009. Vikas then pursued further education at the University of Maryland, where they obtained a Master's Degree in Computer Science from 2009 to 2012. Vikas continued their studies at the same institution, completing a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Computer Science from 2009 to 2015.