Social Robot Navigation PhD Labs: How 20 Labs Want You to Apply

Contents

At a glance
Which department
How to get in touch
What they look for
If you are a master’s student
Funding and timing
Links

This post covers how 20 labs that work on social robot navigation want PhD applicants to apply: which department to apply through, whether to email, what each lab looks for, and the funding and timing rules that apply. Everything comes from the labs’ own pages for prospective students.

Social robot navigation means moving a robot through spaces it shares with people, and it is my research interest and the topic of my post on simulators. When I put together a list of labs working in or near this area, the hardest part was not finding them but finding out how each one wants to be approached. Some ask you never to email. Others want an email before you apply, a form, or a PDF with a set subject line.

This post is a companion to my general guide, How to Apply to Robotics PhD Programs, which covers statements, letters, and the timeline.

Recruiting plans and pages change every year, and faculty move. Read each lab’s page yourself before you apply or write to anyone. If something here is out of date, email me and I’ll update it.

At a glance

Several of these professors don’t have a page for prospective students. For those, the usual route is to apply through the department and name them in your application.

Professor	School	What their page asks
Katie Driggs-Campbell	UIUC	Apply through ECE or CS and list Driggs-Campbell. Emails about openings are welcome but likely won’t get a reply
Joydeep Biswas	UT Austin	Apply through the CS PhD and name Biswas
Christoforos Mavrogiannis	Michigan	No prospective-student page found
Xuesu Xiao	George Mason	Apply, and email one PDF of materials with the subject line “[PhD Application] YOUR AFFILIATION - YOUR NAME”
Jean Oh	Carnegie Mellon	No prospective-student page found
Marynel Vázquez	Yale	Apply through Yale CS and name Vázquez
Aniket Bera	Purdue	Email a statement of interest, CV, transcripts, and GitHub or Scholar links
Javier Alonso-Mora	TU Delft	Watch for advertised vacancies, or email a CV and motivation letter
Michael Everett	Northeastern	Fill in the lab’s interest form, apply through ECE or Khoury, and name Everett
Jiachen Li	Georgia Tech	Fill in the lab’s form, and name Li in both the application and the statement. Recruiting for Spring and Fall 2027
Peter Stone	UT Austin	No prospective-student page found
Justin Hart	UT Austin	Apply through the CS PhD and list Hart. No evaluations by email
Roberto Martín-Martín	UT Austin	Apply through the university, use the lab’s form, and don’t send applications by email
Aaron Steinfeld	Carnegie Mellon	No prospective-student page found
Andrea Bajcsy	Carnegie Mellon	Apply through the Robotics Institute, then email with “Prospective PhD Student” in the subject line
Changliu Liu	Carnegie Mellon	Fill in the lab’s form
Dinesh Manocha	Maryland	No prospective-student page found
Rachid Alami	LAAS-CNRS	No prospective-student page found
Takayuki Kanda	Kyoto University	Contact the lab before applying to the doctoral course. Entrance exams are in August and February
Harold Soh	National University of Singapore	Apply to the NUS School of Computing first. The lab typically works only with NUS or exchange students

Which department

Social navigation sits between robotics, CS, and engineering, so the department you apply to depends on the lab:

ECE or CS. Driggs-Campbell at UIUC takes students through either ECE or CS. Everett at Northeastern takes students through ECE or the Khoury College of Computer Sciences.
CS only. At UT Austin, Biswas and Hart both take students through the CS PhD. Vázquez at Yale takes students through Yale’s CS PhD.
A robotics program. Bajcsy takes students through CMU’s Robotics Institute. Li takes students through Georgia Tech’s Robotics or Machine Learning PhD.

Apply to the program that each of your potential advisors can admit through, and name them in the application.

How to get in touch

The labs on this list cover almost every approach:

Don’t email; apply. Hart does not evaluate candidates by email or give feedback outside the formal admissions process. Biswas notes that a committee makes admission decisions, so Biswas can’t tell you your chances. Soh’s lab at NUS says the same: the department’s committee decides, so apply there first.
You can email, but don’t expect a reply. Driggs-Campbell invites prospective students to email about openings, but says a reply is unlikely because of the volume. Martín-Martín’s page also warns that emails may go unanswered, and asks applicants not to send applications directly.
Fill in a form. Everett’s lab says its interest form is not an application, but it lets the lab look at your background when emails can’t all be answered. The lab takes multiple students each cycle. Li’s, Martín-Martín’s, and Liu’s labs also use forms. You still apply through the university.
Email after you apply. Bajcsy is less likely to reply to emails sent before the mid-December deadline. After you apply through the Robotics Institute, email with “Prospective PhD Student” in the subject line, your CV, your research interests, and why you want to join the lab.
Email your materials with your application. Xiao asks PhD applicants to apply to George Mason and also email a single PDF with a cover letter, CV, transcript, three references, and relevant publications, with the subject line “[PhD Application] YOUR AFFILIATION - YOUR NAME”. Bera asks for an email with a short statement of interest, a CV, transcripts, and links to your GitHub or Google Scholar.
Email first. Kanda’s lab at Kyoto asks doctoral applicants to get in touch before applying, to discuss their research background and interests. Alonso-Mora’s group at TU Delft posts PhD positions as vacancies, and also welcomes unsolicited applications sent with a CV and a motivation letter.

The labs that want contact first are outside the US, in Japan and the Netherlands. Singapore is the exception: Soh’s lab defers to the department and typically can’t work with students who aren’t at NUS or on an official exchange.

What they look for

These labs agree that you need research experience, but they weigh real robots, learning, and publications differently:

Real robots. Biswas looks for self-motivated students with a strong mathematical background who pick up new tools quickly. Any major is fine; Biswas’s students have come from math, physics, EE, ME, and CS. The lab focuses on “solving problems, not promoting tools,” and deploys its work on physical robots rather than only in simulation. Martín-Martín looks for people eager to create new methods in robot learning, perception, control, and planning, and says it helps if you enjoy working with real robots in the real world.
Hardware and field work. Xiao strongly prefers applicants with hands-on robotics hardware experience, field experience, and a good publication record.
Publications. Hart looks for strong academic preparation, prior research experience, and publications at major robotics venues such as ICRA, IROS, HRI, and RO-MAN.
Perception and learning. Bera’s IDEAS Lab wants a strong background in computer vision and machine learning, especially human detection, tracking, and motion prediction, plus deep learning frameworks, experience collecting and annotating data, interest in real-time and edge hardware, and the motivation to publish.
Coding and communication. Li’s TASL lab requires strong analytical and coding skills and good written and spoken English, and prefers Python or C++, PyTorch or TensorFlow, robot programming, and prior research.

Publications are where these labs differ most from the general advice. The CMU guide that many professors recommend says you don’t need a publication to be admitted. Hart and Xiao, on the other hand, list them among what they look for.

If you are a master’s student

Two of these labs give master’s students a concrete way in:

Xiao’s RobotiXX lab says one way to stand out is to set up the simulation environments of The BARN Challenge, a navigation competition, and build a method that performs well, preferably better than the baselines. Master’s students in the lab first join projects led by senior students, with the hope of continuing to a doctorate, and assistantships can open up after one or two semesters of strong research.
Bera’s lab says exceptional BS and MS students may be considered for the PhD program based on their performance and research fit.

Funding and timing

Bajcsy’s page says students who are applying for or already hold an external fellowship are of particular interest, because self-funded students make it easier to find a spot in the lab.
Kanda’s lab hosts only MEXT scholars recommended by the Japanese embassy in their home country. International applicants apply through the embassy first and contact the lab after passing its screening. Kyoto holds entrance exams in August for April enrollment and in February for October enrollment.
Li is recruiting several fully funded PhD students for Spring 2027 as well as Fall 2027, so not every lab follows the fall-only calendar.
Faculty move. Li, for example, was at UC Riverside and is now at Georgia Tech. Check where each professor is now before you build your list.