Pieter Abbeel
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Stanford University (PhD)
Pieter Abbeel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1977 (age 48–49) |
| Alma mater | KU Leuven (BS, MS) Stanford University (PhD) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep reinforcement learning, robotics, unsupervised learning |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Apprenticeship learning and reinforcement learning with application to robotic control (2008) |
| Doctoral advisor | Andrew Ng |
| Doctoral students | |
Pieter Abbeel (born 1977) is a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences,[1] Director of the Berkeley Robot Learning Lab,[2] and co-director of the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR)[3] Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the co-founder of Covariant,[4][5][6][7][8] a venture-funded start-up that aims to teach robots new, complex skills, and co-founder of Gradescope,[9] an online grading system that has been implemented in over 500 universities across the United States. He is best known for his cutting-edge research in robotics and machine learning, particularly in deep reinforcement learning. In 2021, he joined AIX Ventures[10] as an Investment Partner. AIX Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in artificial intelligence startups.
Abbeel was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1977.[11] He grew up in nearby suburb Brasschaat.
As a high school student at Sint-Michielscollege (Brasschaat), Abbeel played on the club basketball team. He went on to play on the basketball team of KU Leuven University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in electrical engineering in 2000.
Abbeel received his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University. He specialized in artificial intelligence research, noting that his interest in AI sparked from the realization that AI can help build tools for other disciplines and that intelligence sets humans apart from other species.[12] Originally, Abbeel intended to pursue a master's degree in computer science, but decided to stay for his Ph.D. due to the abundance of AI projects happening at Stanford. He was the first PhD student of AI Professor Andrew Ng, who was a first-year professor at Stanford at the time. After finishing his Ph.D. in 2008, Abbeel became an assistant professor in Berkeley's electrical engineering and computer science department.
