Nora Ayanian is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Brown University, holding a dual appointment in the School of Engineering and the Department of Computer Science since January 2022. She directs the Automatic Coordination of Teams (ACT) Lab and conducts research in robotics, multi-robot and multi-agent systems, aerial robotics, multi-robot mapping, heterogeneous robots, social computation for robotics, and mixed reality for robotics. Her work focuses on end-to-end solutions for multirobot systems, including task assignment, path planning, and control, enabling non-experts to deploy robot teams safely and effectively. She leverages diversity in robot decision-making and physical capabilities to create resilient teams and studies small-group human interactions with AI and machine learning for autonomous task accomplishment. Current projects address planning for warehouse robots, detecting and fighting wildfires with UAVs, mapping unknown environments such as the Martian surface, mobile sensor networks, and multitouch inputs for UAV control. Applications extend to manufacturing, warehousing, environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, and emergency response.

Ayanian earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011 and 2008, respectively, and her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University in 2005. Prior to Brown, she was Andrew and Erna Viterbi Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California from 2020 to 2021 and Assistant Professor and WiSE Gabilan Chair from 2013 to 2020, where she founded the ACT Lab. She completed a postdoctoral associateship at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory from 2011 to 2013. Her achievements include MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2016, NSF CAREER Award in 2016, Okawa Foundation Research Grant in 2016, IEEE Intelligent Systems “AI’s 10 to Watch” in 2013, NerdWallet 40 Under 40 Professors Who Inspire in 2014, Mic.com’s Mic 50 in 2015, Hanna Reisler Mentorship Award in 2015, best student paper at ICRA 2008, and best paper in the robotics track at ICAPS 2016. She co-founded and serves as advisory chair of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committee on Multi-Robot Systems and presented on swarming drones at the 2024 SXSW Conference. Her research has over 4,000 citations.

Professional Email: nayanian@cs.brown.edu