Arun Venkatraman

About Arun Venkatraman

Advance the state of machine learning for robotics, allowing robotic systems to autonomously find underlying patterns in their interactions with the world around them. My research focus is to form methods for the understanding of system dynamics, prediction of user intention, and development of learned control policies and to create a successful integration of all three.Technical Experience- Proficient in C++(Experienced with STL, Boost, Qt, OpenCV, ROS), Python, C Matlab (some MEX experience)- Robotic Manipulation (worked on system with two 7-dof robot arms)- Integration of perception, planning, control- Proficient with software development on Linux, some experience on Windows- Exposure to Java, LabView, assembly for RISC (AVR) and CISC (x86) architecture microcontrollers, VHDL & Altera Quartus design on FPGAs- LaTeX, Microsoft Office

Experience

1. Senior Director, Behavior Planning

   Aurora

   Sep 2025 — Present · CA, US

   Leading the team that delivered the first commercial driverless truck product. Our team gives the Aurora Driver the needed decision making intelligence to operate driverless trucks on the road. We marry ML and AI techniques with tried and true robotics to allow the Driver to understand the world around it and act appropriately to give our customers confidence that their freight will arrive.

Education

• Caltech

  BS with Honors, Electrical Engineering

  2008 — 2012

• Carnegie Mellon University

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Robotics

  2012 — 2017

Skills

• Python
• Latex
• C
• C++
• Assembly
• Robotics
• Altera Quartus
• Computer Science
• X86 Assembly
• Labview
• Java
• Abel
• Matlab
• Machine Learning
• Vhdl