Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Candidate Seminar
Carmelo Sferrazza
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Berkeley
Wednesday, April 30, 2025, 10:00-11:00 am
B02 CSL Auditorium or Online via Zoom
Title: The path to humanoid intelligence
Abstract: Humanoid robots
represent the ideal physical embodiment to assist us in the diversity of our
daily tasks and human-centric environments. Driven by substantial hardware
advancements, progress in artificial intelligence (AI), and a growing demand
for adaptable automation, this vision appears increasingly feasible.
Yet, to date, humanoid intelligence remains far from
achieving its envisioned general-purpose capabilities. What sets it apart from
other challenges in machine learning — and even within robotics?
My research seeks to address this question and ultimately
aims to bridge the gap between humanoid AI and human intelligence. In this
talk, I outline two key strategies: (1) developing algorithms, systems, and
architectures that leverage embodiment-aware priors and inductive biases to
manage the high-dimensional complexity of humanoid robot learning, and (2)
harnessing multi-sensory feedback from the environment — such as vision, touch,
and audio — to enable a unified, versatile embodiment capable of effectively
reasoning across a wide range of tasks.
Carmelo (Carlo)
Sferrazza is a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, working with Prof. Pieter Abbeel. His research focuses on advancing humanoid robots’ intelligence by incorporating priors, inductive biases, and multi-sensory feedback. Carlo obtained his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Raffaello D’Andrea. During his doctoral research, he worked on the design of vision-based, data-driven tactile sensors, and the applications of such sensors to robot control and dexterous manipulation. Carlo’s Ph.D. thesis was awarded the ETH Medal, and in 2022, he was selected as a Robotics Science and Systems Pioneer. He is also the recipient of an SNSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Rising Star Award and a Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, and the 2017 ETEL Award. He frequently shares his research with the general public, including presentations at events such as the WORLD.MINDS Annual Symposium and TEDxZurich.