Sheeraz Athar

Postdoctoral ResearcherPhysical AI & Robotics Initiative · University of Notre Dame

I'm a postdoctoral researcher in the Physical AI & Robotics (PAIR) Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, working with Prof. Nikolaus Correll. Previously, I was a Ph.D. student in the MARS Lab at Purdue University with Prof. Yu She. Before that, I earned an M.Phil. from HKUST with Prof. Michael Yu Wang and a B.Tech. from Aligarh Muslim University. I work on how robots can use touch and physical contact to perform dexterous tasks that remain difficult to automate. During my Ph.D., I developed multimodal tactile sensors for robotic manipulation, tactile sensing for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RAMIS), and a multimodal underwater robot that drifts, glides, and thrusts. My current work focuses on dexterous robotic hands and humanoid robots that bring physical AI to challenging industrial applications.

Get in touch Curriculum vitae

News

Oct 2026★ VTAP Gripper named a Best Paper Award Finalist at IROS 2026.
Sep 2026Joined the University of Notre Dame as a Postdoctoral Researcher with Prof. Nikolaus Correll, working on dexterous robotic hands.
Sep 2026Our multimodal underwater robot was featured by WLFI TV and the Purdue Newsroom.
Aug 2026Graduated with a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University.
Aug 2026FibTac published in npj Robotics (Nature Portfolio).
Jun 2026Three papers accepted at IROS 2026 — VTAP Gripper, MVP-Tac, and MuxGel.
May 2026Successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation on May 27.
2026VTAP Gripper won 2nd Prize at the ASME Student Mechanism & Robot Design Competition.
2026Underwater robot paper accepted at ASME IDETC/CIE 2026.
Apr 2025Passed my Ph.D. Preliminary Examination at Purdue.
2025VibTac published in IEEE Transactions on Haptics; TacScope in Advanced Robotics Research.
Jun 2024Our tactile sensing work was featured in Purdue College of Agriculture News.
2023VisTac published in IEEE Sensors Journal.
Aug 2022Started my Ph.D. at Purdue University in the MARS Lab.

Research program

Robots are moving out of structured factories into hospitals, oceans, and homes, where they must handle contact, uncertainty, and harsh conditions. My work connects three layers: sensors that capture rich physical information, soft and dexterous mechanisms that act on it, and complete systems tested in the field.