Overview
Boyuan Chen's research focuses on Robotics, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning. He is also broadly interested in AI for science. At Duke, he leads the General Robotics Lab.
He is interested in developing "generalist robots" that learn, act, and improve by perceiving and interacting with the complex and dynamic world. Ultimately, he hopes that robots and machines can be equipped with high-level cognitive skills to assist people and unleash human creativity.
Boyuan Chen obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Columbia University with Hod Lipson.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Assistant Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
·
2022 - Present
Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science,
Pratt School of Engineering
Dickinson Family Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
·
2025 - Present
Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science,
Pratt School of Engineering
Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
·
2022 - Present
Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Pratt School of Engineering
Assistant Professor in Computer Science
·
2023 - Present
Computer Science,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Recent Publications
Physical artificial intelligence in nursing: Robotics.
Journal Article Nursing outlook · September 2025 BackgroundRobotics, driven by advancements in physical artificial intelligence (AI), offers potential solutions-yet many challenges- to creating innovative care models to meet the needs of the future.PurposeTo present an overview of robot ... Full text CiteTowards end-to-end structure determination from x-ray diffraction data using deep learning
Journal Article Npj Computational Materials · December 1, 2024 Powder crystallography is the experimental science of determining the structure of molecules provided in crystalline-powder form, by analyzing their x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. Since many materials are readily available as crystalline powder, powder ... Full text CiteHuman-robot facial coexpression.
Journal Article Science robotics · March 2024 Large language models are enabling rapid progress in robotic verbal communication, but nonverbal communication is not keeping pace. Physical humanoid robots struggle to express and communicate using facial movement, relying primarily on voice. The challeng ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Scalable and Adaptive Multi-Agent Framework for Human-AI Teaming Across Hierarchies and Time Horizons
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Army Research Laboratory · 2024 - 2028Accelerating Scientific Discovery via Automatic Discovered State Variables
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Army Research Laboratory · 2024 - 2027Population-Based Training for Multi-Human Multi-Machine Teaming with Enhanced Performance via Neurostimulation
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Army Research Laboratory · 2023 - 2027View All Grants
Education, Training & Certifications
Columbia University ·
2022
Ph.D.
Columbia University ·
2018
M.S.
Jilin University (China) ·
2016
B.S.