Towards Agents That Exhibit Human-Like Autonomy in Complex Environments

I am writing to express my interest in being considered for the AAAI 2026 New Faculty Highlight program. In Fall 2025, I began my second year as an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia, where I conduct research in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and multi-agent systems. My work has received several international awards, including Best Paper, Dissertation, and Young Investigator honors. It has over 3, 184 citations on Google Scholar with an H-index of 23, and has been published in leading venues such as CVPR, ICCV, AAAI, IJCAI, and major robotics conferences. My research has been downloaded, reproduced, and applied by scholars worldwide. I believe my expertise, research trajectory, and future goals align with the objectives of this program.