Brooklyn is Now Home to a Major Hub for Robotics and Embodied Intelligence

The NYU Center brings together researchers tapping into AI to develop intelligent machines that can sense, navigate, and act autonomously in complex real-world environments, from operating rooms to disaster zones

NYU Tandon School of Engineering today announced the launch of its Center for Robotics and Embodied Intelligence, establishing a major new East Coast hub for robotics research and education.

The Center represents another milestone of NYU's historic $1 billion investment in engineering announced just three years ago. Under the leadership of Juan de Pablo — NYU's Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Executive Vice President for Global Science and Technology and Executive Dean of NYU Tandon — the University is expanding its capacity for technological innovation by developing interdisciplinary teams, facilities, and programs that accelerate research across engineering, computing, data science, and health.

Over 70 NYU faculty, Ph.D. students and post-doctoral researchers are now working in 10,000 square feet of shared experimental spaces, including the Center’s new 6,800-square-foot flagship facility on the ground floor of 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn.

An additional 2,200-square-foot Tandon facility houses large-scale multirobot experiments, with a 1,000-square-foot manipulation research lab also available at the newly-minted NYU Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing and Data Science. The shared, open environments enable daily collaboration among mechanical/electrical/civil engineers, computer scientists, and ethicists, supporting interdisciplinary discovery.

While AI has rapidly advanced in virtual domains, its deployment in the physical world — embodied intelligence — has lagged. The Center addresses this gap, with research applications spanning healthcare, infrastructure, manufacturing, and disaster response.

"The intersection between robotics and AI offers unprecedented opportunities for technological developments that will bring enormous benefits to industry and society, with applications ranging from advanced manufacturing to precision surgery,” said de Pablo. “NYU's Center for Robotics and Embodied Intelligence will serve as a hub for discovery and innovation at the forefront of this exciting area of research."

The Center's faculty have collectively raised more than $30 million in research funding to date. Their current projects include designing and building robots that can navigate city streets autonomously and algorithms that enable robots to move more naturally by learning from human motion. Growing research areas include AI-driven robot design, physical human-robot interaction, and applications spanning climate science to space exploration.

“Our Center will lead the development of intelligent systems that benefit society, and how we develop them matters as much as what we create,” said Professor Ludovic Righetti, the Center’s co-director, who also works with the United Nations and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute on responsible robotics policy. “By integrating responsible robotics principles directly into our research environment, we ensure that our innovations are responsible, safe, and designed for the benefit of a full breadth of people and communities.”

The Center maintains industry partnerships with Meta, Google, Amazon, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, General Motors, Bosch, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Ultra, Reflex and Wandercraft to help bridge research into real-world applications, and has established global academic collaborations with Korea's KAIST and France's ANITI, CNRS and INRIA. It also intends to become a regional hub, engaging researchers from institutions across the New York metropolitan area.

“We want people to think of the East Coast — not just Silicon Valley — when they think about robotics and embodied AI,” said Institute Associate Professor Chen Feng, the Center’s co-director. “We aspire to be a true center of gravity that unites robotics innovators from academia, industry, local government, and our surrounding communities.”

With the launch, the Center aims to create the first Master of Science in Robotics and Embodied Intelligence in the country and will create a doctoral track for students specializing in Embodied Intelligence.

Joining Righetti and Feng as a Center co-director is Lerrel Pinto, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at NYU Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science.

The Center’s launch aligns with NYU’s broader strategy to expand its interdisciplinary scientific infrastructure. Since last year, NYU has announced its new Institute for Engineering Health, a partnership between NYU Tandon and NYU Langone; launched the Urban Institute to address challenges from infrastructure to climate resilience; established the Quantum Institute and unveiled the Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science, which unites computational and mathematical disciplines across the University.