Achuta Kadambi

Achuta Kadambi is a tenured associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. Kadambi specializes in computational imaging, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. He earned an interdepartmental doctorate from the MIT Media Lab and MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science before joining UCLA as an assistant professor. At UCLA, Kadambi directs the Visual Machines Group, which focuses on imaging, computer vision, artificial intelligence, mHealth, and computer graphics. His research aims to develop visual systems that surpass the capabilities of the human eye, with applications in robotics, medicine, and autonomous vehicles.

Kadambi leads a research group at the intersection of computer vision, physics, computational imaging, artificial intelligence, and medical devices. His lab develops imaging systems for self-driving cars to see through fog, surgical robots to visualize deeper into tissue, and algorithms for thermal cameras operating at long-wave infrared wavelengths. These advancements have potential uses in search and rescue, enabling detection of survivors obscured by smoke or fire. Kadambi has co-authored the textbook "Computational Imaging" and holds more than 35 U.S. patents.

Kadambi has contributed to the study of equity and fairness in technology. He published a column in Science addressing bias in medical devices, highlighting how the laws of physics can influence device performance across different skin tones. Motivated by personal experience, Kadambi and his team developed a camera-radar fusion system that improves measurement accuracy and fairness in remote sensing across diverse populations.

Kadambi has also translated academic research into commercial ventures. He co-founded Akasha Imaging and Vayu Robotics, both California-based companies focused on robotic vision and autonomous navigation. As chief scientist and co-founder of Akasha Imaging, Kadambi helped develop technology originating from the MIT Media Lab.

Kadambi is a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors and has received honors including the Young Faculty Award from DARPA, an NSF CAREER Award, an Army Research Office Young Investigator Award, and a Google Faculty Award. He has also been recognized with the Lemelson-MIT student prize, the Rahamimoff Award from the US-Israel Bi-National Science Foundation, the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship, and best paper awards at major conferences. Kadambi was named to Forbes' "30 Under 30" list for science. His work continues to advance the fields of computer vision, artificial intelligence, and computational imaging, shaping the future of technology and its applications in society.