Rafael Papallas
Dr Rafael Papallas
Incoming Assistant Professor in Robotics and AI
GitHub LinkedIn Google Scholar ORCiD

I am an incoming Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut - Mediterraneo in Paphos, Cyprus. I am currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Leeds. My research focuses on intelligent robotics, and particularly on robotic object manipulation. I am interested in the algorithmic problem, including motion planning, motion control and robot perception. You can read more here and watch videos here. I am an HEA Fellow, and previously I taught Intellignet Robotics at the University of Leeds. I delivered three online courses to over 7,000 students on Coursera. I like to travel and post pictures here.


Latest News
21 Aug 2024
12 Oct 2023

EMPLOYMENT
2021 - Today

Research & Teaching Fellow

School of Computer Science, University of Leeds

Leeds, United Kingdom

2017 - 2021

Teaching Demonstrator

School of Computer Science, University of Leeds

Leeds, United Kingdom

    Part time demonstration for a number of modules during my PhD, including "Algorithms and Data Structures II", "Artificial Intelligence", "Software Engineering", "Programming for the Web", "Mobile Application Development", "Procedural Programming", "Object-Oriented Programming". Received the HEA Associate Fellowship as a result.

2015 - 2016

Software Developer

Cimlogic (now ITI Group)

Saltaire, United Kingdom

    Spent a year working as a Software Developer. Worked with a number of Microsoft technologies, including ASP.NET and C#.

EDUCATION
2017 - 2021
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

School of Computer Science, University of Leeds

Leeds, United Kingdom

2013 - 2017
B.Sc (Hons) Computer Science (Industrial) - First Class Honours

School of Computer Science, University of Leeds

Leeds, United Kingdom

AWARDS & FUNDING

Awards

2023
Alan Turing PDE Award, The Alan Turing Institute
2017
Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP), UKRI/EPSRC

TEACHING

Click on each course/module to learn more about what's covered.

Coursera

2023 - Today
An Introduction to Programming using Python, University of Leeds (Coursera)
2023 - Today
How to Get Into Robotics, University of Leeds (Coursera)
2023 - Today
How to Get Into Cloud Computing, University of Leeds (Coursera)

Past Courses

2021 - 2024
COMP3631 Intelligent Systems and Robotics, University of Leeds (Campus)

HONOURS, FELLOWSHIPS & CERTIFICATIONS
2023
HEA Fellowship (FHEA), AdvanceHE
2021
AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-02), Amazon Web Services
2020
HEA Associate Fellowship (AFHEA), AdvanceHE

PUBLICATIONS

Click on the title of each paper to access a pre-print, the full paper, videos and code.

Journal Papers

[1]
R. Papallas, A. G. Cohn, and M. Dogar. "Online Replanning With Human-in-the-Loop for Non-Prehensile Manipulation in Clutter — A Trajectory Optimization Based Approach". IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L). 2020

Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers

[2]
D. Russell, R. Papallas, and M. Dogar. "Online state vector reduction during model predictive control with gradient-based trajectory optimisation". International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR). 2024
[3]
Z. Xu, R. Papallas, and M. Dogar. "Physics-Based Object 6D-Pose Estimation during Non-Prehensile Manipulation". International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER). 2023
[4]
S. Wang, R. Papallas, M. Leonetti, and M. Dogar. "Goal-Conditioned Action Space Reduction for Deformable Object Manipulation". IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 2023
[5]
D. Russell, R. Papallas, and M. Dogar. "Adaptive approximation of dynamics gradients via interpolation to speed up trajectory optimisation". IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 2023
[6]
R. Papallas, and M. Dogar. "To ask for help or not to ask: A predictive approach to human-in-the-loop motion planning for robot manipulation tasks". IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). 2022
[7]
R. Papallas, and M. Dogar. "Non-Prehensile Manipulation in Clutter with Human-In-The-Loop". IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 2020
[8]
W. Bejjani, R. Papallas, M. Leonetti, and M. Dogar. "Planning with a Receding Horizon for Manipulation in Clutter Using a Learned Value Function". IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids). 2018

PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP

Co-Organiser

2023
Workshop on Integrated Perception, Motion Planning and Control, IROS, Detroit, USA.

Reviewer

ISER
International Symposium on Experimental Robotics
CASE
IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering
IJRR
The International Journal of Robotics Research
RSS
Robotics: Science and Systems
RA-L
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
ICRA
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
IROS
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
T-RO
IEEE Transactions on Robotics
ICAR
IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics
ISRR
International Symposium of Robotic Research
HRI
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

PRESENTATIONS

Invited Talks

2023
"Towards Physics-based Robotic Manipulation", UK-RAS International Robotics Showcase, Bristol, UK.
2021
"Physics-based Robotic Manipulation", Neapolis University Pafos, Paphos, Cyprus.

Conference Presentations

2022
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Kyoto, Japan.
2020
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Las Vegas, USA.
2020
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Paris, France.

STUDENT SUPERVISION

Undergraduate Interns

2023
Alexander Robins (University of Leeds)
2023
Hailemichael Gashaw (University of Leeds)
2022
Chenyu Liu (University of Leeds)

SOFTWARE
illustrate.nvim: a lua plugin for neovim that lets you quickly create, search and open vector files from within neovim.
ur5controller: OpenRAVE Controller Plugin for UR5 robot.
hugo_gdpr_embeds: Hugo shortcode for embedding YouTube videos with a warning/consent form.
This CV was last updated in October 2024