Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement learning (RL) is one of the core areas of AI/ML focused on how agents should take actions in a given environment to maximize some notion of cumulative reward. An RL agent learns to make decisions by exploring different actions and observing their outcomes over time, optimizing its strategy to achieve the best long-term results. RL has a wide range of applications across different domains, demonstrating its ability to address complex sequential decision-making problems.
At ScAI, we are excited about developing AI-based solutions to sequential decision making problems under uncertainty. This is especially important given the increasing prevalence of AI agents in both simulated and physical contexts. We apply techniques from reinforcement learning. Some recent directions include using RL in problems related to multi-agent systems, fine-tuning of foundation models, deciding optimal actions for embodied agents in defense, autonomous driving and industry, and RL combined with safe AI. We also work on developing new RL algorithms as well as finding novel ways to combine RL with ideas from closely aligned research thrusts on deep learning, generative models, and explainability

Multi-Agent
Learning

Multi-agent learning focuses on how multiple intelligent agents interact, collaborate, or compete within shared environments. It aims to develop algorithms that enable coordinated behavior, efficient communication, and adaptive strategies among autonomous agents.

Large-Scale
Multi-Agent Systems

Large-scale multi-agent systems study scenarios where thousands of agents operate simultaneously, often in complex or distributed environments. Research focuses on scalability, robustness, and collective decision-making to achieve global objectives efficiently.

Autonomous
Systems

Autonomous systems research explores AI-driven agents capable of perceiving their environment and making decisions without human intervention. Applications span robotics, defense, transportation, and industrial automation.

Safe-AI

Safe-AI focuses on building AI systems that are reliable, robust, and aligned with human values. Research includes preventing harmful behaviors, ensuring transparency, and designing mechanisms for trustworthy decision-making under uncertainty.

Human-AI
Interaction

Human-AI Interaction investigates how humans and intelligent systems can work together seamlessly. It emphasizes usability, interpretability, and designing AI that supports human decision-making effectively and ethically.

Impact Areas

Transportation
Logistics
Smart Grid Control
Finance
Robotics

Faculty Members Currently ​​​​​​​Involved

Arambam James Singh
Raunak Bhattacharyya
Rohan Paul
Arpan Chattopadhyay
Souvik Chakraborty

Key Publications

A Kanwar, H Soin, A Barnawal, M Chopra, H Vagadia, T Banerjee, S Tuli, .... PhyPlan: Learning to Plan Tasks with Generalizable and Rapid Physical Reasoning for Embodied Manipulation. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence 2026
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A Singh, S Chakraborty, R Chowdhury. A dual physics-informed neural network for topology optimization. Journal of Computational Physics 2026
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A Thakur, S Kumar, M Zahr, S Chakraborty. Scalable h-adaptive probabilistic solver for time-independent and time-dependent systems. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering
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X Gao, Arambam James Singh, S Royyuru, M Yuhas, A Easwaran. CRLLK: Constrained Reinforcement Learning for Lane Keeping in Autonomous Driving (demonstration track). Accepted in International Conf. on Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems, Detroit, USA
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S Roy, K Kobayashi, S Chakraborty, S Talukder, SB Alam. Theoretical Foundations of Localized Perturbation Sensitivity in Real-Time Surrogates for Digital Twins. Transactions of the American Nuclear Society 2025
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S Roy, K Kobayashi, S Chakraborty, S Talukder, SB Alam. Foundation Models for Dynamic Nuclear Systems: Energy-Efficient Surrogates via Deep Operator Learning. Transactions of the American Nuclear Society 2025
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D Chowdhury, S Chakraborty. A Bayesian approach for discovering time-delayed differential equation from data. Journal of Computational Physics 2025
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S Garg, S Chakraborty. Distribution free uncertainty quantification for neuroscience-inspired deep neural operators. Journal of Computational Physics 2025
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S Sarkar, S Chakraborty. Spatio-spectral graph neural operator for solving computational mechanics problems on irregular domain and unstructured grid. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 2025
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Y Kumar, Tushar, S Chakraborty. Energy network for state estimation with random sensors and sparse labels. Computer Physics Communications 2025
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N Navaneeth, S Chakraborty. Geometry adaptive waveformer for cardio-vascular modeling. Computers in Biology and Medicine 2025
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Shivam Jain, Sachit Sachdeva, Rohan Paul. Enabling Long(er) Horizon Imitation for Manipulation Tasks by Modeling Subgoal Transitions. To appear in Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) 2025
R Kumar, T Tripura, S Chakraborty, S Roy. Deep muscle electromyogram construction using a physics-integrated deep learning approach. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence 2025
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D. Nguyen, R. Bhattacharyya, C. Colombatto, S. Fleming, I. Posner, N. Hawes. Group Decision-Making in Robot Teleoperation: Two Heads are Better Than One. International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), 2025
D. Nguyen, R. Bhattacharyya, C. Colombatto, S. Fleming, I. Posner, N. Hawes. Is confidence all you need? Exploring human-AI joint decision making in spatiotemporal robotic tasks. ICLR workshop on Human-AI Coevolution, 2025