Jan Peters (born August 14, 1976) is a German

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus ( ...

. He is Professor of Intelligent Autonomous Systems at Department of Computer Science of the Technische Universität Darmstadt. Peters is renowned for his research in

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

and

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist human ...

Life

Jan Peters graduated from the University of Hagen in 2000 with a

diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from grc, δίπλωμα ''diploma'') is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belaru ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

and from

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

in 2001 with a diploma in electrical engineering. From 2000 to 2001, he spent two semesters as visiting student at the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in th ...

. He then studied at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

where he earned a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and a Master of Science degree in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the

in 2007. During his Ph.D., he received a presidential fellowship and his Ph.D. thesis received the Dick Volz Runner-Up Award for the Best US PhD Thesis based both on thesis quality as well as post-graduation impact. From 2007 to 2021, he was head of the Robot Learning Group first at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (up to 2011) and later at the

Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Founded on 18 March 2011, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) is one of the 86 research institutes of the Max Planck Society. With locations in Stuttgart and Tübingen, it combines interdisciplinary research in the growing ...

(until 2021). Since 2011 he has been Head of the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Institute at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and since 2022, he is the head of the Department of Systems AI for Robot Learning at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence. In 2008,

Nicholas Roy Nicholas Roy is a Canadian-American computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and a principal investigator at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laborato ...

, Russ Tedrake, Jun Morimoto, and Jan Peters founded the

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE RAS) is a professional society of the IEEE that supports the development and the exchange of scientific knowledge in the fields of robotics and automation, including applied and theoretical issues. ...

's Technical Committee on Robot Learning.

Awards

For his contributions, he has received the ''Robotics & Automation Early Career Award'', the highest ranked early career award of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...

, and the ''Young Investigator Award'' of the International Neural Network Society. In addition, he received an ERC Starting Grant in 2014 as well as numerous best paper awards. He was appointed

Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...

(IEEE) in 2019 "for contributions to robot learning of dexterous motor skills".

Public appearances

Peters was a speaker at TEDx RheinMain 2018.

Publications

Peters J., Vijayakumar S., Schaal S. (2005) Natural Actor-Critic. In: Gama J., Camacho R., Brazdil P.B., Jorge A.M., Torgo L. (eds) Machine Learning: ECML 2005. ECML 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3720. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

References

External links

His website at the Technische Universität Darmstadt

Curriculum Vitae
Fellow Members of the IEEE Living people Academic staff of Technische Universität Darmstadt University of Hagen alumni Academic staff of Max Planck Society Technical University of Munich alumni University of Southern California alumni 1976 births {{Germany-academic-bio-stub