Reza Ahmadzadeh

Reza Azadeh, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

College
Kennedy College of Sciences
Department
Miner School of Computer & Information Sciences
Phone
978-934-6175
Office
Dandeneau Hall, Room 313
Email
Reza_Azadeh@uml.edu
Links

Expertise

Robotics, Robot Learning, Robot Manipulation, Frugal Learning, Reinforcement Learning

Research Interests

Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robot Learning, Learning from Demonstration, Robot Manipulation, Frugal Learning, Reinforcement Learning

Education

  • Ph D: Robotics, Cognition, and Interaction Technologies, (2015), University of Genoa - Genoa, Italy
    Dissertation/Thesis Title: Robot Learning of Reactive and Visuospatial Skills

Biosketch

I am an associate professor with the Richard A. Miner School of Computer & Information Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell with research interests covering robot learning and human-robot interaction. I am the recipient of an National Science Foundation CAREER Award and also the director of the Persistent Autonomy and Robot Learning (PeARL) lab at UML. Prior to joining UML, I was a postdoctoral fellow with the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. I hold a Ph.D. in Robotics, Cognition and Interactive Technologies from the University of Genoa, in collaboration with Italian Institute of Technology.

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Best Conference Paper Award at Ubiquitous Robots (2025)
  • IEEE Senior Member awarded by IEEE Admission and Advancement Committee (2024)
  • Best WIP Paper Award at Ubiquitous Robots (2024)
  • Outstanding Associate Editor for IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2024
  • Best Poster Award at Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI 2024)
  • NSF CAREER Award (2023)
  • OERscars Teaching Award by MASSPIRG students organization (2021, 2022, 2023)
  • KCS Teaching Excellence Award (2020)
  • FetchIt! Competition (2019), Leadership - Fetch Robotics / IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
  • Best Presentation Award (2017), Scholarship/Research - 4th Annual Postdoctoral Symposium at Georgia Tech
  • VSL (2014), Service, Professional - Microsoft Robotics
  • Ph.D. Research Scholarship (2011), Scholarship/Research - University of Genoa

Selected Publications

  • Mistry M., Donoghue B., Norton N., Azadeh R., "Towards Payload Distribution Analysis for Quadruped Robots Through Systematic Experimental Design and Evaluation," In Proc. 23rd International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), Osaka, Japan, July 15--18, 2026.
  • Azadeh R., "A Unified Framework for Normative-Imitative Trajectory Learning from Demonstration," In Proc. 23rd International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), Osaka, July 15--18, 2026.
  • Hertel B., Nguyen T., Cabrera M. E., Azadeh R., "Automatic Estimation and Evaluation of Multi-Objective Human Preferences for Learning from Demonstration," Robot Learning Journal, ELSP, vol. 3, no. 1, 2026.
  • Azadeh R., "An Overview of Selected Approaches in Modern Learning from Demonstration," PeARL Report 2025.
  • Hertel B., Nguyen T., Cabrera M. E., Azadeh R., "Automatic Estimation and Evaluation of Multi-Objective Human Preferences for Learning from Demonstration," Robot Learning Journal, ELSP, vol. 3, no. 1, 2026.
  • Prados A., Hertel B., Barber R., Azadeh R., “Elastic Fast Marching Learning from Demonstration,” Advanced Intelligent Systems, vol. 8, no. 2, 2025.
  • Misenti S., Hertel B., Weng B., Donald R., Jawaji A., Kosoko-Thoroddsen M., Azadeh R., Gu. Y. "Experimental Evaluation of Commercial Quadruped Robots: Stability and Performance in Non-Inertial Environments," in International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications (IJIRA), 2025.
  • Allen N., Azadeh R., "LURE: Learning from Demonstration for Underwater Robust Execution," In Proc. OCEANS 2025, Great Lakes, Chicago, IL, pp. 1--7, Sept. 29 - Oct. 2, 2025.
  • Prados A., Hertel B., Espinoza G., Méndez A., Barber R., Azadeh R., "Novel Vision-Based One-Shot Adaptation of Learned Skills," In Proc. IEEE-RAS 24th International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), Seoul, South Korea, pp. 444--451, Sept. 30- Oct. 2, 2025.
  • Findik Y., Azadeh R., "Coordinated Q-Functionals," In Proc. 64th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Rio de Jenairo, Brazil, pp. 5139-5146, Dec. 10-12, 2025.
  • Hertel B., Azadeh R., "Robot Learning Using Multi-Coordinate Elastic Maps," In Proc. 22nd International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), College Station, Texas, USA, pp. 301--306, June 30- July 2, 2025.
  • Carvalho W., Elkoudi M., Hertel B., Azadeh R., "Parameter-Free Segmentation of Robot Movements with Cross-Correlation Using Different Similarity Metrics," In Proc. 22nd International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), College Station, Texas, USA, pp. 288--293, June 30- July 2, 2025. [best conference paper]
  • Findik Y., Coco C., Azadeh R., "Investigating Adaptive Tuning of Assistive Exoskeletons using Offline Reinforcement Learning: Challenges and Insights," In Proc. 22nd International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), College Station, Texas, USA, pp. 562--567, June 30- July 2, 2025.
  • Khavas Z. R., Majdi A., Azadeh R., Robinette P., "The Role of Drone Appearance and Capability in Human Trust: A Comparative vs. Isolated Analysis," In Proc. 22nd International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), College Station, Texas, USA, pp. 320--327, June 30- July 2, 2025.
  • Allen N., Garg N., Azadeh R., "Underwater Image Focus Determination and Calibration Using the Laplace Operator," WIP paper at 22nd International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), College Station, Texas, USA, pp. 1--3, June 30- July 2, 2025.
  • Findik Y., Hasenfus H., Azadeh R., "Collaborative Adaptation for Recovery from Unforeseen Malfunctions in Discrete and Continuous MARL Domains," In Proc. 63rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Milan, Italy, pp. 394-400, Dec. 16-19, 2024.
  • Kotturu M.R., Vahedian Movahed S., Jerath K., Robinette P., Azadeh R., "Relational Weight Optimization for Enhancing Team Performance in Multi-Agent Multi-Armed Bandits," In Proc. 4th Modeling, Estimation and Control Conference (MECC) 2024, Chicago, IL, USA, pp. 492--497, Oct. 27-30, 2024.
  • Kolli A., Azadeh R., Jerath K., "Graph Attention Inference of Network Topology in Multi-Agent Systems," In Proc. 4th Modeling, Estimation and Control Conference (MECC) 2024, Chicago, IL, USA, pp. 1037--1042, Oct. 27-30, 2024.
  • Khavas Z. R., Kotturu M. R., Azadeh R., Robinette P., "Do Humans Have Different Expectations Regarding Humans and Robots' Morality?" In Proc. 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), Pasadena, CA, USA, pp. 1126--1133, Aug. 26-30, 2024.
  • Osooli H., Joshi N., Khurana P., Nikoofard A., Shirmohammadi Z., Azadeh R., "Releaf: An Efficient Method for Real-Time Occlusion Handling by Game Theory," Sensors, vol. 24, no. 17, 2024.
  • Khavas Z. R., Kotturu M. R., Ahmadzadeh S. R., Robinette P., "Do Humans Trust Robots that Violate Moral-Trust?" ACM Transactions on Human-Robotic Interaction (THRI), 2024.
  • LeMasurier G., Tukpah J., Wonsick M., Allspaw J., Hertel B., Epstein J., Azadeh R., Padir T., Yanco Y., Phillips E., "Comparing a 2D Keyboard and Mouse Interface to Virtual Reality for Human-in-the-Loop Robot Planning for Mobile Manipulation," In Proc. 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), Pasadena, CA, USA, pp. 2197--2203, Aug. 26-30, 2024.
  • Findik Y., Robinette P., Jerath K., Azadeh R., "Relational Q-Functionals: Multi-Agent Learning to Recover from Unforeseen Robot Malfunctions in Continuous Action Domains," In Proc. 21st International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), New York, USA, pp. 251--256, June 24-27, 2024.
  • Osooli H., Coco C., Spanos J., Majdi A., Azadeh R., "Investigating the Generalizability of Assistive Robots Models over Various Tasks," In Proc. 21st International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), New York, USA, pp. 227--232, June 24-27, 2024.
  • Donald R., Hertel B., Misenti S., Gu Y., Azadeh R. "An Adaptive Framework for Manipulator Skill Reproduction in Dynamic Environments," In Proc. 21st International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), New York, USA, pp. 498--503, June 24-27, 2024.
  • Coco C., Spanos J., Osooli H., Azadeh R., "Design of Fuzzy Logic Parameter Tuners for Upper-Limb Assistive Robots,” WIP paper at 21st International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), New York, USA, pp. 386--389, June 24-27, 2024. [Best WIP Paper Award Finalist]
  • Hertel B., Tran N., Elkoudi M., Azadeh R., "A Framework for Learning and Reusing Robotic Skills,” WIP paper at 21st International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), New York, USA, pp. xx--xx, June 24-27, 2024
  • Khavas Z. R., Kotturu M.R., Ahmadzadeh, R., Robinette P., "Do humans retaliate against immoral robots?" International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robotic Interaction (TAHRI), Boulder, CO, pp. 1--4, Mar. 9–10, 2024 [Best Poster Award Winner].
  • Findik Y., Osooli H., Robinette P., Jerath K, Ahmadzadeh S.R., "Influence of Team Interactions on Multi-Robot Cooperation: A Relational Network Perspective," In Proc. 2023 International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS), Boston, MA, pp. 50--56, Dec 4-5, 2023.
  • Khavas Z. R., Kotturu M. R., Perkin R., Ahmadzadeh S. R., Robinette P., "The Effect of Performance-Based Compensation on Crowdsourced HRI Experiments," Journal of Software (JSW), vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 117--129, ISSN: 1796-217X, 2023.
  • Findik Y., Robinette P., Jerath K., Ahmadzadeh S. R., "Impact of Relational Networks in Multi-Agent Learning: A Value-Based Factorization View," In Proc. 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, pp. 4447--4454, Dec. 13-15, 2023.
  • Hertel B., Ahmadzadeh S. R., "Confidence-Based Skill Reproduction Through Perturbation Analysis," In Proc. 20th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR 2023), Honolulu, Hawaii, pp. 165-170, Jun. 25-28, 2023.
  • Osooli H., Rahaghi M. I., Ahmadzadeh S. R., "Design and Evaluation of a Bioinspired Tendon-Driven 3D-Printed Robotic Eye with Active Vision Capabilities," In Proc. 20th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR 2023), Honolulu, Hawaii, pp. 747-752, Jun. 25-28, 2023.
  • Khavas Z. R., Majdi A., Ahmadzadeh S. R., Robinette P., "Human Trust After Drone Failure: Study of the Effects of Drone Type and Failure Type on Human-Drone Trust," In Proc. 20th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR 2023), Honolulu, Hawaii, pp. 685-692, Jun. 25-28, 2023.
  • Donald R., Gavriel P., Norton A., Ahmadzadeh S. R., "Contextual Autonomy Evaluation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Subterranean Environments," In Proc. 9th International Conference on Automation, Robotics, and Applications (ICARA), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, pp. 202–207, Feb 10-12, 2023.
  • Khavas Z. R., Perkin R., Ahmadzadeh S. R., Robinette P., "The Effect of Performance-Based Compensation on Crowdsourced HRI Experiments," In Proc. 9th International Conference on Automation, Robotics, and Applications (ICARA), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, pp. xxx–xxx, Feb 10-12, 2023.
  • Hertel B., Pelland M., Ahmadzadeh S. R., "Learning from Demonstration using Elastic Maps," In Proc. IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2022), Kyoto, Japan, pp. 7407-7413, Oct. 23-27, 2022.
  • Hertel B., Donald R., Dumas C., Ahmadzadeh S. R., "Methods for Combining and Representing Non-Contextual Autonomy Scores for Unmanned Aerial Systems," In Proc. International Conference on Automation, Robotics, and Applications (ICARA), Prague, Czech Republic, pp. 145–149, Feb 18-20, 2022.
  • Hertel B., Ahmadzadeh S. R., "Similarity-aware Skill Reproduction based on Multi-representational Learning from Demonstration," In Proc. International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR 2021), Ljubljana, Slovenia, pp. 652--657, Dec 6-10, 2021.
  • Hertel B., Ahmadzadeh S. R., "Learning from Successful and Failed Demonstrations via Optimization," In Proc. IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2021), Prague, Czech Republic, pp. 7784-7789, 27 Sept. - 1 Oct. 2021.
  • Khavas Z. R., Ahmadzadeh S.R., Robinette P., "Modeling Trust in Human-Robot Interaction: A Survey," In Proc. International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2020), Golden, Colorado, pp. 529--541, 14-16 Nov. 2020.
  • Han Z., Allspaw J., LeMasurier G., Parrillo J., Giger D., Ahmadzadeh S. R., Yanco H., "Towards Mobile Multi-Task Manipulation in a Confined and Integrated Environment with Irregular Objects,'' In Proc. IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2020), Paris, France, pp. 11025--11031, 31 May - 4 June 2020.
  • Rana M. A., Chen D., Ahmadzadeh S. R., Williams J., Chu V., Chernova S., "Benchmark for Skill Learning from Demonstration: Impact of User Experience, Task Complexity, and Start Configuration on Performance,'' In Proc. IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2020), Paris, France, pp. 7561--7567, 31 May - 4 June, 2020.
  • Ravichandar* H., Ahmadzadeh* S. R., Rana M. A., Chernova S., "Skill Acquisition via Automated Multi-Coordinate Cost Balancing," In Proc. IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation, (ICRA 2019), Montreal, Canada, pp. 7776--7782, 20-24 May, 2019.
  • Rana M. A., Chen D., Ahmadzadeh S. R., Williams J., Chu V., Chernova S., "A Large-Scale Benchmark Study Investigating the Impact of User Experience, Task Complexity, and Start Configuration on Robot Skill Learning," NeuroIPS, Workshop on Imitation Learning and its Challenges in Robotics, Montreal, Canada, Dec. 7, 2018.
  • Rana M. A., Mukadam M., Ahmadzadeh S. R., Chernova S., Boots B., "Learning Generalizable Robot Skills from Demonstrations in Cluttered Environments," In Proc. IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2018), Madrid, Spain, pp. 4655-4660, 1-5 Oct. 2018.
  • Rana M. A., Mukadam M., Ahmadzadeh S. R., Chernova S., Boots B., "Robot Skill Learning from Demonstrations in Cluttered Environments," Robotics: Science and System (RSS 2018), Workshop on Learning and Inference in Robotics, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, June 26-30 2018.
  • Rana, M.A., Mukadam, M., Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Chernova, S., Boots, B. (2018). Robot Skill Learning from Demonstrations in Cluttered Environment (pp. 1--4).
  • Rana, M.A., Mukadam, M., Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Chernova, S., Boots, B. (2017). Towards Robust Skill Generalization: Unifying Learning from Demonstration and Motion Planning (78: pp. 109--118). PMLR
  • Lehmann, H., Keller, I., Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Broz, F. (2017). Naturalistic Conversational Gaze Control for Humanoid Robots - A First Step (pp. 1--10).
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Asif, R.M., Chernova, S. (2017). Generalized Cylinders for Learning, Reproduction,Generalization, and Refinement of Robot Skills (pp. 1--10).
  • Rana, M.A., Mukadam, M., Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Chernova, S., Boots, B. (2017). Skill Generalization via Inference-Based Planning (pp. 1--3).
  • Rana, M.A., Mukadam, M., Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Chernova, S., Boots, B. (2017). Towards Robust Skill Generalization: Unifying LfD and Motion Planning (pp. 1--3).
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Mastrogiovanni, F., Kormushev, P. (2017). Visuospatial Skill Learning for Robots. CoRR,abs/1706.00989 1--24.
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Kaushik, R., Chernova, S. (2016). Trajectory Learning from Demonstration with Canal Surfaces: A Parameter-free Approach (pp. 544--549).
  • Lehmann, H., Broz, F., Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Del Bue, A., Natale, L., Metta, G. (2016). Social Behavior for Face to Face Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 112--115).
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Chernova, S. (2016). Encoding Demonstrations and Learning New Trajectories using Canal Surfaces (pp. 1--7).
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Chernova, S. (2016). A Geometric Approach for Encoding Demonstrations and Learning New Trajectories (pp. 1--3).
  • Kormushev, P., Ahmadzadeh, S.R. (2015). Robot Learning for Persistent Autonomy (pp. 3--28). Springer International Publishing
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Kormushev, P. (2015). Visuospatial Skill Learning (pp. 75--99). Springer International Publishing
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Paikan, A., Mastrogiovanni, F., Natale, L., Kormushev, P., Caldwell, D.G. (2015). Learning Symbolic Representations of Actions from Human Demonstrations (pp. 3801--3808).
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R. (2015). Robot Learning of Reactive and Visuospatial Skills. Doctoral School on life and humanoid technologies, University of Genoa
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Kormushev, P., Caldwell, D.G. (2014). Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning for AUV Thruster Failure Recovery (pp. 1--8).
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Kormushev, P., Jamisola, R.S., Caldwell, D.G. (2014). Learning Reactive Robot Behavior for Autonomous Valve Turning (pp. 685--691).
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Leonetti, M., Carrera, A., Carreras, M., Kormushev, P., Caldwell, D.G. (2014). Online Discovery of AUV Control Policies to Overcome Thruster Failure (pp. 6522--6528).
  • Jamali, N., Kormushev, P., Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Caldwell, D.G. (2014). Covariance Analysis as a Measure of Policy Robustness (pp. 1--5).
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Kormushev, P., Caldwell, D.G. (2013). Autonomous Robotic Valve Turning: A Hierarchical Learning Approach (pp. 4614--4619).
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Kormushev, P., Caldwell, D.G. (2013). Interactive Robot Learning of Visuospatial Skills (pp. 1--8).
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Kormushev, P., Caldwell, D.G. (2013). Visuospatial Skill Learning for Object Reconfiguration Tasks (pp. 685--691).
  • Leonetti, M., Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Kormushev, P. (2013). On-line Learning to Recover from Thruster Failures on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Leonetti, M., Kormushev, P. (2013). Online Direct Policy Search for Thruster Failure Recovery in Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.
  • Carrera, A., Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Ajoudani, A., Kormushev, P., Carreras, M., Caldwell, D.G. (2012). Towards Autonomous Robotic Valve Turning. Cybernetics and Information Technologies,12(3).
  • Hasanzadeh, S., Ahmadzadeh, S.R. (2009). Design of a TSK Fuzzy Controller for an Active Suspension System and Compare the Results with the Linear Feedback Controller Actions (pp. 1--3).
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R. (2005). Modeling of Hyper-redundant Manipulators Dynamics and Design of Fuzzy Controller for the System (pp. 248--253). IEEE
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R. (2004). Modal Approach to Modeling of Hyper-Redundant Robot Manipulator Dynamics and Design of Fuzzy Controller for the System. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bahonar University of Kerman
  • Ahmadzadeh, S.R., Hajabasi, M.A. (2003). Controller Design for Hyper-Redundant Manupulator Using Backbone Curve (pp. 1--9).