Chen Wang

I am an Assistant Professor at the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), University at Buffalo (UB).

At the intersection of perception, spatial reasoning, and decision-making, our long-term research goal is to endow mobile robots with human-level autonomy. This vision drives us to develop algorithms and systems that enable robots to efficiently and robustly:

Perceive and interpret various sensory inputs such as images, point clouds, and proprioceptive data.
Integrate neural and symbolic representations of spatial common sense and semantic knowledge.
Reason and plan in real time to navigate, interact, and adapt within unstructured and dynamic environments.

Our current work focuses on establishing the scientific foundations to empower robots to perform the above three tasks with robustness, adaptability, reliability, and transparency by integrating data-efficient learning with structured reasoning. A central paradigm we advocate is imperative learning (IL) - a unified neuro-symbolic learning framework for robot autonomy. It is designed to be self-supervised, modular, and end-to-end trainable, seamlessly combining the flexibility of data-driven models with the generalizability of structured reasoning, e.g., symbolic reasoning with physical laws and logical rules.

Experience

Assistant Professor
- University at Buffalo (UB), USA
- 2022 - Present
Postdoctoral Fellow
- Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
- 2019 - 2022

Education

Ph.D. in Robotics
- Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
- 2014 - 2019
Bachelor of Engineering
- Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), China
- 2010 - 2014

Awards

UB CSE Excellence in Research Award, 2025
Sony Research Award, 2024
Cisco Research Award, 2023

Academic Service

IEEE RAS Technical Committee for Computer & Robot Vision
- Associate Co-chair, Dec. 2022 - Present

Editorial Service

International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR)
- Guest Editor, Special Issue on Foundation Models and Neuro-Symbolic AI for Robotics
- Associate Editor, Jan. 2023 - Present
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)
- Associate Editor, Aug. 2021 - Aug 2024
IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)
- Area Chair, 2023, 2024, 2025.
Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)
- Area Chair, 2024, 2025.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
- Area Chair, 2025.

Position Opening

PhD and any other intern candidates, please visit the Contact page for details.
UB students seeking research opportunities can first consult my PhD students for potential topics.

Information

First Author Publications (Go to Full Publication List)

Imperative Learning: A Self-supervised Neuro-Symbolic Learning Framework for Robot Autonomy.
Chen Wang, Kaiyi Ji, Junyi Geng, Zhongqiang Ren, Taimeng Fu, Fan Yang, Yifan Guo, Haonan He, Xiangyu Chen, Zitong Zhan, Qiwei Du, Shaoshu Su, Bowen Li, Yuheng Qiu, Yi Du, Qihang Li, Yifan Yang, Xiao Lin, Zhipeng Zhao.
International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2025.

SAIR Lab Selected
```
@article{wang2025imperative,
  title = {Imperative Learning: A Self-supervised Neuro-Symbolic Learning Framework for Robot Autonomy},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Ji, Kaiyi and Geng, Junyi and Ren, Zhongqiang and Fu, Taimeng and Yang, Fan and Guo, Yifan and He, Haonan and Chen, Xiangyu and Zhan, Zitong and Du, Qiwei and Su, Shaoshu and Li, Bowen and Qiu, Yuheng and Du, Yi and Li, Qihang and Yang, Yifan and Lin, Xiao and Zhao, Zhipeng},
  journal = {International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR)},
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.16087},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/iSeries},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/iseries},
  addendum = {SAIR Lab Selected}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Ji, Kaiyi and Geng, Junyi and Ren, Zhongqiang and Fu, Taimeng and Yang, Fan and Guo, Yifan and He, Haonan and Chen, Xiangyu and Zhan, Zitong and Du, Qiwei and Su, Shaoshu and Li, Bowen and Qiu, Yuheng and Du, Yi and Li, Qihang and Yang, Yifan and Lin, Xiao and Zhao, Zhipeng, "Imperative Learning: A Self-supervised Neuro-Symbolic Learning Framework for Robot Autonomy," International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2025.
```
Differentiable Optimization.
Chen Wang, Krishna Murthy Jatavallabhula, Mustafa Mukadam.
SLAM Handbook. From Localization and Mapping to Spatial Intelligence
Edited by Luca Carlone, Ayoung Kim, Frank Dellaert, Timothy Barfoot, and Daniel Cremers
Cambridge University Press, 2025
```
@inbook{sh-ch4-diffopt,
  title = {Differentiable Optimization},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Jatavallabhula, Krishna Murthy and Mukadam, Mustafa},
  booktitle = {{SLAM Handbook.} From Localization and Mapping to Spatial Intelligence},
  publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
  editor = {Carlone, Luca and Kim, Ayoung and Dellaert, Frank and Barfoot, Timothy and Cremers, Daniel},
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://github.com/SLAM-Handbook-contributors/slam-handbook-public-release/}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Jatavallabhula, Krishna Murthy and Mukadam, Mustafa, "Differentiable Optimization," SLAM Handbook. From Localization and Mapping to Spatial Intelligence, 2025.
```
PyPose: A Library for Robot Learning with Physics-based Optimization.
Chen Wang, Dasong Gao, Kuan Xu, Junyi Geng, Yaoyu Hu, Yuheng Qiu, Bowen Li, Fan Yang, Brady Moon, Abhinav Pandey, Aryan, Jiahe Xu, Tianhao Wu, Haonan He, Daning Huang, Zhongqiang Ren, Shibo Zhao, Taimeng Fu, Pranay Reddy, Xiao Lin, Wenshan Wang, Jingnan Shi, Rajat Talak, Kun Cao, Yi Du, Han Wang, Huai Yu, Shanzhao Wang, Siyu Chen, Ananth Kashyap, Rohan Bandaru, Karthik Dantu, Jiajun Wu, Lihua Xie, Luca Carlone, Marco Hutter, Sebastian Scherer.
IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2023.

SAIR Lab Selected
```
@inproceedings{wang2023pypose,
  title = {{PyPose}: A Library for Robot Learning with Physics-based Optimization},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Gao, Dasong and Xu, Kuan and Geng, Junyi and Hu, Yaoyu and Qiu, Yuheng and Li, Bowen and Yang, Fan and Moon, Brady and Pandey, Abhinav and Aryan and Xu, Jiahe and Wu, Tianhao and He, Haonan and Huang, Daning and Ren, Zhongqiang and Zhao, Shibo and Fu, Taimeng and Reddy, Pranay and Lin, Xiao and Wang, Wenshan and Shi, Jingnan and Talak, Rajat and Cao, Kun and Du, Yi and Wang, Han and Yu, Huai and Wang, Shanzhao and Chen, Siyu and Kashyap, Ananth and Bandaru, Rohan and Dantu, Karthik and Wu, Jiajun and Xie, Lihua and Carlone, Luca and Hutter, Marco and Scherer, Sebastian},
  booktitle = {IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)},
  year = {2023},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.15428},
  code = {https://github.com/pypose/pypose},
  video = {https://youtu.be/XDtUDIWuGng},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/pypose/},
  addendum = {SAIR Lab Selected}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Gao, Dasong and Xu, Kuan and Geng, Junyi and Hu, Yaoyu and Qiu, Yuheng and Li, Bowen and Yang, Fan and Moon, Brady and Pandey, Abhinav and Aryan and Xu, Jiahe and Wu, Tianhao and He, Haonan and Huang, Daning and Ren, Zhongqiang and Zhao, Shibo and Fu, Taimeng and Reddy, Pranay and Lin, Xiao and Wang, Wenshan and Shi, Jingnan and Talak, Rajat and Cao, Kun and Du, Yi and Wang, Han and Yu, Huai and Wang, Shanzhao and Chen, Siyu and Kashyap, Ananth and Bandaru, Rohan and Dantu, Karthik and Wu, Jiajun and Xie, Lihua and Carlone, Luca and Hutter, Marco and Scherer, Sebastian, "PyPose: A Library for Robot Learning with Physics-based Optimization," IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2023.
```
Lifelong Graph Learning.
Chen Wang, Yuheng Qiu, Dasong Gao, Sebastian Scherer.
IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2022.

Selected as Oral Presentation (4.2%)
```
@inproceedings{wang2022lifelong,
  title = {Lifelong Graph Learning},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Qiu, Yuheng and Gao, Dasong and Scherer, Sebastian},
  booktitle = {IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)},
  year = {2022},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.00647},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/LGL},
  video = {https://youtu.be/711oo3Mi2Do},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/lgl/},
  addendum = {Selected as Oral Presentation (4.2\%)}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Qiu, Yuheng and Gao, Dasong and Scherer, Sebastian, "Lifelong Graph Learning," IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2022.
```
Unsupervised Online Learning for Robotic Interestingness with Visual Memory.
Chen Wang, Wenshan Wang, Yuheng Qiu, Yafei Hu, Seungchan Kim, Sebastian Scherer.
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2021.
```
@article{wang2021unsupervised,
  title = {Unsupervised Online Learning for Robotic Interestingness with Visual Memory},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Wang, Wenshan and Qiu, Yuheng and Hu, Yafei and Kim, Seungchan and Scherer, Sebastian},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO)},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.09793},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/interestingness},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/interestingness/},
  year = {2021}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Wang, Wenshan and Qiu, Yuheng and Hu, Yafei and Kim, Seungchan and Scherer, Sebastian, "Unsupervised Online Learning for Robotic Interestingness with Visual Memory," IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2021.
```
Visual Memorability for Robotic Interestingness via Unsupervised Online Learning.
Chen Wang, Wenshan Wang, Yuheng Qiu, Yafei Hu, Sebastian Scherer.
European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), pp. 52–68, 2020.

Selected as Oral Presentation (2%)
```
@inproceedings{wang2020visual,
  title = {Visual Memorability for Robotic Interestingness via Unsupervised Online Learning},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Wang, Wenshan and Qiu, Yuheng and Hu, Yafei and Scherer, Sebastian},
  booktitle = {European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV)},
  year = {2020},
  pages = {52--68},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.08829},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/interestingness/tree/eccv},
  video = {https://youtu.be/o9LrDlemerE},
  addendum = {Selected as Oral Presentation (2\%)},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/interestingness/}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Wang, Wenshan and Qiu, Yuheng and Hu, Yafei and Scherer, Sebastian, "Visual Memorability for Robotic Interestingness via Unsupervised Online Learning," European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), 2020.
```
Kervolutional Neural Networks.
Chen Wang, Jianfei Yang, Lihua Xie, Junsong Yuan.
IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pp. 31–40, 2019.

Selected as Oral Presentation (5.6%)
```
@inproceedings{wang2019kervolutional,
  title = {Kervolutional Neural Networks},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Yang, Jianfei and Xie, Lihua and Yuan, Junsong},
  booktitle = {IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)},
  pages = {31--40},
  year = {2019},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.03955},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/kervolution},
  addendum = {Selected as Oral Presentation (5.6\%)}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Yang, Jianfei and Xie, Lihua and Yuan, Junsong, "Kervolutional Neural Networks," IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2019.
```
Kernel Cross-Correlator.
Chen Wang, Le Zhang, Lihua Xie, Junsong Yuan.
Thirty-Second AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), pp. 4179–4186, 2018.

SAIR Lab Selected
```
@inproceedings{wang2018kernel,
  title = {Kernel Cross-Correlator},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Zhang, Le and Xie, Lihua and Yuan, Junsong},
  booktitle = {Thirty-Second AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)},
  pages = {4179--4186},
  year = {2018},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.05936},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/KCC},
  addendum = {SAIR Lab Selected}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Zhang, Le and Xie, Lihua and Yuan, Junsong, "Kernel Cross-Correlator," Thirty-Second AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2018.
```
Correlation Flow: Robust Optical Flow Using Kernel Cross-Correlators.
Chen Wang, Tete Ji, Thien-Minh Nguyen, Lihua Xie.
International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 836–841, 2018.
```
@inproceedings{wang2018correlation,
  title = {Correlation Flow: Robust Optical Flow Using Kernel Cross-Correlators},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Ji, Tete and Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua},
  booktitle = {International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
  pages = {836--841},
  year = {2018},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.07078},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/correlation_flow}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Ji, Tete and Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua, "Correlation Flow: Robust Optical Flow Using Kernel Cross-Correlators," International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2018.
```
Ultra-Wideband Aided Fast Localization and Mapping System.
Chen Wang, Handuo Zhang, Thien-Minh Nguyen, Lihua Xie.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 1602–1609, 2017.
```
@inproceedings{wang2017ultra,
  title = {Ultra-Wideband Aided Fast Localization and Mapping System},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Zhang, Handuo and Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua},
  booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
  year = {2017},
  pages = {1602--1609},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.00156},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/localization},
  organization = {IEEE}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Zhang, Handuo and Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua, "Ultra-Wideband Aided Fast Localization and Mapping System," IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2017.
```
Non-iterative SLAM.
Chen Wang, Junsong Yuan, Lihua Xie.
International Conference on Advanced Robotics, pp. 83–90, 2017.

Best Paper Award in Robotic Planning
```
@inproceedings{wang2017non,
  title = {Non-iterative SLAM},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Yuan, Junsong and Xie, Lihua},
  booktitle = {International Conference on Advanced Robotics},
  pages = {83--90},
  year = {2017},
  organization = {IEEE},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.05294},
  video = {https://youtu.be/Ed_6wYIKRfs},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/ni-slam},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/nislam/},
  addendum = {Best Paper Award in Robotic Planning}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Yuan, Junsong and Xie, Lihua, "Non-iterative SLAM," International Conference on Advanced Robotics, 2017.
```