ESE PhD candidate Anusha Srikanthan defended her thesis on Decomposition Methods for Safety-Aware Design: From Conservatism to Performance in Layered Control on Thursday, June 18th. Advised by Professor Vijay Kumar and Professor Nikolai Matni, Srikanthan’s research focuses on designing autonomous systems whose decision-making layers are derived from first principles to handle the complex interplay between them.
Self-driving cars serve “as a primary example of embodied intelligence, the system must balance long-horizon decisions with real-time physical actuation,” Srikanthan explains, adding, “while some in the community argue that monolithic, end-to-end AI policies are the only way to achieve human-like adaptability across different vehicles, my dissertation argues the opposite.”
According to Srikanthan, “layering is essential to meet real-time computational budgets. The core issue isn’t layering itself, but the mathematical inconsistency between layers—higher-level plans often demand actions that the physical vehicle cannot actually execute,” Srikanthan explains. “My work provides a rigorous framework to ensure that these layers are mutually compatible through minimal modifications to individual subsystems, allowing the overall architecture to degrade gracefully if underlying safety assumptions are violated.”
Conducting research as a doctoral candidate presents its fair share of challenges. But so does navigating the peer-review process. Thanks to the encouragement of her faculty advisors, Srikanthan learned to “act as my own reviewer while writing, anticipating potential criticism and questions before submitting.” The peer-review process, Srikanthan notes, “exists to elevate one’s work.”
Work-life balance represents another challenge for doctoral students. This proved particularly true for Srikanthan who meticulously planned a large Indian wedding with her husband Chad while completing her thesis research. “But it was worth it,” Srikanthan says.
Speaking of planning, Srikanthan won the ESE PhD Good Citizen Award for her efforts as the ESE PhD Association (EPA) President. As EPA President, Srikanthan organized doctoral-student-led research talk lunches through the PhD Colloquium series. This series gives doctoral students the opportunity to share their research with peers prior to presenting at conferences.
“I am going to miss the community at Penn the most,” Srikanthan says. Beyond Srikanthan’s time with the EPA, highlights of the Penn community include “dancing with Urara, going swimming and hiking with Alice, Anthony, and Fernando, parties by Anish, Friday lunches with Vijay’s lab, all the GAPSA events (spring grad gala and the cruise in particular), dancing with Freaks of the Beat, regular coffee visits to the ESE office, office hours in ESE 530, my desk at Levine hall (the chatty corner), and grabbing lunch at the campus food trucks.” Further, Srikanthan will miss the City of Philadelphia, its seasons, and walkability.
The community at Penn contributed immeasurably to Srikanthan’s success. Subsequently, the “list I have of people to thank is incredibly long,” Srikanthan says, emphasizing the support of her family, faculty advisors, lab mates, and ESE departmental staff.
Future plans for Srikanthan include a position as Senior Robotics Engineer at Zender in Berkley, California. In this role, Srikanthan will lead “ the planning and control team for autonomy. The company focuses on a heavy radar-based perception solution that offers a low-cost but semantically rich representation of the environment,” Srikanthan says. “I am incredibly excited about this role because it gives me a direct pathway to translate the theoretical ideas from my PhD into practical, real-world solutions that can make everyday driving safer and more accessible for everyone.”
When Srikanthan’s not working, she loves “traveling, dancing, and cooking. My husband and I are huge foodies and love exploring and trying new cuisines together. To balance things out, I also really enjoy staying active outdoors by biking and hiking.”
Learn more about Srikanthan’s work here