Portrait of Matthew Johnson-Roberson

DEAN · COLLEGE OF CONNECTED COMPUTING · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

Matthew Johnson-Roberson

I build robots that understand the three-dimensional world — first beneath the ocean, mapping reefs and shipwrecks with autonomous underwater vehicles, then on city streets and in the hands of manipulators. I am the inaugural dean of Vanderbilt's College of Connected Computing and lead the DROP Lab.

The college is Vanderbilt's first new college in more than four decades. Its premise is that computing should not be an island: it connects computer science and AI with medicine, engineering, the humanities, education, music, and economics, and it treats ethics, policy, and real-world impact as part of the discipline rather than an afterthought.

POSITIONS

  1. 2025 —Dean, College of Connected Computing, Vanderbilt University
  2. 2024 —Co-founder, patients.app ↗
  3. 2021 — 2025Director & Department Head, Robotics Institute, and Professor, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
  4. 2019 — 2025Co-founder & CTO, Refraction AI
  5. 2018 —Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Field Robotics, University of Sydney
  6. 2013 — 2021Assistant, then Associate Professor, Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering, University of Michigan; launched Michigan's first robotics program
  7. 2010 — 2013Super Science Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Field Robotics, University of Sydney
  8. 2009 —Guest Investigator, Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
  9. 2009 — 2010Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for Autonomous Systems, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

EDUCATION & HONORS

  1. 2015NSF CAREER Award — 3D reconstruction in underwater environments
  2. 2010PhD, Robotics, University of Sydney (Australian Centre for Field Robotics)
  3. 2005BS, Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University

RECENT PAPERS

PRESS

DROP Lab →Paper briefs →All publications →