[1]
Z. Xu, R. Papallas, J. Modisett, M. Billeter, and M. Dogar
"Tracking and Control of Multiple Objects during Non-Prehensile Manipulation in Clutter".
IEEE Transactions on Robotics. 2025
Rafael Papallas
Assistant Professor in Intelligent Robotics and AI
BIO
I am an Assistant Professor at The American University of Beirut - Mediterraneo in Paphos, Cyprus. From 2021 until 2024, I was a Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science at the University of Leeds, UK. My research focuses on intelligent robotics and robotic object manipulation. I am interested in algorithmic problems, including motion planning, motion control and robot perception. You can watch videos here. Moreover, you can find more details about my research at the Intelligent Robotics Lab website here. I am an HEA Fellow, and previously I taught Intelligent Robotics at the University of Leeds. I delivered three courses on Coursera with University of Leeds and Institute of Coding to over 10,000 students worldwide.
EMPLOYMENT
Current Employment
2025 - Today
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science, American University of Beirut - Mediterraneo
Paphos, Cyprus
-
I am a full-time tenure-track Assistant Professor in the department of Computer
Science. My research focus is on intelligent robotics, and I direct
the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory.
2025 - Today
Visiting Research Fellow
School of Computer Science, University of Leeds
Leeds, United Kingdom (Hybrid)
-
I am a visiting research fellow with the Robot Manipulation Lab at Leeds, and
I continue collaborations with Dr Dogar's group.
Previous Employment
2021 - 2024
Research Fellow (with teaching responsibilities)
School of Computer Science, University of Leeds
Leeds, United Kingdom
-
I worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Robot Manipulation Lab for three
years on an EPSRC/UKRI project. I was a module co-leader for Intelligent
Systems and Robotics, taught three Coursera courses, and received the HEA Fellowship as a
result.
2017 - 2021
Teaching Demonstrator
School of Computer Science, University of Leeds
Leeds, United Kingdom
-
Courses: "Algorithms and Data Structures II", "Artificial Intelligence", "Software Engineering",
"Programming for the Web", "Mobile Application Development", "Procedural Programming",
"Object-Oriented Programming". Received the HEA Associate Fellowship as a result.
2015 - 2016
Software Developer
ITI Group
Saltaire, United Kingdom
-
Worked with a number of Microsoft technologies, including ASP.NET and C#.
Developed solutions for multi-billion multi-national companies.
EDUCATION
2017 - 2021
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
School of Computer Science, University of Leeds
Leeds, United Kingdom
2013 - 2017
B.Sc (Hons) Computer Science (Industrial) - First Class Honours
School of Computer Science, University of Leeds
Leeds, United Kingdom
AWARDS & FUNDING
Funding
2025
Awards
2023
Alan Turing PDE Award (£2,000), The Alan Turing Institute
2017
Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) , UKRI/EPSRC
TEACHING
Click on each course to learn more.
Current Courses
2025 - Today
CSEN100 Introduction to Computer Science and Engineering, AUB Mediterraneo (Campus)
2025 - Today
CMPS244 Database Systems, AUB Mediterraneo (Campus)
2025 - Today
CMPS102 Intermediate Programming with Data Structures, AUB Mediterraneo (Campus)
Coursera
2023 - Today
An Introduction to Programming using Python, University of Leeds (Coursera)
2023 - Today
How to Get Into Robotics, University of Leeds (Coursera)
2023 - Today
How to Get Into Cloud Computing, University of Leeds (Coursera)
Past Courses
University of Leeds
2021 - 2024
HONOURS, FELLOWSHIPS & CERTIFICATIONS
2023
HEA Fellowship (FHEA), AdvanceHE
2021
AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-02), Amazon Web Services
2020
HEA Associate Fellowship (AFHEA), AdvanceHE
PUBLICATIONS
Click on the title of each paper to access a pre-print, the full paper, videos and code.
Journal Papers
[2]
R. Papallas, A. G. Cohn, and M. Dogar
"Online Replanning With Human-in-the-Loop for Non-Prehensile Manipulation in Clutter — A Trajectory Optimization Based Approach".
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L). 2020
Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers
[3]
D. Russell, R. Papallas, and M. Dogar
"Online state vector reduction during model predictive control with gradient-based trajectory optimisation".
International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR). 2024
[4]
Z. Xu, R. Papallas, and M. Dogar
"Physics-Based Object 6D-Pose Estimation during Non-Prehensile Manipulation".
International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER). 2023
[5]
S. Wang, R. Papallas, M. Leonetti, and M. Dogar
"Goal-Conditioned Action Space Reduction for Deformable Object Manipulation".
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 2023
[6]
D. Russell, R. Papallas, and M. Dogar
"Adaptive approximation of dynamics gradients via interpolation to speed up trajectory optimisation".
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 2023
[7]
R. Papallas, and M. Dogar
"To ask for help or not to ask: A predictive approach to human-in-the-loop motion planning for robot manipulation tasks".
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). 2022
[8]
R. Papallas, and M. Dogar
"Non-Prehensile Manipulation in Clutter with Human-In-The-Loop".
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 2020
[9]
W. Bejjani, R. Papallas, M. Leonetti, and M. Dogar
"Planning with a Receding Horizon for Manipulation in Clutter Using a Learned Value Function".
IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids). 2018
PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP
Other Leadership
2025 - Today
Coordinator and member of the Research Committee, AUB Mediterraneo.
2025 - Today
Member of the AI Policy Committee, AUB Mediterraneo.
October 2023
Co-Organiser of the Workshop on Integrated Perception, Motion Planning and Control (IPPC), IROS, Detroit, USA.
Reviewer
ISER
International Symposium on Experimental Robotics
CASE
IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering
IJRR
The International Journal of Robotics Research
RSS
Robotics: Science and Systems
RA-L
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
ICRA
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
IROS
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
T-RO
IEEE Transactions on Robotics
ICAR
IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics
ISRR
International Symposium of Robotic Research
HRI
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
PRESENTATIONS
Invited Talks
2023
"Towards Physics-based Robotic Manipulation", UK-RAS International Robotics Showcase, Bristol, UK.
2021
"Physics-based Robotic Manipulation", Neapolis University Pafos, Paphos, Cyprus.
Conference Presentations
2022
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Kyoto, Japan.
2020
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Las Vegas, USA.
2020
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Paris, France.
SUPERVISION
University of Leeds
2022-2025
Zisong Xu
PhD Student
Contributing to supervision
Contributing to supervision
2022-2025
David Russell
PhD Student
Contributing to supervision
Contributing to supervision
Summer 2023
Alexander Robins
Intern
Summer 2023
Hailemichael Gashaw
Intern
Summer 2022
Chenyu Liu
Intern
SELECTED OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS
illustrate.nvim: a plugin for neovim that lets you quickly create, search and open vector files from within neovim.
Lua
Apache-2.0
⭐ ...
nvim-tmux-commander: a plugin for neovim to manage and run commands in a tmux pane using keybindings.
Lua
Apache-2.0
⭐ ...
hugo_gdpr_embeds: Hugo shortcode for embedding YouTube videos with a warning/consent form.
HTML / JavaScript
MIT
⭐ ...
pi_camera_ros: ROS2 package for Raspberry Pi camera, publishing in a compressed format.
Python
Apache-2.0
⭐ ...
This CV was last updated in May 2025