- We are recruiting for PhD researchers for Fall 2026 starts. Please apply to the Dartmouth CS PhD program at the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies and mention your interest in our lab to ensure full consideration. Applications are due December 15, 2025.
- Dartmouth Undergraduates, Masters, and PhD Students interested in joining the lab, or collaborating with us, should consider taking Parallel Optimization for Robotics in the Fall 2025 Term.
We are always looking to grow our team! We are looking for students across all levels of experience: from undergraduates, to Masters students, to PhD candidates, to Postdoctoral researchers. No background in robotics, parallel programming, or machine learning is required (although helpful). That said, we are generally conducting research that requires mathematical maturity and programming and so we will expect some CS / EE / Math background. For Dartmouth undergraduates, masters students, and PhD researchers interested in joining the lab, or collaborating with us, considering taking Parallel Optimization for Robotics as it is perfect preperation for much of the lab’s research (and the course project is a perfect way to start to explore our research)!
In general, we are looking for students who demonstrate commitment, creativity, communication skills, and courage to learn something new. We also particularly encourage students from any of the underrepresented groups in CS and Engineering to reach out about potential projects.
For Undergraduate and Masters part-time researchers during the academic semester, in order to ensure that you can have a meaningful research experience as a member of the lab we expect you to:
- Commit at least 10 hours per week to your research work (similar to a course – note that independent study research credit may be possible)
- Provide a (team) progress update every week either during lab meetings, at office hours, or through a scheduled meeting
There are also additional opportunites for full-time summer research experiences.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out to us at: plancher@dartmouth.edu.
FAQs:
What kinds of research is the lab doing right now? Do you have any resources for getting started?
You can find descriptions of some of our current research directions on our projects page as well as our recent publications on our publications page. While most research projects will dive deep into specific areas of robotics and so there aren’t truly general resources that are applicale to all projects, as most (current) projects do explore hardware acceleration and optimal control to some degree, there are a few things you could do to prepare for research in the lab. First, as mentioned above, for Dartmouth students, considering taking Parallel Optimization for Robotics! Second, also as mentioned above, check out our PI’s Autonomy talk on 5/20/25, PhD Dissertation Defense on 4/26/22 and talk at Barnard on 12/14/21, which provide nice overviews of some projects we have done in the past (note that the Barnard talk is aimed at a more introductory audience). If you want to go deeper into the algorithms and math, Russ Tedrake’s Underactuated Robotics course on edX covers many of those topics. If you want to learn more about GPU programming, this online course provides a nice introduction. Finally, we also explore how to increase the accessibility of cutting-edge computer science and robotics topics globally. This is best exemplified by our work with TinyMLedu.
Is the position paid?
If you are doing research through a funded research program you will be funded and Dartmouth has many different programs that can provide funding for summer research – for example, Dartmouth’s Academic Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (ASURE)!
We will also be constantly applying for grants to support additional student researchers, however, depending on timing, we may only be able to offer research as an independent study for credit. Note: We do not expect you to be funded to join the lab! We can work to help you get funded AFTER you join! Also if you reach out ahead of time we can work together to get you funded BEFORE you start doing research.
Does research happen all the time?
Yes, in fact, the summer is often the busiest time of the year for research! So whether you have interest and time in the sping, summer, or fall, there will always be opportunities for research!
Why should I consider doing research?
Research is a great way to learn more about a field of interest and develop both your technical and communication skills. Also, whether you are considering graduate school or industry positions, spending a few semesters doing research and publishing a peer-reviewed paper and/or presenting at regional and national conferences looks great on your resume!