I’ve been passionate about robotics and AI ever since I was 18, when I built humanoid robots that competed in RoboCup competitions. That early, hands-on adventure really shaped my curiosity about how machines learn, adapt, and work alongside humans.
Later, I dove deeper by pursuing a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, focusing on self-supervised learning, reinforcement learning, and agent alignment. My research has been all about creating AI systems that can learn from unstructured data, optimize decisions in complex scenarios, and stay aligned with human values.
I’m also a technical founder who loves turning cutting-edge research into tools that solve real-world problems. The chance to build and deploy AI solutions that genuinely make a difference is what keeps me energized.
Looking ahead, I’m all about fostering a future where AI does more than just automate tasks—it augments our capabilities and enhances our everyday lives. By combining my robotics roots, AI expertise, and drive for practical innovation, I’m constantly exploring new ways to push boundaries and shape a more collaborative, intelligent world.
Publications
Intelligent Narrative Summaries: From Indicative to Informative Summarization
Samira Ghodratnama, A. Beheshti, Mehrdad Zakershahrak, Fariborz Sobhanmanesh
Big Data Research 2021
Summary2vec: Learning Semantic Representation of Summaries for Healthcare Analytics
Samira Ghodratnama, Mehrdad Zakershahrak, A. Beheshti
IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Network 2021
Online Explanation Generation for Planning Tasks in Human-Robot Teaming
Mehrdad Zakershahrak, Ze Gong, Nikhillesh Sadassivam, Yu Zhang
IEEE/RJS International Conference on Intelligent RObots and Systems 2020
Breaking Boundaries: Can a Unified Hardware Abstraction Layer Simplify Transformer Deployments on Edge Devices?
Mehrdad Zakershahrak, Samira Ghodratnama
ICSOC Workshops 2023
Generation for Human-Robot Teaming
Mehrdad Zakershahrak, Ze Gong, Akkamahadevi Hanni, Yu Zhang