Anca Dragan in outside setting

Research Bio

Anca Dragan is an Associate Professor in the EECS Department at UC Berkeley. Her goal is to enable robots to work with, around, and in support of people. She runs the InterACT Lab, where they focus on algorithms for human-robot interaction -- algorithms that move beyond the robot's function in isolation, and generate robot behavior that coordinates well with people, and is aligned with what we actually want the robot to do. They work across different applications, from assistive arms, to quadrotors, to autonomous cars, and draw from optimal control, game theory, reinforcement learning, Bayesian inference, and cognitive science. She also helped found and serve on the steering committee for the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR) Lab, and is a co-PI of the Center for Human-Compatible AI. She's been honored by the Sloan Fellowship, MIT TR35, the Okawa award, an NSF CAREER award, and the PECASE award.

Research Expertise and Interest

robotics, human-robot interaction, human-compatible artificial intelligence

In the News

Just For You

In a study presented at the 2022 International Conference on Machine Learning, a UC Berkeley-led research team revealed that certain recommender systems try to manipulate user preferences, beliefs, mood and psychological state

Teaching

Courses taught during the three most recent terms
2026 Spring
  • Supervised Independent Study  [COMPSCI 199]  

  • Individual Research  [COMPSCI 299]  

  • Professional Preparation: Supervised Teaching of Computer Science  [COMPSCI 399]  

2025 Fall
  • Supervised Independent Study  [COMPSCI 199]  

  • Individual Research  [COMPSCI 299]  

  • Professional Preparation: Supervised Teaching of Computer Science  [COMPSCI 399]  

  • Senior Honors Thesis Research  [COMPSCI H196A]  

2025 Summer
  • Supervised Independent Study  [COMPSCI 199]  

  • Field Studies in Computer Science  [COMPSCI 297]  

  • Individual Research  [COMPSCI 299]  

2025 Spring
  • Supervised Independent Study  [COMPSCI 199]  

  • Individual Research  [COMPSCI 299]  

  • Professional Preparation: Supervised Teaching of Computer Science  [COMPSCI 399]  

  • Senior Honors Thesis Research  [COMPSCI H196B]