Hi, I am Gokul 
TLDR + Links (Click to expand)
Education
– PhD student, Robotics (CSL+AE) @ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
– BTech (Hons), ECE + Mathematics @ Manipal Institute of Technology
Links
– Google Scholar @ Gokul Puthumanaillam
– Github @ gokulp01
– Mail @ gokulp2@illinois.edu
– X (prev. Twitter) @ gokulp01
I am a PhD student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where I am advised by Prof. Melkior Ornik (Learning, Autonomy, Decision, and Control (LEADCAT) Lab). I finished my bachelors in Electronics and Communications Engineering with a minors in Computational Mathematics.
My current research (the first 2 years of my PhD) sits squarely in the learning to plan paradigm: I develop algorithmic and probabilistic techniques that let autonomous systems plan farther and faster, learning abstractions and heuristics that accelerate long-horizon decision making. Recently though, I have started to extend my work towards planning to learn paradigm, enabling autonomous systems to actively choose the data and practice routines that will most improve their planners. Most of my papers is grounded practically in robotic applications and grounded theoretically in reinforcement learning. I am passionate about developing software for hardware, open-source contributions and translating complex theories into practical applications.
I am excited to be spending the summer of 2025 with
Research as a research scientist intern in the multimodal group.
Hopefully, there will be time for everything.
I have a deep love for books1, competitive chess2, and an on-again-off-again fling with video games3. Lately, though, my time has been consumed by learning to play Go (thanks to the brilliant WonkyVamp), and I am utterly obsessed.
If you are wondering what to get me for my birthday, here is a tip: I am an analog watch fan. Anything that ticks without needing a battery, and I’m sold :) Oh, and I love cricket. Between overs and innings, life is never short on excitement (or waiting).
I was introduced to Linux at the age of 7 and never turned back: I love terminals! I have been using Vim/Neovim for the past 10 years now, mostly because I spent the first 2 years figuring out how to exit it (ironically this website is built using Emacs)! (View my nvim config file here)
Recent Updates (Click [+] for details)
06/20/2025: Awarded the Young Author Award by IFAC 
06/18/2025: TRACE accepted @ IROS 2025 [oral] - 06/18/2025: Predicted Reachability accepted @ IROS 2025 [oral]
- 05/26/2025: Started my internship at Adobe Research
- 02/28/2025: TAB-Fields accepted @ L4DC 2025
- 12/19/2024: Paper accepted @ AAMAS 2025
- 07/01/2024: ComTraQ-MPC accepted @ IROS 2024[oral]
- 03/26/2024: Received Department Fellowship
- 03/22/2024: Received travel grant for ICRA 2024
- 01/30/2024: Cleared PhD Qualifying Exam
- 01/28/2024: Planning in TV-POMDPs accepted @ ICRA 2024
- 04/05/2024: Paper accepted at ICUAS 2024
- 12/22/2023: NNCS Verification accepted @ AIAA SciTech 2024
- 12/01/2023: Application of TV-POMDP to GUAM accepted @ AIAA-SIAM 2024 also presented at ULI 2024
- 06/10/2023: Best Paper Award @ IEEE GRSS 2023
- 06/10/2023: Texture guided PANet accepted @ Neurocomputing
- 05/10/2023: Paper accepted @ IGARSS 2023
Open-source Contributions
I am passionate about open-source software. Reference implementations of all algorithms I designed at LEADCAT are publicly available. I have also contributed features and bug-fixes to projects like Gazebo, Webots, Ardupilot, and Arduino.
Current and Upcoming Projects:
-
Released: BlueROV2 Gymnasium Environment
(v1.0.0 released: 11/11/2024 - Find it here) -
Released: Code for ComTraQ-MPC (IROS 2024)
(v1.0.0 released: 08/19/2024 - Find it here) -
Released: ROS2 drivers for u-blox ZED F9P GPS receivers
(v1.0.0 released: 07/10/2023 - Find it here) -
Upcoming: Vim plugin for ROS2 developers
(Expected: Fall, 2025) -
Upcoming: ROS2 based exoplanet space exploration robot with time-varying environment
(Expected: Fall, 2025)
Academic Service
Reviewer for ICRA (2025, 2024), IROS (2025, 2024), L4DC (2025), ICLR (2025), CoRL (2025), CDC (2024), ITSC (2025), OJCSYS (2024), AIAA SciTech (2024), AICECS(Student chair; 2022)
Site Notes
- This site is a collection of org-mode files, exported via org-publish in Emacs.
- Apologies for any word crimes - I am trying my best!
- I have a collection of mismatched socks that I refuse to throw away because I am convinced the other sock will turn up eventually.
- The CSS has been modified from Ryan Yen’s website.
- Last updated: 06/21/2025; 11:16:34
Acknowledgements
It takes a village to raise a child.
My parents have made many sacrifices to support me.
My sister has always inspired and encouraged me.
My advisors gave me the right environment and guidance to grow.
My friends are the ones who’ve believed in me at my lowest, and celebrated with me at my highest.
For who I am and what I have to offer, I owe it all to them.
If I have seen further, it is by standing on shoulders of these giants.
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Currently reading: A Fine Balance by Rohiton Mistry ↩
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A Bittersweet Farewell: As of August 2024, I’ve officially hung up my competitive chessboard. No dramatic reason behind it – the spark just fizzled out. I’m still playing for fun when the mood strikes! ↩
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Currently playing: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom ↩