University at Buffalo (UB)
Souma Chowdhury
PhD
Professor
Adjunct Associate Professor
Research Interests
Design Optimization, MINLP, Bio-inspired Computing, Physics-informed Machine Learning, Graph Reinforcement Learning, and Physical AI, with applications to Autonomous Aerospace Systems, Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (aka Drones), Multi-Robot Systems, Robot Swarms, and Physical Networks
Selected Publications
- Liu, F., Truax, R., Chowdhury, S., and St. Pierre, R., Concurrent Optimization of Morphology Design and PID Control for Running Robots on Unstructured Terrains, ASME Journal of Mechanism and Robotics, 2026. (in press).
- Meshram, P., Adhivarahan, C., Esfahani, E., Chowdhury, S., Wang, C., and Dantu, K., CLEAR: A Semantic Geometric Terrain Abstraction for Large-Scale Unstructured Environments, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2026. (in press)
- KrisshnaKumar, P., Witter, J., Collins, L., Pothuri, J.P.K.V., Ghassemi, P., Esfahani, E., Dantu, K., and Chowdhury, S., Efficient Planning for Scalable and Load-Balanced Area Coverage by Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, Vol. 26, No. 9, pp. 091002, 2026.
- Jacob. R. A., Poddar, P., Goel, J., Chowdhury, S., Gel, Y. R., and Zhang, J., Topology-Aware Reinforcement Learning over Graphs for Resilient Power Distribution Networks, IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (IEEE PESGM 2026), Montreal, Canada, July 19-23, 2026.
- Liu, F., Boonrath, A., Botta, E. and Chowdhury, S., Surrogate-aided Learning of Active Tether-Net Maneuver to Capture Rotating Space Debris, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Vol. 52, pp. 630-645, 2025.
- Paul, S., and Chowdhury, S., Learning Multi-Robot Task Allocation using Capsule Networks and Attention Mechanism, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 193, pp. 105085, 2025.
- Bhatt, A., Witter, J., KrisshnaKumar, P., Paul, S., and Chowdhury, S., Learning-based Real-time Down-sampling for Scalable Decentralized Decision-Making in Bayes-Swarm Search, ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, Vol. 25, No. 10, pp. 101004, 2025.
- Oddiraju, M., Cleeman, J., Malhotra, R., and Chowdhury, S., A Differentiable Physics-Informed Machine Learning Approach to Model Laser-based Micro-Manufacturing Process, ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Vol. 147, No. 5, pp. 051002, 2025.
- Poddar, P., Esfahani, E., Dantu, K., and Chowdhury, S., Automated Generation of Diverse Courses of Actions for Multi-Agent Operations using Binary Optimization & Graph Learning, IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2025), Los Angeles, California, USA, August 2025.
- Paul, S. and Chowdhury, S., Learning to Allocate Time-Bound and Dynamic Tasks to Multiple Robots using Covariant Attention Neural Networks, ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, Vol. 24, No. 9, pp. 091005, 2024.
- Jacob, R. A.*, Paul, S*, Chowdhury, S., Gel, Y. and Zhang, J., Real-Time Outage Management in Active Distribution Networks Using Reinforcement Learning over Graphs, Nature Communications, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 4766, 2024. [* joint first authors; # joint corr. authors]
- Zeng, C., Hecht, G., Chowdhury, S. and Botta, E., Concurrent Design Optimization of Tether-Net System and Actions for Reliable Space-Debris Capture, Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, AIAA, Vol. 61, No. 3, pp. 773-783, 2024.
- Paul, S., Witter, J., and Souma Chowdhury. Graph Learning-Based Fleet Scheduling for Urban Air Mobility under Operational Constraints, Varying Demand Uncertainties. In Proceedings of the 39th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing, Track: Intelligent Robotics and Multi-Agent Systems (IRMAS), Avila, Spain, Apr 2024.
- KrisshnaKumar, P., Paul, S., and Chowdhury, S., A Talent-infused Policy-gradient Approach to Efficient Co-Design of Morphology and Task Allocation Behavior of Multi-Robot Systems, Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS), New York City, USA, Oct 28-30, 2024.
- Iqbal, R, Behjat, A., Adlakha, R., Callanan, J., Nouh, M., Chowdhury, S., Auto-differentiable Transfer Mapping Architecture for Physics-infused Learning of Acoustic Field, IEEE Transactions on AI, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 1132-1146, 2023.
- Behjat, A., Maurer, N., Chidambaran, S., and Chowdhury, S., Adaptive Neuroevolution with Controlled Genetic Operators and Two-way Complexity Variation, IEEE Transactions on AI, Vol. 4, No. 6, pp. 1627-1641, 2023.
- Ghassemi, P., Balazon, M., and Chowdhury, S., A Penalized Batch-Bayesian Approach to Informative Path Planning for Decentralized Swarm Robotic Search, Autonomous Robots, Vol. 46, No. 6, pp. 725-747, 2022.
- Ghassemi, P., and Chowdhury, S., Multi-Robot Task Allocation in Disaster Response: Addressing Dynamic Tasks with Deadlines and Robots with Capacity Constraints, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 147, pp. 103905, 2022.
- Oddiraju, M., Behjat, A., Nouh, M. and Chowdhury, S., Inverse Design Framework with Invertible Neural Networks for Passive Vibration Suppression in Phononic Structures, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, Special Issue on AI and Engineering Design, Vol. 144, No. 2, pp. 021707, 2022.
- Callanan, J., Iqbal, R., Adlakha, R., Behjat, A., Chowdhury, S. and Nouh, M., Large Aperture Experimental Characterization of the Acoustic Field Generated by a Hovering Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol 50, No. 3, 2021.
- Lulekar, S., Ghassemi, P., Alsalih, H., and Chowdhury, S., A Multi-fidelity Design Automation Framework to Explore Bio-inspired Surface Riblets for Drag Reduction. AIAA Journal, Vol. 59, No. 3, pp. 880-892, 2021.
- Matei, I, Zeng, C., Chowdhury, S., Rai, R., and De Kleer, J., Controlling Draft Interactions between Quadcopter Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Physics-aware Modeling, Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, Vol. 101, 2021.
- Behjat, A., Zeng, C., Rai, R., Matei, I., Doermann, D., and Chowdhury, S., A Physics-Aware Learning Architecture with Input Transfer Networks for Predictive Modeling, Applied Soft Computing, Vol. 96, pp. 106665, 2020.
- Callanan, J., Ghassemi, P., DiMartino, J., Dhameliya, M., Stocking, C., Nouh, M., Chowdhury, S., Ergonomic Impact of Multi-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Noise in Warehouse Environments, Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems. Vol. 100, No. 3, pp. 1309-1323, 2020.
- Ghassemi, P., Mehmani, A., and Chowdhury, S., Adaptive In-Situ Model Refinement for Surrogate-augmented Population-based Optimization, Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, Vol. 62, pp. 2011-2034, 2020.
- Ghassemi, P., and Chowdhury, S., An Extended Bayesian Optimization Approach to Decentralized Swarm Robotic Search, ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, Vol. 20, No. 5, October 2020.
- Zeng, C., Abnous, R., Gabani, K., Chowdhury, S. and Maldonado, V., A New Tilt-arm Transitioning Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: Introduction and Conceptual Design, Aerospace Science and Technology, Vol. 99, pp.105755, 2020.
- Behjat, A., Paul, S., and Chowdhury, S., Learning Reciprocal Actions for Cooperative Collision Avoidance in Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 121, 103270, 2019.
- Mu, D., Ge, Y., Sha, M., Paul, S., Ravichandra, N. and Chowdhury, S., Robust Optimal Selection of Radio Type and Transmission Power for Internet of Things, ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, Vol. 15, No. 4, 2019.
- Odonkor, P., Ball, Z., and Chowdhury, S., Distributed Operation of Collaborating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Time-Sensitive Oil Spill Mapping, Swarm and Evolutionary Computation, Vol. 46, pp. 52-68, May 2019.
- Hernandez-R, E., Chowdhury, S., Coleman, S., Ghassemi, P., and Tschopp, M.A., Integrating Exploratory Data Analytics into ReaxFF Parameterization, MRS Communications, 2018.
- Ghassemi, P. and Chowdhury, S., Decentralized Task Allocation in Multi-robot Systems Via Bipartite Graph Matching Augmented With Fuzzy Clustering, The ASME 2018 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC 2018), (DETC2018-86161), Quebec City, Canada, August 26-29, 2018.
- Chidambaran, S., Behjat, A. and Chowdhury, S., Multi-criteria Evolution of Neural Network Topologies: Balancing Experience and Performance in Autonomous Systems, The ASME 2018 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC 2018), (DETC2018-86104), Quebec City, Canada, August 26-29, 2018.
- Dhameliya, M., Sher, S. and Chowdhury, S., Prototyping and Simulated Analysis of Autonomous Swarm-bots, The ASME 2018 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC 2018), (DETC2018-86226), Quebec City, Canada, August 26-29, 2018.
- Lulekar, S., Ghassemi, P., and Chowdhury S., CFD-based Analysis and Surrogate-based Optimization of Bio-inspired Surface Riblets for Aerodynamic Efficiency, 2018 Multidisciplinary Analysis & Optimization Conference, AIAA AVIATION Forum, (AIAA 2018-3107), Atlanta, Georgia, June 25-29, 2018.
- Zeng, C., Behjat, A., and Chowdhury S., Uncertainty-aware Optimal Flight State Selection for a Transitioning UAV via Simulation-based Learning, 2018 Multidisciplinary Analysis & Optimization Conference, AIAA AVIATION Forum,, Atlanta, Georgia, June 25-29, 2018.
- Mehmani, A., Chowdhury, S., Meinrenken, C. J., and Messac, A., Concurrent Surrogate Model Selection (COSMOS): Optimizing Model Type, Kernel Function, and Hyper-parameters, Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, Vol. 57, No. 3, pp. 1093-1114, 2018.
- Odonkor, P., Ball, Z., and Chowdhury, S., A Distributed Intelligence Approach to Using Collaborating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Oil Spill Mapping, ASME 2017 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC 2017), (DETC2017-68320), Cleveland, OH, August 6-9, 2017.
- Mu, D., Ge, Y., Sha, M., Paul, S., Ravichandra, N., and Chowdhury, S., Adaptive Radio and Transmission Power Selection for Internet of Things, 2017 IEEE/ACM 25th International Symposium on Quality of Service (IWQoS), Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain, June 14-16, 2017.
- Johnson, K. L., Chowdhury, S., Lawrimore, W. B., Mao, Y., Mehmani, A., Prabhu, R., Rush, G. A., and Horstemeyer. M. F., Constrained Topological Optimization of a Football Helmet Facemask Based on Brain Response, Materials & Design, Vol. 111, pp. 108-118, 2016.