Aravind Sunil Kumar — Senior Research Engineer at NVIDIA

Building intelligence for robots in complex environments.

NVIDIA Johns Hopkins University IIT Madras

I’m a Senior Research Engineer at NVIDIA working across machine learning, Physical AI, robotic systems, and 3D perception. I’m particularly interested in how robots can perceive, represent, and interact with complex physical environments, including deformable scenes.

My experience in medical and surgical robotics includes the da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK), SlicerROS2, ROS 2, 3D Slicer, and image-guided robotic systems. At NVIDIA, I also contribute to Open-H efforts advancing open data, models, and tools for healthcare robotics.

I earned an MS in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University, where I worked in the medical robotics community, and a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras. Earlier, I worked on VectorCam, a computer-vision system for malaria-vector surveillance that was featured by Bill Gates.

Work

Open-H and Physical AI

Contributing to efforts around open data, models, and research tools for AI-enabled surgical systems, with an emphasis on connecting machine learning research to real robotic workflows.

SlicerROS2 and dVRK

Open-source infrastructure connecting ROS 2 and 3D Slicer for image-guided robotics, alongside work in the dVRK ecosystem and surgical-robot simulation workflows.

VectorCam and VectorBrain

Computer-vision systems for scalable mosquito identification and malaria-vector surveillance, spanning deep-learning models, field imaging, and usability research in East Africa.

Open source

SlicerROS2 — ROS 2 Meetup Bogotá, 2025: introductory talk and v1.0 documentation
VectorCam: featured by Bill Gates for its approach to scalable malaria surveillance
MedMachina: open directory of medical robots

Publications

SCA 2026

OrganPhys: Scope Captures to CT-Informed, Mesh-Free, Physics Sim-Ready Deformables

Aravind Kumar, Vishwesh Nath, Andres Diaz-Pinto, and 1 more author

Computer Graphics Forum, 2026

ACM SIGGRAPH/Eurographics Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA), 2026.

DOI Bib PDF Website

@article{kumar2026organphys,
  title = {{OrganPhys}: Scope Captures to {CT}-Informed, Mesh-Free, Physics Sim-Ready Deformables},
  author = {Kumar, Aravind and Nath, Vishwesh and Diaz-Pinto, Andres and Modi, Vismay},
  journal = {Computer Graphics Forum},
  volume = {45},
  number = {8},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {The Eurographics Association and John Wiley \& Sons},
  doi = {10.1111/cgf.70577},
  note = {ACM SIGGRAPH/Eurographics Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA), 2026.},
}

arXiv

G-SHARP: Gaussian Surgical Hardware Accelerated Real-time Pipeline

Vishwesh Nath, Javier G. Tejero, Aravind S. Kumar, and 4 more authors

arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.02482, Dec 2025

Presented at the Society of Robotic Surgery (SRS), July 23, 2026.

arXiv Bib PDF Website

@article{nath2025gsharp,
  title = {{G-SHARP}: Gaussian Surgical Hardware Accelerated Real-time Pipeline},
  author = {Nath, Vishwesh and Tejero, Javier G. and Kumar, Aravind S. and Li, Ruilong and Filicori, Filippo and Azizian, Mahdi and Huver, Sean D.},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.02482},
  year = {2025},
  month = dec,
  note = {Presented at the Society of Robotic Surgery (SRS), July 23, 2026.},
}

IEEE T-MRB

SlicerROS2: A Research and Development Module for Image-Guided Robotic Interventions

Laura Connolly, Aravind S. Kumar, Kapi Ketan Mehta, and 9 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, Nov 2024

DOI Bib

@article{connolly2024slicerros2,
  title = {{SlicerROS2}: A Research and Development Module for Image-Guided Robotic Interventions},
  author = {Connolly, Laura and Kumar, Aravind S. and Mehta, Kapi Ketan and Al-Zogbi, Lidia and Kazanzides, Peter and Mousavi, Parvin and Fichtinger, Gabor and Krieger, Axel and Tokuda, Junichi and Taylor, Russell H. and Leonard, Simon and Deguet, Anton},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics},
  volume = {6},
  number = {4},
  pages = {1334--1344},
  year = {2024},
  month = nov,
  publisher = {IEEE},
  doi = {10.1109/TMRB.2024.3464683},
}

Sci. Rep.

Towards transforming malaria vector surveillance using VectorBrain: a novel convolutional neural network for mosquito species, sex, and abdomen status identifications

Deming Li, Shruti Hegde, Aravind Sunil Kumar, and 8 more authors

Scientific Reports, Nov 2024

DOI Bib

@article{li2024towards,
  title = {Towards transforming malaria vector surveillance using {VectorBrain}: a novel convolutional neural network for mosquito species, sex, and abdomen status identifications},
  author = {Li, Deming and Hegde, Shruti and Sunil Kumar, Aravind and Zacharias, Atul and Mehta, Parthvi and Mukthineni, Venkat and Srimath, Satwik and Patel, Sunny and Suin, Maitreya and Chellappa, Rama and Acharya, Soumyadipta},
  journal = {Scientific Reports},
  volume = {14},
  number = {1},
  pages = {23647},
  year = {2024},
  publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
  doi = {10.1038/s41598-024-71856-8},
}

JMIR HF

A Handheld Tool for the Rapid Morphological Identification of Mosquito Species (VectorCam) for Community-Based Malaria Vector Surveillance: Summative Usability Study

Saisamhitha Dasari, Bhavya Gopinath, Carter James Gaulke, and 4 more authors

JMIR Human Factors, Aug 2024

DOI Bib

@article{dasari2024handheld,
  title = {A Handheld Tool for the Rapid Morphological Identification of Mosquito Species ({VectorCam}) for Community-Based Malaria Vector Surveillance: Summative Usability Study},
  author = {Dasari, Saisamhitha and Gopinath, Bhavya and Gaulke, Carter James and Patel, Sunny Mahendra and Merali, Khalil K. and Sunil Kumar, Aravind and Acharya, Soumyadipta},
  journal = {JMIR Human Factors},
  volume = {11},
  pages = {e56605},
  year = {2024},
  month = aug,
  publisher = {JMIR Publications},
  doi = {10.2196/56605},
}

Malar. J.

Deep learning convolutional neural networks for morphological identification of field-caught Anopheles stephensi in Ethiopia, using smartphone images of specimens

Parthvi Mehta, Aravind Sunil Kumar, Atul Zacharias, and 11 more authors

Malaria Journal, Sep 2026

DOI Bib

@article{mehta2026stephensi,
  title = {Deep learning convolutional neural networks for morphological identification of field-caught {Anopheles stephensi} in Ethiopia, using smartphone images of specimens},
  author = {Mehta, Parthvi and Sunil Kumar, Aravind and Zacharias, Atul and Shodhan, Aryaman and Li, Deming and Patel, Sunny M. and Rincon Torroella, Marina and Cunningham, Joanne M. and Lovin, Diane and Chellappa, Rama and Yewhalaw, Delenasaw and Carlton, Jane M. and Lobo, Neil F. and Acharya, Soumyadipta},
  journal = {Malaria Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  publisher = {Springer Nature},
  doi = {10.1186/s12936-026-06122-5},
}