Media & Speaking

Bio

Short (about 50 words)

Dr Tobias Fischer is an Associate Professor at the QUT Centre for Robotics, Queensland University of Technology, and an ARC DECRA Fellow. His research on robot localisation and underwater perception blends neuroscience and robotics to build intelligent systems that work under tight energy and computing constraints. He will start an ARC Future Fellowship in November 2027.

Medium (about 100 words)

Dr Tobias Fischer is an Associate Professor and ARC DECRA Fellow at the QUT Centre for Robotics, and has been awarded a $1.1M ARC Future Fellowship commencing in November 2027. His research focuses on robot localisation and underwater perception, blending neuroscience and robotics to push the boundaries of intelligent systems operating under resource constraints, from neuromorphic place recognition to robots that help restore the Great Barrier Reef. He leads RoboStack, open-source software that brings the Robot Operating System to every platform. His PhD thesis at Imperial College London won the UK Best PhD in Robotics Award.

Long (about 200 words)

Dr Tobias Fischer is an Associate Professor and ARC DECRA Fellow at the QUT Centre for Robotics, Queensland University of Technology, and has been awarded a $1.1M ARC Future Fellowship commencing in November 2027. His research focuses on robot localisation and underwater perception, blending neuroscience and robotics to push the boundaries of intelligent systems operating under resource constraints.

Tobias has secured over $5M in competitive funding. He is Faculty Lead of the $1.3M Translation to Deployment project in the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program and Chief Investigator of the $740k Queensland Quantum and Advanced Technologies Talent Building Program, with previous grants from Intel Labs and Amazon. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers in venues including Science Robotics, PAMI, TRO, CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, IJCAI, ICRA and IROS, and his open-source software, including RoboStack and Pixi, is used by robotics researchers worldwide.

After a PhD at Imperial College London, whose thesis won the UK Best PhD in Robotics Award, and a postdoc at Imperial, he joined QUT in 2020. He serves as Area Chair and Associate Editor for ICRA, IROS, RSS and RA-L, co-chairs the IEEE RAS Women in Engineering Committee, and was named one of Queensland's 40 Under 40 in 2024.