I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at Oregon State University, where I lead the Intelligent and Reliable Autonomous Systems (IRAS) research group. I am also an affiliate member of the Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CoRIS) Institute at Oregon State University. I earned my Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I was advised by  Shlomo Zilberstein.

My research interests are in designing AI systems that are safe, reliable, and unbiased. My current research focus is on developing techniques for reliable decision-making in autonomous systems that operate in fully and partially observable environments. I am a recipient of the Outstanding Paper Award at RLC 2025, Outstanding Program Committee Member Award at ICAPS 2022, IJCAI 2020 Distinguished Paper Award, and a Rising Stars in EECS 2020 workshop participant. I serve as a Program Co-Chair of the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS), 2026. During the summer of 2019, I interned in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center .

I designed and maintain a repository of negative side effects in AI systems. Consider contributing to our repository by letting us know about any negative side effects observed in a laboratory prototype or a deployed AI system.

Contact: sandhya.sai AT oregonstate.edu

Office: 3005 Kelley Engineering Center