Documented relationships

Four University Links in Humanoid Robotics and Robot Learning

Four sourced connections involving a robotics spinout, a researcher's education and published model collaborations. These are different relationships, not a university ranking.

institutions represented

country represented

relationship types

Sources checked September 29, 2026Original source URL retainedFour selected US institutions

4 of 4 records shownFilters stay canonical to this page

The University of Texas at Austin

University: The University of Texas at Austin
Type of relationship: Company origin
What the source establishes: Apptronik's company history identifies its origin in UT Austin's Human Centered Robotics Lab.
What it does not establish: This history supplies no graduate placement rate or share of current Apptronik employees.
Source checked: 2026-09-29
Source: Apptronik official company history

Carnegie Mellon University

University: Carnegie Mellon University
Type of relationship: Individual education and research appointment
What the source establishes: Agility's 15 May 2024 announcement lists Pras Velagapudi's B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. at CMU and his adjunct faculty / project scientist role.
What it does not establish: One executive's background is not a measure of CMU's contribution to the industry.
Source checked: 2026-09-29
Source: Agility announcement, 15 May 2024

Stanford University

University: Stanford University
Type of relationship: Research coauthorship
What the source establishes: The OpenVLA project lists Stanford among the authors' institutional affiliations.
What it does not establish: Project affiliation does not establish a company spinout or hiring partnership.
Source checked: 2026-09-29
Source: OpenVLA official project

University of California, Berkeley

University: University of California, Berkeley
Type of relationship: Research coauthorship
What the source establishes: The OpenVLA and Octo project pages list UC Berkeley authors.
What it does not establish: Participation in these projects is not an employment outcome or a university ranking.
Source checked: 2026-09-29
Source: OpenVLA official project Octo project

University	Type of relationship	What the source establishes	What it does not establish	Source checked	Source
The University of Texas at Austin	Company origin	Apptronik's company history identifies its origin in UT Austin's Human Centered Robotics Lab.	This history supplies no graduate placement rate or share of current Apptronik employees.	2026-09-29	Apptronik official company history
Carnegie Mellon University	Individual education and research appointment	Agility's 15 May 2024 announcement lists Pras Velagapudi's B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. at CMU and his adjunct faculty / project scientist role.	One executive's background is not a measure of CMU's contribution to the industry.	2026-09-29	Agility announcement, 15 May 2024
Stanford University	Research coauthorship	The OpenVLA project lists Stanford among the authors' institutional affiliations.	Project affiliation does not establish a company spinout or hiring partnership.	2026-09-29	OpenVLA official project
University of California, Berkeley	Research coauthorship	The OpenVLA and Octo project pages list UC Berkeley authors.	Participation in these projects is not an employment outcome or a university ranking.	2026-09-29	OpenVLA official project Octo project

Methodology

Each row identifies one documented relationship. A company spinout, an individual's education and a paper's institutional affiliations do not measure the same thing. The four selected US cases are not a sample from which hiring share or university rank can be calculated.

Selection limit

This list contains four selected cases. It does not measure graduate placements, hiring rates or the global distribution of robotics research.

How to read the links

Institutional coauthorship establishes participation in a named publication. It does not by itself establish a commercial partnership or employment pipeline.