# Tanay Tandon

![Tanay Tandon](/resources/cognition/portraits/tanay-tandon.webp)

Engineer at Cognition; Penn CS & Robotics; ex-Scale AI robotics research (Augmentron, NeurIPS 2026)  
Cognition  
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

## At Cognition

- Role: Engineer (Engineering)
- Joined: Sep 2026
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: ML Research Engineer, Scale AI

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanaytan
- X: @tanaytndn
- Website: https://tanaytandon.com
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- At Scale AI (May-Aug 2026, San Francisco) he was an ML Research Engineer in Physical AI & Robotics research, producing Augmentron, a NeurIPS 2026 project that augments real robot demonstrations. (https://augmentron.tanaytandon.com/)
- X account @tanaytndn (created Mar 2015, ~336 followers) has the bio '🇨🇾 at penn - @cognition, @scale_ai', publicly tying the account to both Cognition and Scale AI. (https://x.com/tanaytndn)
- Co-authored arXiv:2608.13729 'Limitations of Synthetic Data Generation in Specialized Data-Scarce Domains' (Aug 2026) with Penn researchers including Edward Zhang, Marcel Hussing, Camillo Jose Taylor, Daniel A. Hashimoto and Eric Eaton, tied to his Penn research on autonomous robot triage for the DARPA Triage Challenge. (https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.13729)
- Augmentron writes in first person: 'I realized we could represent the room with just six images: a floor, a ceiling, and four walls' - rendering generated room assets from recorded camera poses so augmented robot demos stay multi-view consistent, rather than editing each frame with an image model. (https://augmentron.tanaytandon.com/)
- The Penn arXiv paper evaluates synthetic-data augmentation for trauma recognition inside PRONTO, Penn's robotic triage system for the DARPA Triage Challenge using aerial and ground robots. Co-authors include faculty Camillo Jose Taylor, Eric Eaton and Daniel A. Hashimoto. (https://arxiv.org/html/2608.13729v1)
- Asked publicly 'why do VLAs suck at handling lighting condition changes?' in June 2026. Augmentron tackles that same visual-robustness problem by re-rendering rooms and table surfaces around real demonstrations. (https://x.com/tanaytndn/status/2071689316284473594)
- Research role at the University of Pennsylvania (Jan-Sep 2026): autonomous robot triage in mass-casualty scenarios for the DARPA Triage Challenge. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanaytan)
- Served about 14 months in the Cypriot military (Greek Cypriot National Guard, Jul 2022-Aug 2023) as a Staff Sergeant deployed on the demilitarized zone, specializing in anti-tank warfare, before starting Penn in Aug 2023. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanaytan)
- Retweeted Scale AI colleague @jadechoghari on automating quality control for robot-mounted and ego-camera training data at @ScaleAILabs. (https://x.com/tanaytndn/status/2077132765229940780)
- Software Engineer intern at Maybern in New York (May-Aug 2025), working on fund-accounting software. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanaytan)
- Palantir Launch Fellow (Mar 2025), a residency in Palantir's Washington DC office. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanaytan)
- Penn World Scholar, Class of 2027 from Cyprus. His ISSS profile lists formal interests in Computer Science and Psychology and informal ones in Philosophy, Finance and Mathematics, and says he was 'unsure of which technological specialty I will follow'. That contrasts with the robotics and AI research path he took within two years. (https://global.upenn.edu/isss/people/tanay-tandon/)
- Teaching Assistant for Penn's Data Structures & Algorithms course (CIS 1210) through 2025. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanaytan)
- LinkedIn honors list a math competition result in the top 4% of 18,000+ participants and a score of 81 on the University of Waterloo's international Euclid Math Competition. No IOI, ICPC or national olympiad team record was found. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanaytan)
- Founded and led TEDxYouth@Engomi, described as Cyprus' first TEDx Youth event (2020-2022), and later organized TEDxPenn, which his site calls the world's largest student-run TEDx event. (https://tanaytandon.com/)
- Penn World Scholar (Class of 2027, from Cyprus); the scholars page lists interests including tennis, running, violin, tinkering and Olympiad. (https://global.upenn.edu/isss/penn-world-scholars/)
- His most-liked recent post (135 likes) is 'one step closer to becoming a clanker' (Jul 2026), posted during the Scale AI robotics stint. (https://x.com/tanaytndn/status/2081615422215041481)
- Posted takeaways from a Chris Paxton talk at Penn: 'Reasoning' models are under-explored and evals are hard to trust. (https://x.com/tanaytndn/status/2021740984187662760)
- Self-description: 'I loathe nepotism and stagnancy. I value curiosity and progress.' (https://tanaytandon.com/)
- Self-description: 'I loathe nepotism and stagnancy. I value curiosity and progress.' (https://tanaytandon.com/)

## Experience
- - at Cognition (Sep 2026 - Present)
- Research at University of Pennsylvania (Jan 2026 - Sep 2026): Autonomous robot triage in mass-casualty scenarios (DARPA Triage Challenge)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.13729
- Teaching Assistant at University of Pennsylvania (Jan 2025 - Dec 2025): Taught Data Structures & Algorithms (CIS 1210)
- ML Research Engineer at Scale AI - San Francisco, CA (May 2026 - Aug 2026): Physical AI & Robotics Research
https://augmentron.tanaytandon.com (NeurIPS 2026)
- Software Engineer at Maybern - New York, United States (May 2025 - Aug 2025): Wrote code to improve fund accounting.
- Launch Fellow at Palantir Technologies - Washington DC-Baltimore Area (Mar 2025 - Mar 2025): Residency in Palantir's DC office.
- Staff Sergeant at CYPRUS DEFENCE FORCES | Greek Cypriot National Guard (Jul 2022 - Aug 2023): Deployed on the demilitarized zone. Specialized in anti-tank warfare.
- Founder & Lead Organiser at TEDxYouth@Engomi - Nicosia, Cyprus (Apr 2020 - Jun 2022): Founded Cyprus' first TEDx Youth event.
- Intro to Logic Summer Camp Teaching Assistant at Stanford University (Aug 2020 - Jul 2021): Summer camp on formal mathematical logic.

## Education
- University of Pennsylvania - Master's degree, Robotics - (Aug 2025 - May 2027)
- University of Pennsylvania - Bachelor's degree, Computer Science - (Aug 2023 - May 2027)

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanaytan
- https://tanaytandon.com/
- https://augmentron.tanaytandon.com
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.13729
- https://global.upenn.edu/isss/people/tanay-tandon/
- https://x.com/tanaytndn
- https://arxiv.org/html/2608.13729v1
- https://global.upenn.edu/isss/penn-world-scholars/
- https://augmentron.tanaytandon.com/
- https://x.com/tanaytndn/status/2071689316284473594
- https://x.com/tanaytndn/status/2070364916662640758
- https://x.com/tanaytndn/status/2077132765229940780
- https://x.com/tanaytndn/status/2081615422215041481
- https://x.com/tanaytndn/status/2021740984187662760


Researched with Autumn (https://www.autumn.ai) from public sources. Updated 2026-11-04. Profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people/tanay-tandon · Everyone at Cognition: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people