Jnaneshwar Das

Jnaneshwar Das is a roboticist and artist working at the intersection of autonomous systems, information theory, and cultural heritage. He holds the Alberto Enrique Behar Associate Research Professorship at Arizona State University, and is the founder of Earth Innovation Hub, an Arizona 501(c)(3) nonprofit that builds open frameworks connecting scientific tools, traditional craft, and public art.

His research develops adaptive sampling and digital-twin systems for studying dynamic environments — from algal blooms tracked by coordinated surface and underwater robots to geospatial platforms like DeepGIS, used for both planetary science and, unexpectedly, the fabrication of monumental sculpture. His recent theoretical work applies maximum-entropy and maximum-caliber principles to a broad question: what governs how systems — robots, organisms, scientific fields, artisan traditions — change what they are able to perceive?

That question runs through his art. Das was the lead artist of Navagunjara Reborn, a Burning Man Honoraria project realized in 2025 and reincarnated in 2026, in which artisans in Odisha, India and engineers in Arizona co-created an 18-foot mythological figure — nine animals in one being — through a digital-physical pipeline spanning two continents. The project, documented in his Engineering Mythology papers, treats craft mastery, structural engineering, and myth as interacting knowledge systems, and its lifecycle — including theft, federal customs bonds, storms, and deliberate transformation — as data.

Raised near the coal mines of India, where he first fell in love with machines, Das has spent his career learning how they work — and, lately, what they mean. He practices archery, and writes everything down.

Short bio

Jnaneshwar Das is a roboticist and artist at Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration and founder of the nonprofit Earth Innovation Hub. His research spans adaptive robotic sampling, digital twins, and maximum-caliber approaches to how perceiving systems evolve. He was lead artist of Navagunjara Reborn, a Burning Man Honoraria sculpture created with master artisans of Odisha, India through a transcontinental digital-physical workflow — a project he documents as both public art and experiment. Raised near India's coal mines, he fell in love with machines early, and never stopped.

Contact and records

email

djnan@asu.edu

lab

DREAMS Laboratory · github.com/DREAMS-lab

nonprofit

earthinnovationhub.org

university

ASU profile · CV

indices

Google Scholar · arXiv

elsewhere

Instagram · LinkedIn