Mona Jalal

Senior Computer Vision Research Engineer at Toyota Material Handling North America

3D Computer Vision6D Pose EstimationRobotics & Industrial AutomationSynthetic Data GenerationSim-to-Real TransferMLOps

About

I am Mona Jalal, a Senior Computer Vision Research Engineer at Toyota Material Handling North America. My career has been a journey through the intersection of deep academic research and real-world industrial application, having moved from PhD research at Boston University and internships at NVIDIA and Twitter into the Advanced R&D space. I specialize in 3D vision, 6D pose estimation, and bridging the 'Sim-to-Real' gap to make robotics more reliable in complex environments like warehouses. I am deeply passionate about moving spatial computing forward and advocating for normalcy-based learning in defect detection. Beyond the lab, I am a strong supporter of the growing tech ecosystem in Indiana. I love connecting with fellow researchers and engineers to discuss how we can reduce the friction between perception and actuation to solve the next generation of automation challenges.

Networking

What I can offer

›Technical insights into deploying AI in complex industrial environments
›Expertise in 3D scene reconstruction and robotics perception
›Guidance on Sim2Real workflows and synthetic data generation

Looking for

›expanding my professional network
›exploring mutual opportunities in robotics and computer vision

Best fit for

Robotics researchersComputer vision engineersIndustrial automation professionalsIndiana tech community

Current Interests

Sim-to-Real bridgingGaussian Splatting and 4D splatsPhysics-Informed AIIndiana tech ecosystem growthMixed-case palletizing

Background

Career

Transitioned from academic research at Boston University and UW-Madison through internships at NVIDIA, Twitter, and DawnLight into senior industrial R&D at Toyota.

Education

MS Computer Science (Boston University), MS Computer Science (UW-Madison), MS Electrical Engineering (UW-Madison), MS Computer Engineering (Sharif University of Technology), BS Computer Engineering (National University of Iran).

Achievements

›Recipient of O-1A Visa (Extraordinary Ability) and NIW U.S. Permanent Residency
›Inventor with multiple patents in industrial AI and perception systems
›Area Chair and Workshop Organizer for CVPR, ICCV, WACV, and NeurIPS

Opinions

Industry relies too heavily on rare defect samples; advocates for normalcy-based learning like PatchCore.
Spatial computing must move beyond '3D UI in a box' toward meaningful interaction primitives.
Object-centric reconstruction is superior to monolithic scene guesses for production reliability.