Hi there! I’m an incoming Assistant Professor, joining Cornell CS in fall 2025. Until then, I’m working as a Research Scientist at The AI Institute.
I want to make robots move like humans. My work integrates machine learning, computer vision, and control theory to imbue robots with surprising agility and robustness for contact-rich tasks like manipulation and locomotion. This approach balances theoretical foundations with practical algorithms to build robots with human-level dexterity and flexibility in the real world.
Prospective students: I’m looking for motivated students to join my lab! If you have a strong background in robotics or machine learning, please apply to the Cornell CS PhD program and mention my name in your application.
🤖 June 2024: I’ve joined The AI Institute as a research scientist! Excited to work on contact-rich planning and 3D vision for dexterous mobile manipulation.
🎓 May 2024: Happy to announce I’ll be joining Cornell CS as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2025!
* denotes equal contribution.
Generative Modeling of Residuals for Real-Time Risk-Sensitive Safety with Discrete-Time Control Barrier Functions
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2024.
[paper] [project page] [video]
Input-to-State Stability in Probability
IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2023.
[paper]
CATNIPS: Collision Avoidance Through Neural Implicit Probabilistic Scenes
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2023.
[paper] [project page] [code]
FRoGGeR: Fast Robust Grasp Generation via the Min-Weight Metric
IEEE/RSJ Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2023.
[paper] [project page] [code]
Robust Safety under Stochastic Uncertainty with Discrete-Time Control Barrier Functions
Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), 2023.
[paper]
Multi-Robot Assembly Scheduling for the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope on the Far-Side of the Moon
IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2022.
[paper]
Vision-Only Robot Navigation in a Neural Radiance World
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2021.
[paper] [project page] [code] [video]
CoCo: Online Mixed-Integer Control via Supervised Learning
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2021.
[paper]
TrajectoTree: Trajectory Optimization Meets Tree Search for Planning Multi-contact Dexterous Manipulation
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2021.
[paper]
Decentralized Adaptive Control for Collaborative Manipulation
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2018. Best Manipulation Paper; Finalist, Best Multi-Robot Systems Paper.
[paper]
Simultaneous Active Parameter Estimation and Control Using Sampling-Based Bayesian Reinforcement Learning
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2017.
[paper]
Previous Courses:
- Course Assistant: AA273: "State Estimation and Filtering for Aerospace Systems," Stanford University, Spring 2018, 2021, 2022.
- Course Assistant: AA277: "Multi-robot Control, Communication, and Sensing," Stanford University, Winter 2018
Social Justice + Broader Impacts:
I'm excited to explore the potential social impacts of robots and their application in society. I think it's crucial that roboticists anticipate negative social outcomes of our work and advocate for a more equitable and just society. I would be interested and excited to brainstorm projects along these lines (especially with social scientists) -- please reach out if you're interested!
Outside of robotics, my activism focuses mostly on issues around homelessness and housing, particularly in Los Angeles, where I lived until recently.
Hobbies
Outside of research, I spend my time baking, backpacking, climbing, and wrangling my
raccooncat Huxley.