Robotics Engineer, MRes, BEng.

I am a PhD student at the Intelligent Robotics Group, Department of Computer Science, University College London. Before joining UCL, I was a Robotics Research Engineer at EPFL, Switzerland, for my master's valorisation. I earned my Master of Research degree in Medical Robotics with Distinction from the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery at Imperial College London. I am grateful to be supported by Chiang Chen Foundation and Imperial College during my master's degree. Prior to Imperial, I spent my last year undergraduate at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, mainly for my bachelor's thesis. I obtained my Bachelor of Engineering degree in Automation from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in June 2023, with a semester abroad at KTH and a year abroad at ETH Zurich, and with the highest honor "Top Ten Outstanding Graduates of Harbin Institute of Technology" (哈尔滨工业大学十佳大学生).

Research Interest

My PhD research aims to understand animals through robotics. I am particularly interested in how cheetahs optimize stability, efficiency, and agility in their movement. To study this, I am exploring Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL) and Inverse Optimal Control (IOC) as tools to uncover the principles underlying cheetah locomotion. More broadly, I envision robotics as a scientific method to investigate animal biomechanics, bridging neuromechanics, control theory, and biorobotics to gain new insights into locomotor strategies in nature.

My general research interest is at the intersection of Robotics, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning, particularly with applications in lab automation, dexterous manipulation, life sciences and healthcare.

My motto is: if I am going to do something, I want to learn how to do it well. I might not become the best in the world at it, but I will learn how the people who are the best in the world are doing it.

Research & Development help get myself out of the comfort zone and push my boundaries. I like to put theory into practice. Most of the time, I am driven by problems rather than methods. I often think about how my work can make a difference. I enjoy the sense of achievements when my projects are published and seen by the world that it may someday aid those in need, or even pioneer new directions in my field. Ever since I could remember, a robot/machine that actually does something on its own makes me excited. In my life, I like working in a diverse and interdisciplinary environment.