I am currently a graduate student in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and advised by Chris Atkeson. Previously, I was a student in the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where my research was jointly advised by (in the order of appearance) Magnus Egerstedt, Ayanna Howard, and Mike Stilman.

I am a dynamic figure. By training, I am a computer scientist, an electrical/computer engineer, and a mechanical engineer. By practice, I am a roboticist, a control theorist, or more generally, an engineering mathematician. Whenever my advisors are not paying attention, I am also a quantitative analyst, a Wikipedian, and a cosmopolitan. I have an Erdős number of 4 and my academic genealogy can be traced back to the 15th century Dutch theologian Jan Standonck. I claim to be a licensed amateur radio operator yet never touched a radio. I passed three classes in microelectronic circuits without ever knowing how a p-n junction works. I resemble a man of scientific and intellectual possessions yet my quasi-Jungian persona is the living embodiment of contradictions. I am a pragmatist, an agnosticist, an INTJ, and most just call me an insufferable eccentric. I transcend taxonomies.

My current research focuses on humanoid robots, developing algorithms for planning and control that enable these robots to meet and exceed the capabilities of human beings in performing everyday tasks. My other interests include topics in the general areas of computers and electronics, as well as yoctotechnology, cybernetic epistemology, ergodic and diophantine analysis, as well as galactic domination using powered exoskeletons articulated via vibranium-iron alloys augmented by zero-point modules. And behaviors of the universe.

My long-term goals include a complete reading of the Harvard Classics by August, 2018 and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in December, 2061.

On a separate note…

I was born on July 31, 1988 in Beijing, China, 477 years after the birth of Giorgio Vasari, whose Lives was among the most cherished books in my childhood. I grew up near the ancient walls of Khanbaliq, built in the 13th century by Kublai Khan, forming the earliest layout of the city currently known as Beijing. Reluctantly, I left the picturesque old city for the sparkling monoliths of the United States on December 1, 2000 and lived ten years in the affluent streets of Atlanta before striding off to the sublime bridges of Pittsburgh. I guess that makes me a Pittsburger. In my previous non-academic lives, I’ve planned theoretical missions at JPL to probe small-bodies in our solar system, scribbled poems in the Tang Dynasty style of Jueju, immersed myself in Mozart‘s Le nozze di Figaro, pondered over Bertrand Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy, and agonized at the game of Go. More recently, I’m seen with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a 50mm/f1.4 lens, strolling through Westminster amidst the graves of kings and tracing the footsteps of Casanova down the Grand Canal in a gondola. Robots, Shakespeare, and snowflakes are among my favorite things in life.

I speak both Chinese and English, like both Pepsi and Coke, and endorse both Microsoft and Apple. I enjoy immensely skipping classes, editing Wikipedia, and diagnosing rare medical conditions with Dr. Gregory House, but absolutely despise physical exercise, mushrooms, and analog circuits. I don’t drink coffee. I don’t use chopsticks. I hate pretentious names: it’s large, not “venti”; it’s doughnut, not “torus”. It’s “Lots of Insipid and Stupid Parentheses”, not “functional programming”. I could go on.

My email is robot@cmu.edu

I own a MacBook.

I talk to myself.

If you are dazzled enough by this whirlwind introduction and think we might have an interesting discussion on any aspects of life including mundane topics such as school and research, feel free to contact me. Let’s talk. If you decide to email me, do use the subject “π/2″ to let me know that you are not a robot.