Principal Investigator
Director, Human-Centered Robotics Lab
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Master's Program Director
Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS)
University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst)
Core Faculty, Robotics @ UMass Amherst
Ph.D. Students
Williard Joshua Jose
Ph.D. student in CS
B.S. in Electronics and Communications Engineering, University of the Philippines, 2017
Research interests: multi-agent reinforcement learning for robotics, robot adaptation, andbilevel optimization
Oscar Youngquist
Ph.D. student in CS
M.S. in Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2022
B.S. in Computer Science and Computational Science, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, 2020
Research interests: physics-informed robot learning, robot adaptation, lifelong autonomy
Ph.D. student in CS
B.S. in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, 2020
Research interests: humanoid robotics, lifelong autonomy, robot learning and adaptation
Seohyun (Shauna) Choi
Ph.D. student in CS
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, 2023
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, 2021
Research interests: robot learning and adaptation, lifelong autonomy
Ph.D. student in CS
B.S. in Electronics Engineering, Sookmyung Women's University, 2024
Research interests: robot learning and adaptation, lifelong autonomy, multisensory perception
Zihao Deng
Ph.D. student in CS
B.S. in Computer Science, University of California Davis, 2022
Research interests: robot teaming, robot adaptation and learning
Master Students
Pablo Ghezzi
M.S. student in CS
Research interests: quadruped locomotion and simulation
Wenhan Li
M.S. student in CS
Research interests: generalized robotic control
Yuhao Li
Post-Baccalaureate Volunteer Research Assistant
B.S. in ECE, Shanghai JiaoTong University, 2022-2022
B.S. in CS, University of Wisconsin, 2022-2025
Research interests: multi-agent reinforcement learning for robotics
Avinash Nandyala
M.S. student in CS
Research interests: robot adaptation, legged robotics
Chatura Samarasinghe
M.S. student in CS
Research interests: humanoid robotics
Shiyu Zhang
M.S. student in CS
Research interests: humanoid robotics
HCRL Alumni
Peng Gao
Ph.D., Summer'22, Postdoc, Summer'24
Assistant Professor at NCSU
Sriram Siva
Ph.D., Spring'23
Distinguished Postdoc at Army Research Lab (ARL)
Brian Reily
Ph.D., Spring'21
Roboticist at Army Research Lab (ARL)
Fei Han
Ph.D., Spring'18
Applied Scientist at Amazon Lab126
Xue Yang
Postdoc, Spring'16
Google
M.S. students:
Trung Quoc Nguyen
M.S., Summer'25
Rishav Dutta
M.S., Spring'25
Varun T. Shankarappa
M.S., Fall'24
Chinmay Pendse
M.S., Fall'24
Min-Hsuan (Samuel) Yeh
M.S., Spring'23
Nathaniel Gyory
M.S. Thesis, Spring'23
Qingzhao Zhu
M.S., Summer'22
Alexandra Joseph
M.S., Spring'22
Evan Lim
M.S., Spring'21
Kristin Farris
M.S., Fall'20
Easton Bornemeier
M.S., Spring'20
Savannah Paul
M.S., Spring'20
Joseph Hankin
M.S., Spring'20
Naveen Shankar Mitikiri
M.S., Summer'20
Ziling Zhang
M.S. Thesis, Fall'19
Zachary Nahman
M.S. Thesis, Fall'19
Saichand Bandarupalli
M.S., Spring'18
Matt Bailey
M.S., Spring'17
Ashwin Mathur
M.S., Spring'17
Tyler Lyons
M.S., Spring'16
Nathan Huff
M.S., Spring'15