Alan Yu

I'm an MEng student at MIT LIDS advised by Luca Carlone. Previously, I did my B.S. in CS + AI ('24) at MIT, advised by Phillip Isola. I study robot learning and am interested in helping robots understand the real world and its complexities.

Currently, I'm working on hierarchial representations and using synthetic data to train robots.

In my free time I enjoy swimming and attempting to play the guitar.

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Research

We use generative models as a realistic and diverse data source by augmenting classical physics simulators. We demonstrate that robots trained this way can accomplish highly dynamic tasks like parkour without requiring depth.

We distill features from 2D foundation models into 3D feature fields, and enable few-shot language-guided manipulation that generalizes across object poses, shapes, appearances and categories.

Teaching

TA for Robotics: Science and Systems (6.4200), Spring 2024.