Fellows

Yun Zhang

I’m Yun Zhang, an incoming Ph.D. student at UCLA’s Mobility Lab, where I design intelligent infrastructure and cooperative perception systems to advance autonomous vehicle safety and efficiency. My research spans multi‑camera 3D object detection, sensor‑placement optimization, and simulation‑driven evaluation, with recent highlights in infrastructure sensor assessment, V2X perception, mapping, and the Vision‑Language‑Action project.

Manuela Moura

I am an undergraduate student in Control and Automation Engineering at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, currently an active member of the Computer Vision and Robotics Laboratory. My interests include autonomous vehicles, human-robot interaction, and control theory, with a particular focus on integrating artificial neural networks into these domains.

Wanjia Fu

My name is Wanjia Fu, and I'm currently a rising senior working as Undergraduate Research Assistant at Brown Intelligent Robotics and Brown Interactive 3D Vision & Learning Lab. I am interested in robotic tactile sensing and hand object dynamics for robotics, and I'm exploring hand eye calibration and world models for robot learning. My recent work realizes whole-robot touch sensing without tactile sensors that is solely based on inherent joint torque sensors, and it demonstrates applications in physical Human Robot Interaction on Spot quadruped from Boston Dynamics and Franka Research 3 arm model from Franka Robotics. 

Maria Eduarda Silva de Macedo

My name is Maria Eduarda, and I hold a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina (IFSC), Brazil. Currently, I am a second-year master's student in Applied Computing at the Santa Catarina State University (UDESC), Brazil, and a member of the Systems Automation and Robotics Group (GASR), where I conduct research on swarm robotics based on minimalist control strategies. I aim to establish myself as a researcher in the field of robotics, and I believe that attending RSS 2025 will be highly valuable for advancing my early career.

Grace Pan

I am a Robotics PhD student at the University of Michigan, specializing in human-robot interaction with an emphasis on physical touch in clinical settings. One of my projects in the Robot Studio Lab involves designing socially engaging characters for a robotic OCT system aimed at making pediatric eye exams more accurate and less intimidating. This interdisciplinary research incorporates principles from UX design, fashion, and medicine to enhance the safety, comfort, and emotional experience for young patients.

Andrea Yanez Trujillo

I completed my undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at my home country: Ecuador. Last year, I finished an MSc in Mechatronics and Robotics at the University of Leeds. Since November, I am doing a PhD in magnetic and sensorised soft vine robotics with the aim to functionalize these robots for minimally invasive neurosurgeries.

Ana Paula Chiarelli de Souza

I’m a senior undergraduate student in Computer Science at Santa Catarina State University (UDESC) in Brazil and a member of the Systems Automation and Robotics Group (GASR).

My final-year project explores swarm robotics, focusing on how evolutionary algorithms can discover emergent behaviors in robotic swarms, a topic I plan to explore further in a research master’s degree starting next year.

Sebastian Leonardo Molina Diaz

Sebastian Molina is a Computer Scientist from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and a PhD student at Florida International University. At the Motion Robotics and Automation Lab (MoRA), his works bridges his interest in robotics, planning, and reasoning.

Zeyun Deng

My name is Zeyun Deng, and I am a first-year Master's student in Computer Science at Purdue University, advised by Prof. Joseph Campbell. My research focuses on reinforcement learning and transfer learning, with an emphasis on developing methods to enable effective policy transfer between tasks, particularly under distributional shift.

Marfred Barrera

I am an undergraduate senior at UC San Diego and an incoming Mechanical Engineering PhD student at UC Berkeley from Los Angeles, CA. My research interests and experiences lie in safety for autonomous systems as well as stochastic optimal control, bridging concepts from the fields of reachability, estimation, and Monte Carlo methods. 

Chiamaka Akah

I completed my undergraduate degree in Mechatronics Engineering (Robotics and Automation) at the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) in Nigeria, where I graduated with First-Class Honours. I am currently an Electrical Engineering Ph.D. student at the Bendable Electronics and Sustainable Technologies (BEST) Lab at Northeastern University Boston.

My research focuses on soft, skin-inspired systems that integrate actuators with tactile sensors to replicate the coupling between human skin and muscle, forming the foundation for Electronic Skin in robotic applications. The goal of my work is to enable robots to sense touch like humans do and also express emotions such as smiling or frowning through programmable actuation and shape morphing of integrated sensor-actuator arrays in the electronic skin.

Oluwatooni Joel Adebayo

An MSc student at Carnegie Mellon University, with interests at the intersection of Robot Mobility, Manipulation, and Perception. Over the past year, I have been involved in ongoing research at the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Lab, under the supervision of Prof David Vernon. Beyond academics, I teach and advocate for STEM education in underserved communities. As an RSS Fellow, I am excited to further my research journey in general-purpose robotic manipulation, robot learning from demonstration, and navigation in dynamic environments.

Samuel Serna Pulgarin