« Back to People Page


About Me

I work on Autonomous Systems and develop solutions in AI and Robotics. I direct the Vehicle Autonomy and Intelligence Lab (VAIL).

Before joining Indiana University in 2017, I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California since 2015. I also spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Field Robotics Center of Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University during 2013-2015. I obtained my PhD from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University in 2013.

Some Recent/Past Activities

2022-10: I start serving as an Associate Editor for Autonomous Robots (AURO) journal.

2022-06: I start serving as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE).

2019-10: I co-organized a TED-talk style AI workshop on "Indiana National Lab Day" in Indianaplis. We had a selective list of speakers who are renowned professors and scientists from University of Notre Dame, Purdue University, Indiana Innovation Institute, Indiana University, as well as Program Directors from 5 National Labs in different regions of US.

2017-04: I co-organized the second Southern California Robotics Symposium (SCR 2017) which was held on the beautiful campus of USC on April 14, 2017. This year's event has been a big success and we had over 300 attendees. There were 15 speakers, 25 accepted posters, and 16 exhibition booths, from both academia and industry.

2016-04: I co-organized the inaugural Southern California Robotics Symposium (SCR 2016) that was held on the campus of UCSD on 4/22, 2016. We achieved a great success, with an amazing line-up of speakers and around 300 participants.



Course(s) Teaching in Spring 2024

E399/599: Autonomous Robotics

This course covers foundational theories, methods, and technologies needed by modern autonomous robots. Topics related to modeling robotic systems that can acquire and use knowledge, plan and control, learn and reason, communicate and coordinate, will be discussed. This course will involve several coding assignments/projects, so experience with a programming language (at least Python) is expected. Course materials are provided at IU Canvas.


Courses Taught in the Past

E399/599: Autonomous Robots; Fall 20/21/22/23

E502/399: Introduction to Cyber-Physical Systems; Spring 18/19/20/21/22/23/24; Fall 19

E503/399: Introduction to Intelligent Systems; Fall 18

E599: Special topics on Autonomous Robotics Planning and Learning; Fall 17

E500: Seminar Course: Introduction to Intelligent Systems Engineering (co-instructor); Fall 17-now


For Prospective Students

If you have an interest in pursuing a PhD with me, I want to thank you for your interest in our work! Strongly motiviated students who have certain background in AI and/or robotics are always welcome. But to make sure we are a good match, I would suggest you first go browse our recent publications and reserach projects before sending me your CV/Resume and transcripts. Note, I might not be able to reply each email due to the high volume of emails that I have to process everyday.

Motivated IU undergraduate/Master students are also welcome to work with me. I would strongly suggest you take one of my courses so that I know you (this also allows you to get preliminary knowledge of our research). If you have decided to contact me, please browse my research topics and select one or two potential topics that you are most interested in, then send me an email including your CV/Resume and most transcripts along with your selected topics. We can set up a meeting and discuss potential projects.