AI & Robotics Research in the University of Alberta

The University of Alberta has a long history of strong academic profile in AI & Robotics research. According to CSRankings, which is an academic-metric only benchmark measuring citations in the most prestigious publication venues, AI & Robotics research in the UofA ranks 2nd in Canada and 13th in North America. Particularly, reinforcement learning research in the UofA has gained its reputations of accelerating the success of Google DeepMind AlphaGO.

Open positions

I am seeking 2 MSc and 1 PhD students to join my lab for the Sep 2024 fall Admission. Graduate students in my lab will be fully funded as RAs. Additionally, as a fellow of Amii, students in my lab can join the Amii student intra-network that provides abundant resources regarding funding, computing, media coverage, academic events, and industrial connections.

Requirements:

• A MSc/BSc degree in ECE, computer science, machine learning, or a related field.
• Highly motivated to conduct top-tier research in machine mearning and robotics.
• Strong programming skills.
• Excellent communication skills in English.

**For students who are already in Canada, please contact me individually if you are looking for admission in Jan 2024, winter term.**

How to apply?

Please check the ECE department's website about graduate admissions. Note that all applications will be reviewed by the department's graduate admission committee. If you are interested in working with me, please contact me at least 6 months prior to the application deadline.

How to contact me?

When contact me, please send your CV + research statement to me. I care most about your research statement, so please take the time to explain to me why my stated research topics motivate you to pursue more in-depth research at the University of Alberta, and how your previous experience can help you succeed in the aforementioned research areas. I have received tons of inquiries recently. I feel sorry for not being able to respond to each inquiry. If you expect a strong reply from me, please do your homework.

If you are already in UofA

I welcome undergraduate and graduate students who are already at the University of Alberta to work with me. Particularly, I welcome students from the ECE, CS, Mech Eng, Civil Eng, and Psychology to work with me in either scientific or applied research related to robotics and machine learning. If you are interested, please read the above message and send me your CV + full Transcripts + Research Statement, which can better help me to decide possible projects, collaboration forms and funding sources for you. Then we can book an appointment to meet up.

Letters to prospective students

What do I care about most in your application?

I care about most whether you are truly motivated and excited about my focused research topics. By examing your application material (research statement), I am looking for answers to the four "did the student actually" questions in your research statement:

• (1) Did the student actually know what I am working on?
• (2) Did the student actually read my paper A?
• (3) Did the student spend extra time reading the basic background of my research domain?
• (4) Did the student even spend > 2 weeks trying to understand the research question I proposed in my research roadmap?

The above four questions can help me answer the question: is the student really passionate about my research areas?

What will I actually NOT care about that much in your application?

I don't quite care about if you have a good background of machine learning, reinforcement learning or robotics. Nor do I care about if you have published top-tier conference papers in related fields. However, if you have, this will be a plus since I can always infer your research style by reading your papers.

You may be surprised about that. Let me explain, I am truly a believer in the benefits of prompting EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) and I actually benefited from such practice by others prompting EDI. My experience tells me that, a student's success is not bounded by his/her prior background, but by the inner desire that drives him/her to devote days and nights to just discovering the truth underneath a research question. So, if you are truly passionate about my research area, don't wait, show me your passion, and go for admission!

Why come to the city of Edmonton?

Edmonoton is the capital city of the Alberta province of Canada, which is the home of two astonishing national parks in the Rocky Mountains: the Jasper National Park and the Banff National Park. I'm afraid I can't explain well in language about how you will fall in love immediately with the amazing nature in Alberta, but I guess, only pictures can express a little bit.

AND, Edmonton is a friendly city which values diversity. It is ranked as one of the most affordable cities in Canada. For families with kids, the quality of Edmonton's public education has its reuptations in Canada, and the city provides various affordable facilities for kids to play, to learn and to grow in Canada. More infos can be found here.