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.
I am seeking self-motivated MSc and PhD students to join my lab for the Winter/Fall term of 2025.
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.
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 and a Research Statement to me. I care most about your research statement, so please take the time to explain to me
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.
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:
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!
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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.