Introduction
I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University. Previously, I was a Senior Scientist in the Learning Systems and Robotics Lab, led by Prof. Angela Schoellig, at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). I obtained my BASc degree in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto in 2016 and my PhD degree from the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) in 2022. After my PhD, I joined the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence as a Postdoctoral Researcher under the co-supervision of Prof. Animesh Garg and Prof. Angela Schoellig.
My research lies at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, and control. The overarching goal is to enable robots to operate safely in unstructured environments and intelligently accomplish tasks alongside humans. Our work ranges from theoretical foundation to practical algorithm design, from single-robot systems to multi-robot systems, and from perfect-feedback approaches to perception-based methods. Our latest research thread explores methods that tightly couple perception, reasoning, and action to enable semantically safe behaviours. See the project page as well as www.semanticcontrol.com for our recent efforts.
Email: siqi@sfu.ca
Office: TASC1 9213, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6
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Annoucements
- 2025-11-23 Prospective Graduate Students: I am looking for motivated MSc and PhD candidates to join my group at Simon Fraser University. If you are interested in advancing robotics and pushing the frontier of safe and reliable autonomy, feel free to contact me directly to discuss potential opportunities. Details on how to apply can be found here: https://www.sfu.ca/fas/study/future-graduates/apply/computing-science.html.
Education
- September 2016 – 2022
PhD in Aerospace Science and Engineering (with Emphasis in Robotics)
Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Toronto
- September 2011 – June 2016
BASc in Engineering Science (High Honours)
Major in Aerospace Engineering & Minor in Robotics and Mechatronics
Division of Engineering Science, University of Toronto
Previous Events
- RSS 2025 Workshop on Robot Evaluation for the Real World
- RSS 2025 Workshop on Reliable Robotics: Safety and Security in the Face of Generative AI
- ICRA 2025 Workshop on Towards Reliable and Trustworthy Embodied AI in Everyday Scenarios
- CoRL 2024 Workshop on Mastering Manipulation in a World of Abundant Data
- RSS 2024 Workshop on Semantics for Robotics: From Environment Understanding and Reasoning to Safe Interaction
- CDC 2023 Workshop on Benchmarking, Reproducibility, and Open-Source Code in Controls
- RSS Pioneers Workshop 2023
- IROS 2022 Safe Robot Learning Competition
- NeurIPS 2021 Workshop on Deployable Decision-Making in Embodied Systems
- IROS 2021 Workshop on Safe Real-World Robot Autonomy
- RSS 2021 Workshop on Robotics for People
Awards and Recognitions
- 2024 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship, European Union (15.8% acceptance rate)
- 2022 RSS Pioneers, Robotics: Science and Systems (35% acceptance rate)
- 2020 MIT Rising Stars in Aerospace, MIT AeroAstro
- 2020 People’s Choice Award in 3MT Competition, University of Toronto Robotics Institute
- 2018 Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, NSERC (ranked 6 out of 133)
- 2016 Award of Excellence, Division of Engineering Science, University of Toronto