About Me

(in about 551 words)

Intro

I enjoy thinking about problems in scalable robot learning and reinforcement learning, and I’m motivated to push the frontier of robotics intelligence by enabling robots to robustly adapt to unseen scenarios, efficiently leverage the use of diverse information sources, and reliably improve themselves over time. In the long term, I’m excited about a future where everyone can easily teach their own robots continuously throughout their lifetime.

At Penn, I work on several directions that reflect this vision:

  • Under the guidance of Professors Eric Eaton, Jorge Méndez Méndez, and Dani S. Bassett, I study compositional zero-shot data generation, where agents can tackle new tasks by recombining prior knowledge.

  • Supervised by Professors Dinesh Jayaraman and Osbert Bastani, I develop LLM-guided reward design, conduct large-scale RL training for dexterous tool use, and work on articulated simulation alignment with real-world physics.

  • Working under Professor Kostas Daniilidis, I study uncertainty-driven residual reinforcement learning to efficiently correct pretrained manipulation policies.

  • I also learn a lot from Marcel Hussing, who focuses on reliable RL, Junyao Shi, who brings internet-scale data knowledge into robotics, and Subin Kim, who I extensively collaborate with on general-purpose manipulation.

Before Penn, I studied interpretable reinforcement learning at A*STAR Singapore under Dr. Senthilnath Jayavelu, focusing on symbolic policies and latent representations to improve transparency in decision-making. As an undergraduate at VinUniversity with Professor Van-Dinh Nguyen, I applied RL to next-generation telecommunication networks, exploring resource allocation and network slicing, and completed my thesis on adaptive robotic parameter optimization using RL. As an engineering lead intern at Huawei Vietnam, I applied machine learning to IoT systems, leading a project on sleep-stage classification and representing Vietnam at the Asia-Pacific Seeds for the Future Summit.

Selected Media coverage

Selected Awards

  • Full Scholarship, Entrepreneurship Immersion Program, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University (2024)
  • Team Leader, Top 20 Globally, Huawei Tech4Good Startup Competition (2024)
  • Singapore International Pre-Graduate Award, A*STAR, Ministry of Trade & Industry of Singapore (2023)
  • EXCEL Award for Entrepreneurial Mindset (2022), EXCEL Award for Leadership (2023), VinUniversity
  • Best Research Poster Award, VinUni College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) Day 2023
  • Dean's List, VinUniversity (2021-2023)
  • Co-Founder, led fundraising for agri-fintech startup TinFam, won Most Favorite Team, TechYouth Incubator (2022)

Selected Services

  • Board Member, Industry Advisory Board, College of Engineering & Computer Science, VinUniversity (2026)
  • President, Penn Robotics Entrepreneurs Club, University of Pennsylvania (2025-2026)
  • Academic Journal Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE) (2026)
  • Teaching Assistant, CIS 580 Machine Perception (3D Vision - Graduate Level), University of Pennsylvania (2025)
  • Speaker & Organizer, "How To Train Your Robots" motivational talks, Can Tho, Vietnam (2024-2025)
  • Professional Advisor, Mid-Atlantic Capital Conference, Philadelphia Alliance for Capital & Technologies (2024)
  • Founder, VinUni Football Community, first recreational sports initiative at VinUniversity (2022-2024)
  • Vice President of Professional (Drummer, Guitarist & Vocalist), VinUni Harmony, VinUniversity (2022-2023)
  • English Teacher, "English for Children at Cai Rang Floating Market", Can Tho, Vietnam (2019)