Hi, my name is

Saimai Lau.

Robotics, Controls & Human-Centered Systems

Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, working in the Osteo Engineering Lab. I develop autonomous and interactive robotic systems through control theory, state estimation, and hands-on experimentation — and apply the same tools to biological systems, from gut microbial dynamics to inflammatory disease treatment. My long-term goal is to advance human-centered robotics for physical assistance, movement augmentation, and rehabilitation.

About Me

I am a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, working in the Osteo Engineering Lab with Prof. David Dean on the Bendy Bot project. I completed my M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University (GPA 3.91), advised by Prof. Allison Okamura (faculty) and Prof. Michaelle Mayalu (research), and dual B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering (Robotics & Controls) and Mathematics (Applied Science) at UC San Diego in three years, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a 3.95 GPA.

My research interests lie at the intersection of control theory, state estimation, and physical human-robot interaction. I am particularly drawn to biomechatronics, haptic feedback, assistive/rehabilitation robotics, and multi-agent systems.

Born and raised in Hong Kong with Taiwanese roots, I speak Cantonese and Mandarin natively alongside English. Outside of research, I rebuilt my secondary school’s robotics team and established its first STEM club and makerspace.

Technical skills:

Python
ROS 2
MATLAB
C++
Julia
PyTorch
MuJoCo
SOLIDWORKS
LaTeX
Arduino

Research Experience

Osteo Engineering Lab
ILIAD Lab
Mayalu Lab
MURO Lab
Boomerang Aerodynamics Research

Graduate Research Assistant - Osteo Engineering Lab

Jun 2026 - Present

UW–Madison Mechanical Engineering – Advisor: Prof. David Dean

Designing controls for the Bendy Bot, a robotic system for patient-specific bone fixation plate bending, in collaboration with the HAMMER manufacturing research community.

Graduate Researcher - ILIAD Lab

Mar 2026 - Jun 2026

Stanford Computer Science – with PhD student Jennifer Grannen (Advisor: Prof. Dorsa Sadigh)

Co-authored “Overcoming Distribution Shifts with Autonomous Embodied Data Collection,” presented at the IEEE ICRA 2026 Workshop Beyond Teleop.
Built an autonomous robot data-collection pipeline (TidyBot++ mobile base + Franka FR3 arm + iPhone RGBD) using ROS 2 and multimodal LLMs to target distribution gaps for fine-tuning trajectory-conditioned models.

Graduate Researcher - Mayalu Lab

Sep 2024 - Jun 2026

Stanford Mechanical Engineering – Advisor: Prof. Michaelle Mayalu

Co-authored “Optimal Control Strategies for Cutaneous Inflammatory Disease Treatment Using a Predictive Multi-scale Model,” presented at the American Control Conference (ACC) 2026.
Designed and implemented a Pontryagin-based hybrid optimal-control framework combining impulsive phototherapy with continuous probiotics for a 5-state ODE model of gut-skin-immune dynamics.
Built a species-level gut microbial ODE model from cross-sectional shotgun metagenomics data using MICOM flux-balance analysis to infer growth rates, Dirichlet synthetic sampling for data augmentation, and Hill-function ODE fitting — replacing the hand-tuned lumped model from the ACC paper with a data-driven plant model for optimal treatment design.

Undergraduate Researcher - MURO Lab

Jun 2023 - Jun 2024

UC San Diego – Advisor: Prof. Sonia Martinez

Implemented distributed MEKF-SLAM and cyclic-pursuit coordination algorithms on TurtleBot4s using ROS 2, LiDAR, IMU, RGB-D cameras, and Marvelmind UWB beacons.
Developed the ROS 2 implementation for distributed Gaussian Variational Inference (DGVI) mapping on multi-robot teams.
Co-presented poster: “Distributed Variational Inference for Online Supervised Learning” at the 2023 Southern California Robotics Symposium, UC Irvine.

Undergraduate Researcher - Boomerang Aerodynamics Research

Jan 2023 - Jun 2024

UC San Diego – Advisor: Prof. Prasad Gudem

Derived analytical expressions for lift, drag, and torque in tribladder boomerang designs with systematic wing offsets.
Parametric CAD in SOLIDWORKS; field validation via UWB positioning and drone-based 3D trajectory tracking.

Education

Jun 2026 - Present

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Osteo Engineering Lab — Advisor: Prof. David Dean. Working on the Bendy Bot project.

Sep 2024 - Jun 2026

M.S. Mechanical Engineering

Stanford University

GPA: 3.91

Depth: Robotics & Kinematics | Breadth: Biomechanical Engineering, Automatic Controls

Key coursework: Machine Learning (Andrew Ng), Decision Making Under Uncertainty (Kochenderfer), Robot Autonomy (Bohg/Schwager), State Estimation & Filtering (Schwager), Optimal & Learning-Based Control (Pavone), Design & Control of Haptic Systems (Okamura), Biomechanics of Movement (Delp), Spectral Methods (Moin), Computer Graphics & Simulation (James/Liu), Soft Robotics (Zhao), Collaborative Robotics (Kennedy), FEA (Lew).

Aug 2021 - Jun 2024

B.S. Mechanical Engineering (Robotics & Controls) & B.S. Mathematics-Applied Science

University of California San Diego

GPA: 3.95 -- Magna Cum Laude

Completed dual degrees (ME + Mathematics, Applied Science) in three years with Provost Honors every quarter. 258 quarter units total, consistently taking 24-28 units/quarter (7-8 courses vs. the standard 4-5). Near-straight A+ in core engineering and mathematics courses.

Key coursework: Linear Control, Signals & Systems, Embedded Control & Robotics, Spacecraft Guidance, Intro to Autonomous Vehicles, ML Algorithms, Stochastic Processes, Numerical Analysis, Real Analysis, Probability.

Projects

Kotlin Jetpack Compose Android Canvas WorkManager

SchedWall — Schedule Wallpaper App

Android app (Kotlin/Jetpack Compose) that turns weekly schedules into phone wallpapers. Features calendar sync, ICS import/export, AI photo scanning (Claude/GPT-4o/Gemini), customizable themes, background image overlay with crop/zoom/rotate, multi-day events, timezone support, and 7-language localization. Published on Google Play.

ROS 2 Python MuJoCo SAM3 AnyGrasp LLM

Voice-Controlled Bimanual Pick-and-Place Robot

Full-stack ROS 2 system for a bimanual mobile manipulator with voice commands (GCP STT), SAM3 object tracking, AnyGrasp grasp detection, LLM-based autonomous reasoning (Claude AI commander), and 3-phase PID navigation. MuJoCo simulation with custom ArUco scenes.

Python Optimal Control PMP ODE Modeling

Optimal Control for Psoriasis Treatment

Hybrid impulsive/continuous optimal control via Pontryagin's Maximum Principle for a 5-state ODE model coupling immune-skin dynamics with gut microbiome. Forward-backward sweep algorithm. Accepted at American Control Conference (ACC) 2026.

Arduino Processing Julia Haptics

Haptic Brick Breaker

2-DOF haptic game controller using a Peaucellier-Lipkin 8-bar linkage with dual motors for paddle translation and rotation. Proxy-based force rendering, vibromotor feedback, and a Processing game engine. Demonstrated at demo day with 22 players.

ROS 2 YOLO LQR Jetson Nano

Autonomous Tennis Ball Retriever

Autonomous RC car using YOLO object detection on OAK-D stereo camera, LQR path tracking with cubic spline smoothing, and IMU+VESC odometry on Jetson Nano. Full ROS 2 pipeline. Pivoted from GNSS to odometry after discovering camera-GPS interference.

ESP32 GPS LoRa BLE Android

Ropeless Fishing Gear Tracker

Underwater GPS tracking and radio beacon system for ropeless fishing traps, rated to 1,000 ft depth. Arduino Nano ESP32 + NEO-6M GPS with BLE smartphone app, LoRa 915 MHz surface beacon. PVC pressure vessels tested to 1,100 psi. Sponsored by Sub Sea Sonics.

ROS 2 MEKF GVI TurtleBot4

Multi-Robot Distributed SLAM

Implemented MEKF-based localization fusing IMU + UWB beacons, distributed Gaussian Variational Inference for Bayesian occupancy mapping, and cyclic pursuit formation control on TurtleBot4 teams.

SOLIDWORKS MATLAB UWB Aerodynamics

Boomerang Aerodynamics

Derived analytical expressions for lift, drag, and torque in tribladder boomerang designs with systematic wing offsets. Parametric CAD in SOLIDWORKS; field validation via UWB positioning and drone-based 3D trajectory tracking.

Publications

IEEE ICRA 2026 Workshop (Beyond Teleop)

Mo P., Lau S., Gao J., Sadigh D., Grannen J. “Overcoming Distribution Shifts with Autonomous Embodied Data Collection.” IEEE ICRA 2026 Workshop on Beyond Teleop.

American Control Conference (ACC) 2026

Gowri P., Lau S., Mayalu M.N. “Optimal Control Strategies for Cutaneous Inflammatory Disease Treatment Using a Predictive Multi-scale Model.” American Control Conference, 2026.

SoCal Robotics Symposium 2023

Paritosh P., Lau S., Atanasov N., Martinez S. “Distributed Variational Inference for Online Supervised Learning.” Poster presentation, UC Irvine.

Awards

UCSD Provost Honors (2021-2024)

Every quarter for three consecutive years. Magna Cum Laude, dual B.S. in ME + Mathematics.

HK IVE Youth EV Design -- 3rd Place (2020)

Electric vehicle design competition in Hong Kong.

HK PolyU Robotic Challenge -- 2nd Place (2018)

Robotics competition at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

ARL Korea Championship -- Best Structural Design (2017)

Best Structural Design award at the Asia Robotics League Korea Championship.

Get In Touch

I’m always happy to discuss research, collaboration opportunities, or just chat about robotics and controls. Feel free to reach out!

Email me