Jun Jin, PhD

Area of Study / Keywords

Robotics Machine Learning Reinforcement Learning

About

I am an assistant professor in the ECE department at the University of Alberta and a Fellow of Amii. My research focuses on solving some of the most pressing challenges in robot learning, ensuring robots can learn efficiently, adapt to changing conditions, and interact safely within human environments. My work in real-world robotic reinforcement learning received the Outstanding Student Paper Award Honorable Mention in ICRA 2022 (the flagship conference of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society) and the KUKA Innovation Award 2018 Global top-5. Before joining the University of Alberta, I gained eight years of professional experience in autonomous driving, autonomous open-pit mining, and construction automation. I love hiking and solo camping in the Rocky Mountains.

Personal website: https://www.ece.ualberta.ca/~jjin5/

Research

Areas

• Robotics
• Machine Learning
• Reinforcement Learning

Interests

I am interested in Robotics and Machine Learning research. Specifically, I focus on topics in robotic reinforcement learning, which intersects with embodied artificial intelligence, the theory of predictive coding, continual learning, and open-ended learning agents.

My long-term goal is to develop scalable learning architectures and algorithms to make robots agile to move, easier to program, and human-aware to interact with, which in all compose my vision for the future of robotics and artificial intelligence: Human-Centered Autonomy. Visit my website for more details.

Teaching

Starting in 2024, I teach a new course, ECE 720 B01 Robot Learning: Principles and Advances, every winter term. This course covers topics in robot learning (60% reinforcement learning, 20% continual learning, 20% embodied AI).

I love working with students! I am looking for highly motivated students to join my group, the Human-Centered Autonomy Lab. Read here if you expect a strong reply from me. Students in my group will be able to join the Amii student intra-network, which provides abundant resources regarding funding, computing, and industrial connections.

HCA Reading Club - Share, Learn, and Improve

• Our lab hosts a reading club in AI and robotics every Monday morning. The reading club is open to the public. Scroll down on my webpage for more information.
• Past presentations

I welcome undergraduate students who are currently at the UofA and are interested in joining a research project in my lab. But research requires essential skills. Please firstly join our reading club regularly which will help you prepare the background skills needed. Due to the massive inquiries I received each week, I cannot respond in a timely manner. Please be prepared that it's relatively very competitive to get an RA position in my lab.

ECE 720 - Advanced Topics in Software Engineering and Intelligent Systems

Browse more courses taught by Jun Jin