Yanning Dai
PhD Student @ KAUST | Email = yanning.dai [at] kaust.edu.sa
Hi! I am a second-year PhD student working with Prof.
Jürgen Schmidhuber
at KAUST Center of Excellence for Generative AI.
Previously, I received my M.S. and B.E. degrees in Electrical Engineering from
Beihang University, advised by Prof.
Shuo Gao in 2023 and 2020.
Research: My research interests span Reinforcement Learning, Robot Learning, and LLM Reasoning.
I study how structured interactions between components or agents can enable more efficient, stable,
and generalizable intelligence, ranging from algorithmic foundations to embodied systems.
Actively looking for research internship opportunities. Feel free to reach out for collaboration!
Google Scholar /
Github /
LinkedIn /
CV
News
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Jan 2026
ICLR 2026
Our paper on Morphology-Control Co-Design is accepted to ICLR 2026!
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Jun 2025
IROS 2025
Our paper on Soft RL Robot Platform is accepted to IROS 2025!
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Sep 2024
IROS 2024
Our poster (Late-Breaking Results) on Soft Starfish Robot is accepted to IROS 2024!
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Jun 2024
PhD
Start my PhD journey at KAUST with Prof. Jürgen Schmidhuber.
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Apr 2024
Award
Selected as Rising Stars in AI by KAUST AI Initiative!
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Education
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M.S. in Electrical Engineering @ Beihang University
Beijing, China · GPA: 3.8/4.0
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Sep. 2020 – Jul. 2023
Advisor: Prof. Shuo Gao
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B.E. in Electrical Engineering @ Beihang University
Beijing, China · GPA: 3.8/4.0
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Sep. 2016 – Jul. 2020
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Research Experience
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Tsinghua University
Research Intern, Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital
Built data-driven world models for patient-specific recovery dynamics on large-scale clinical datasets.
Jan 2024 – May 2024
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Beihang University
Research Assistant, Advanced Sensing and Intelligent Systems Lab
Developed reinforcement learning and generative models for personalized digital human systems and behavior generation in stroke rehabilitation.
Jun 2023 – Jan 2024
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National Engineering Research Center for Ophthalmic Diagnosis
Research Intern
Modeled patient-specific temporal dynamics of myopia progression from longitudinal ophthalmic data.
Jun 2022 – Jun 2023
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Selected Honors and Awards
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Rising Stars in AI, KAUST AI Initiative (30 Awardees Worldwide)
Apr 2024
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Outstanding Graduates in Beijing, Beijing Municipal Education Commission (Top 2%)
Jun 2023
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National Scholarship, Ministry of Education of China (Top 1%)
Dec 2022
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3rd Class Award of Science and Technology, China Instrument and Meter Society (National S&T Award)
Oct 2022
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China Instrument and Control Society Scholarship, 1st Class Award (Top Society Award, Top 1%)
Nov 2019
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29th Fengru Cup Science and Technology Contest, 1st Class Award, Beihang University (Top 1%)
Jun 2019
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Teaching
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Teaching Assistant, IntelliSense and Autonomous Systems, Beihang University
Spring 2023
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Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Smart Sensing Systems, Beihang University
Fall 2022
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