Hi there! I am Dayu Xia (夏大雨), a senior student majoring in Mechanical Engineering @ ZJUI, Zhejiang University and Dept. of MechSE, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign through their joint degree program. I have the honor to be advise by Prof. Liangjing Yang, Prof. Hua Chen from ZJU, and Prof. Dušan M. Stipanović from UIUC.

In Fall 2026, I will be joining Tsinghua University for my Master’s degree in Big Data Technology and Engineering. Previously, I have interned @ IM Motors, working on VLMs in Autonomous Driving.

From June 2024 to April 2025, I worked with Prof. Dušan M. Stipanović, Dr. Srikar Annamraju and Mr. Harris Nisar from CSL, UIUC on a robotic trail maker system facilitating upper-limb rehabilitation. In April 2025, we wrapped up our work: 🌟“Robotic Trail Maker Platform for Rehabilitation in Neurological Conditions: Clinical Use Cases”.

About me

My research interests include VLAs and RL-based control in robotic learning. Especially, I am interested in building efficient and safe end-to-end systems for robots and autonomous vehicles. Check out my CV for more details.

I was born and raised in Shanghai, China. I enjoy swimming, music, photographing and travelling.