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Prospective Students

Graduate students

Graduate students interested in joining the robotics group must follow the formal application procedure. Please check the graduate division website for details and deadlines. Additional information can be found on the EECS website. This applies to both students applying to the MS and PhD programs. Please note that I only supervise PhD students in EECS. If you plan to enroll in a different graduate program, I will not serve as your primary advisor, although I could be in the committee.

Important: I do not directly admit graduate students. Recommendations for admission are formulated by an ad-hoc committee that only evaluates all completed applications. Admissions are eventually managed by the graduate division. There are no workarounds to this policy. Therefore, it is useless to send me CVs or other documents if a formal application is not submitted. For the same reasons, I cannot provide informal feedback about your qualifications, and due to the sheer number of inquiries and requests I receive, I cannot arrange individual lab visits or interviews before you are admitted to the program. If you want to specialize in robotics during your graduate studies at UC Merced, please submit the required official papers to the graduate division office, and outline your research interests in the cover letter or statement of purposes. Any other shortcut will not work. Financial support may be available on a competitive basis for exceptionally qualified admitted applicants and priority is given to Ph.D. students.

Undergraduate students

I offer undergraduate research experiences to selected undergraduate students in excellent academic standing. If you are  interested, feel free to contact me directly, but please understand that positions are limited and awarded on a competitive basis. Undergraduates participating in the UC LEADS, AGEP, or similar programs are encouraged to apply. Although prior experience in robotics is not a requirement, strong programming skills are a must. The best way to get involved is to take CSE 180 and do well in the class.

Internships

I routinely receive emails from international students looking for internships in the robotics lab. Unfortunately, the funds I currently have cannot be spent for this purpose. Therefore, unless you come with your own funding, I cannot support these requests. Moreover, due to the large number of inquiries I receive, I cannot individually follow up with each of them, so do not feel offended if I do not reply to your message.