
Yulun Tian
Graduate student at MIT AeroAstro
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Email:
yulun [at] mit [dot] edu
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Hi There! I'm Yulun.
I am a graduate student in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, advised by Professor Jonathan How. Previously I was an undergraduate student studying Computer Science at UC Berkeley. My interests lie broadly in robot autonomy and machine learning.
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For a complete list of my publications, please visit my Google Scholar page.
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News:
[06/24/2020] Our new paper, "Asynchronous and Parallel Distributed Pose Graph Optimization", has been accepted in Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)!
[05/26/2020] I'm excited to begin working as a research intern at Facebook Reality Lab this summer!
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EXPERIENCE
Fall 2017 - Present
Research Assistant
Aerospace Controls Lab, MIT
I currently work as research assistant at MIT's Aerospace Controls Lab (ACL). My research focuses on collaborative simultaneous localization and mapping (CSLAM) and multi-agent exploration.
Spring 2017
Teaching Assistant
UC Berkeley
I served as an undergraduate student instructor for EE 122 - Communication Networks. My main duties include holding regular office hours, designing exam questions, and helping with class logistics.
UC Berkeley
I worked as an undergraduate research assistant with Ming Jin and Professor Costas Spanos. Our projects aim to use agile robots to accomplish tasks in the emerging field of smart buildings.
Spring 2016 - Spring 2017
Undergraduate Researcher
Summer 2016
Software Engineering Intern
Oracle
I joined Oracle's Solaris Platform QE group as a software engineering intern. I worked on projects related to test automation, for which I implemented a template-based test suite integration process. I also laid the groundwork for an extensible smart failure analysis tool.
RESEARCH
Distributed Pose Graph Optimization
Forest Search and Rescue using multiple UAVs

Resource-Aware Collaborative SLAM ​
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Near-Optimal Budgeted Data Exchange for Distributed Loop Closure Detection [Paper]
Y. Tian, K. Khosoussi, M. Giamou, J.P. How, J. Kelly
Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) 2018 -
Resource-Aware Algorithms for Distributed Loop Closure Detection with Provable Performance Guarantees [Paper]
Y. Tian, K.Khosoussi, J.P. How
Int. Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR) 2018
Invited to special issue of IJRR
SKILLS
Python
C/C++
SQL
Java
MATLAB
Spark
TensorFlow
Robot Operating System(ROS)
Google Web Toolkit (GWT)
Fall 2019-Present
Ph.D
Aeronautics & Astronautics, MIT
Courses: Nonlinear Optimization, Optimization Algorithms for Machine Learning
2017-2019
M.S.
Aeronautics & Astronautics, MIT
Courses: Principles of Autonomy and Decision Making, Optimal Control and Estimation, Machine Learning, Algorithms for Inference, Real Analysis
2013-2017
B.A. High Distinction
Computer Science, UC Berkeley
Courses: Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, Optimization Models, Systems and Signals, Operating Systems, Communication Networks, Databases, Computer Security