Yiqi Zhao ☕️
Yiqi Zhao

PhD Student, Computer Science

University of Southern California

About Me

Yiqi (Nick) Zhao is a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC). He is advised by Professor Jyo Deshmukh and Professor Yue Wang. He is honored to be a member of the CPS-VIDA lab and the PSI Lab at USC. He also works closely with Professor Lars Lindemann. His research interests include robotics design and verification.

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Interests
  • Robotics
  • Cyber-Physical Systems
  • Formal Methods
  • Systems and Control Theory
Education

  • PhD, Computer Science

    University of Southern California

  • MS, Computer Science

    University of Southern California

  • BSc, magna cum laude, Honors in Computer Science

    Vanderbilt University

Featured Publications
DUET: Dual-Robot Understanding via Efficient Teaching
DUET: Dual-Robot Understanding via Efficient Teaching

A dual-robot learning framework for mobile manipulation — pretrain on human-human demonstrations, then finetune on real-robot data.

Jun 14, 2026

STL-GO: Spatio-Temporal Logic with Graph Operators for Distributed Systems with Multiple Network Topologies
STL-GO: Spatio-Temporal Logic with Graph Operators for Distributed Systems with Multiple Network Topologies

EMSOFT.

Jul 20, 2025

Conformal Predictive Programming for Chance Constrained Optimization
Conformal Predictive Programming for Chance Constrained Optimization

Currently under review in Automatica.

May 5, 2025

Distributionally Robust Predictive Runtime Verification under Spatio-Temporal Logic Specifications
Distributionally Robust Predictive Runtime Verification under Spatio-Temporal Logic Specifications

TCPS.

Apr 3, 2025

Formal Verification and Control with Conformal Prediction
Formal Verification and Control with Conformal Prediction

IEEE Control Systems.

Aug 31, 2024

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Recent Publications
Yiqi Zhao, Ruohai Ge, Celina Shiyu Wang, Junjie Ye, Muchen Xu, Minhao Li, Sergey Zakharov, Basile Van Hoorick, Vitor Campagnolo Guizilini, Leonidas Guibas, Gaurav S. Sukhatme, Jyotirmoy v. Deshmukh, Yue Wang (2026). DUET: Dual-Robot Understanding via Efficient Teaching.
Cite Project Video Project Page
Yiqi Zhao, Xinyi Yu, Bardh Hoxha, Georgios Fainekos, Jyotirmoy v. Deshmukh, Lars Lindemann (2025). STL-GO: Spatio-Temporal Logic with Graph Operators for Distributed Systems with Multiple Network Topologies. the ACM SIGBED International Conference on Embeddeed Software, 2025.
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Ziyan An, Yiqi Zhao, Xuqing Gao, Ayan Mukhopadhyay, Meiyi Ma (2025). Formal Logic-Guided Harnessing Heterogeneous Fairness Rules in Smart Cities. ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems.
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Yiqi Zhao, Xinyi Yu, Matteo Sesia, Jyotirmoy v. Deshmukh, Lars Lindemann (2025). Conformal Predictive Programming for Chance Constrained Optimization. arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.07407.
PDF Cite Code
Yiqi Zhao, Emily Zhu, Bardh Hoxha, Georgios Fainekos, Jyotirmoy v. Deshmukh, Lars Lindemann (2025). Distributionally Robust Predictive Runtime Verification under Spatio-Temporal Logic Specifications. ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems.
PDF Cite Code Poster Video
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Experience

  1. Research Assistant

    University of Southern California
    PhD research and assistantship in my advisors’ research (2024/08 – 2025/05, 2025/08 – 2025/12, 2026/05 – Present). My research focuses on robotics and cyber-physical systems, especially multi-robot system design and verification.

  2. Teaching Assistant, CSCI 577A (Software Engineering)

    University of Southern California
    Graded students’ homework and exams. Supervisors: Jae Young Bang, Mahdi Eslamimehr.

  3. Research and Development Intern

    Toyota Research Institute of North America
    Worked on cyber-physical systems research at the Future Research Department. Supervisors: Georgios Fainekos, Bardh Hoxha.

  4. Grader, CS 4260 (Artificial Intelligence)

    Vanderbilt University
    Graded students’ homework and exams and held TA office hours regularly. Supervisors: Meiyi Ma, Daniel Moyer.

  5. Application Development Intern

    ADP
    Full stack API development for the Autopay Group within the Global Product & Tech group. Supervisor: Jim Farber.
Awards
ICCPS Best Paper Award Finalist
15th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems ∙ May 2024
Awarded for the paper “Robust Conformal Prediction for STL Runtime Verification under Distribution Shift”.
Viterbi School of Engineering Fellowship
Viterbi School of Engineering, USC ∙ August 2023
Awarded to selected incoming PhD students at the Viterbi School of Engineering, USC.
VISE Award (Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering Summer Fellowship)
Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering ∙ June 2021
Awarded for the paid fellowship at the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering Summer Fellows Program.