Xijia Zhang

Xijia, who usually goes by Pony, is currently a senior at the University of Michigan majoring in computer science and robotics. She already holds a dual Bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Pony’s research interest is to develop robots that can cooperate with humans, communicate in natural language, and learn continuously through perception and interaction. She’s passionate about anything that may resolve questions like: how can robots acquire human-like intelligence? How may such intelligence influence or improve collaboration with humans? How can robots adapt to an open-ended environment by themselves? This summer, Pony will be working with Dr. Katia Sycara on explainable action advising and reinforcement learning. She’s sincerely grateful to Rachel, Katia, Sophie, and Yisha—all of whom have made this opportunity possible.