Yang Zhao ☕️

Yang Zhao

Ph.D. Candidate

Northeastern University

About Me

I am a second-year Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at Northeastern University, advised by Prof. Sze Zheng Yong. My research lies at the intersection of control theory and machine learning, with a focus on data-driven control with constraint satisfaction, as well as safe planning and control under uncertainty.

I received my M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where I was advised by Prof. Naira Hovakimyan. Prior to that, I earned my B.Eng. in Electronic and Information Engineering from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).

Yang Zhao

Yang Zhao

Ph.D. Candidate

Northeastern University

About Me

I am a second-year Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at Northeastern University, advised by Prof. Sze Zheng Yong. My research lies at the intersection of control theory and machine learning, with a focus on data-driven control with constraint satisfaction, as well as safe planning and control under uncertainty.

I received my M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where I was advised by Prof. Naira Hovakimyan. Prior to that, I earned my B.Eng. in Electronic and Information Engineering from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).

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Education

Ph.D. in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Northeastern University

Boston, MA

M.S. in Mechanical Engineering

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Champaign, IL

B.Eng. (Honors) in Electronic and Information Engineering

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hong Kong, China
Recent News
[2026/07]
Our paper “Learning Safe-by-Design Neural Network Controllers” is accepted by CDC! See you in Hawaii.
[2026/05]
Our paper “CAffNet: Hard Constraint-Affine Neural Networks” is accepted by ICML! See you in Seoul.
[2026/04]
Our extended abstract “CAffNet: Guaranteed Constraint-Affine Neural Networks " is accepted by MTNS! See you in Waterloo.
[2025/12]
Our paper “Tube-Based MPC for Uncertain Sampled-Data Control Systems With Inter-Sample Reachability Analysis” has been accepted by L-CSS and will be presented in ACC! See you in New Orleans.
[2025/11]
I have passed Qualifying Exam!