hi! i’m Michael, i study eng physics and meche at Stanford (with a little dabbling in philosophy).

i’m interested in vertically integrated robotic systems and also how robots learn. i’m also interested in the psychology of how we learn, why people are the way they are, community building, and what it means to be moral / do good.

although my background is primarily software, i’m working to gather the infinity stones of meche and ee.

i like to run, lead SPOT and adventure trips, take photos (that go into a custom NAS), occasionally dj, and mess with random electronics.

my latest toy is a fire alarm.

you can reach me at: yumich [at] stanford [dot] edu

currently:
controls intern @ foundation robotics
controls, embedded systems, firmware, FPGA, RL etc. for custom high DOF hand
software @ orbitron
teaching robots to battle
previously
organizing tech team @ treehacks
built a hardware harness to control a vending machine
security software engineering intern @ tiktok
integrated new Go passkey SDK service for Mastercard, Amex, Starbucks, etc.
achieved 13x decrease in latency
roasted on tech roast show
got flamed for being a child
research
UMI for Excavators
Michael Yu, Harsh Singh, Nicole Ma
CoRL 2026 UMI-Arena Workshop [paper]
custom developed UMI for excavators w/CLOAK pipeline to reduce transfer gap used to fine tune π0.5, improving accuracy from 0% to 60%
cool things
2026 cupertino fireworks
helped setup and launch
projects
custom meepo battery
homemade 360Wh battery w/25 miles of range
door
homemade auto door opener — i hate keys
vending machine API
hardware harness exposing an api to control a vending machine
stanford speakers bureau site
rebuilt eventbrite from scratch
frc robot
- second order swerve kinematics
- full field odometry and localization
- path planning on the fly
- match logging and simulation
gear
aer city pack pro
side pocket ftw
© Michael Yu