Yunda Yan | Personal Page

Assistant Professor

yunda[dot]yan[at]ucl.ac.uk

SMIEEE, FHEA, RAICo Fellow

I am currently a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Robotics and AI in the Department of Computer Science at UCL. Before joining UCL, I was a Senior Lecturer in Control Engineering at De Montfort University (2022–2023) and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Loughborough University (2020–2022). I received both my Bachelor’s degree (2009) and PhD (2019) in Control Science and Engineering from Southeast University. During my doctoral studies, I also held visiting research positions in aerial robotics at Loughborough University (2017–2018) and in biorobotics at the National University of Singapore (2016–2017).

My research focuses on Control, Optimisation, and Learning for Autonomy (COLA), with particular interests in model predictive control, safety-critical control, disturbance rejection, and estimation methods for autonomous systems. I develop theoretically grounded and computationally efficient control and learning approaches for systems operating under disturbances, uncertainties, and constraints, with applications in robotics, intelligent transportation, and energy systems. In these research areas, I have authored or co-authored a number of papers in leading journals and conferences, including Automatica, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, and IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. According to Google Scholar, my publications have received 2152 citations, with an h-index of 19 and an i10-index of 27.

📌 PhD & Visiting Opportunities

If your background and interests align with my research in COLA, I would be happy to hear from you. I am always interested in working with motivated PhD students and academic visitors. Prospective applicants are encouraged to complete this form prior to contacting me. Funding opportunities, including scholarships, may be available for outstanding candidates. More details can be found on the UCL PhD programme page.

News

We welcome Mr Zhenyu Gao to the group as a PhD student.
We welcome Dr Zuo Wang (Southeast University) to the group as a visiting researcher for a one-year appointment.
We welcome Mr Hao Chen (Tianjin University) and Mr Pengfei Liu (Southeast University) to the group as visiting PhD students for a one-year appointment.
We welcome Dr Pengfeng Lin (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) to visit the group.
I was elected as an IEEE Senior Member.
I was awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
I serve as Deputy Programme Director for the MEng Robotics and AI (RAI) programme.
I joined University College London (UCL) as a Lecturer in Robotics and AI.