Members

Welcome to the UCL Control, Optimisation, and Learning for Autonomy (COLA) Lab.

The COLA Lab is dedicated to advancing both fundamental theory and practical applications at the intersection of control engineering, optimisation, and machine learning. Our mission is to develop safe, efficient, and intelligent autonomous systems capable of operating in complex, uncertain, and dynamic environments.

Current members are listed below.

PhD Students

• Mr Zhenyu Gao (2026– )
  Research: MPPI and MPC

• Mr Chenxi Tao (2025– )
  Research: Safety filter design

• Mr Tianhu Peng (2025– )
  Co-supervised with Dr Chengxu Zhou

• Mr Shikai Geng (2025– )
  Co-supervised with Dr Xiaoxuan Lu

• Mr Yingxiang Lin (2025– )
  Co-supervised with Dr Boli Chen

• Miss Yixun Wen (2026– )
  Co-supervised with Dr Boli Chen

• Mr Pengfei Xie (2025– )
  Co-supervised with Prof Jinya Su

• Mr Peng Liu (2025– )
  Co-supervised with Prof Jinya Su

MSc Students

• Mr Yechang Wang, Mr Yuefeng Gao
  MSc Robotics and AI (2023–2024)
  Project: UAV control with cable-suspended payload

• Miss Nargiz Hasanova, Mr Mak Mesanovic
  MSc Robotics and AI (2025–2026)
  Project: Vibration attenuation for long-reach manipulation

Visitors

• Dr Zuo Wang (2025–2026)
  Visiting Researcher, Southeast University

• Mr Hao Chen (2025–2026)
  Visiting PhD Student, Tianjin University

• Mr Pengfei Liu (2025–2026)
  Visiting PhD Student, Southeast University

Alumni

• Dr Zuo Wang
  Visiting Researcher, now Associate Professor at Southeast University

• Dr Xinming Wang
  PhD, now Research Associate at Cardiff University

• Dr Benjamin J Marshall,
  PhD, now Engineer at Frazer-Nash Consultancy

• Dr Kai Wang
  Postdoctoral Researcher, now Research Associate at Linköping University