Bernie H. Zhu

I am a Ph.D. student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of ashington, advised by Prof. Banghua Zhu. My research focuses on foundation models and general-purpose robots.
Before joining UW, I was a mechanical engineer in Africa ❓ How come? It's a long story. Let's save it for when we can talk in person. Prior to that, I was a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University Advised by Prof. Christopher G. Atkeson and Prof. Katerina Fragkiadaki and UCSD Advised by Prof. Hao Su . I graduated with High Honors from Zhejiang University, where I earned a bachelor's degree in Computer Science with a minor in Electronic Engineering.

My work is TRASH ℹ️ After several failed attempts to create my CMU username, "trash" unexpectedly worked, so I had to come up with an acronym for it. Teaching Robotic Agents Skills of Humans

Physical AI
General-purpose robots
Foundation models
Reinforcement learning

News

[04/30/2026] SafeLab was accepted at ICML 2026. [12/02/2024] Yet paper on ADA was accepted at HRI 2025 and nominated for the Best Systems Paper Award. [03/13/2024] Another demo on ADA won the Best Demo Award at HRI 2024. [11/03/2023] I won the UW CSE baking competition. Here is a of me with the 🏆. Check out the recipe. [08/30/2023] A paper on ADA was accepted at CoRL 2023. [07/10/2023] I attended RSS 2023 to present our workshop paper. [07/12/2022] My F-1 visa was approved at the Consulado General de Estados Unidos en Hermosillo! [02/13/2022] I moved to Casablanca, Morocco, the first stop on my worldwide wandering. [02/23/2020] SAPIEN was accepted at CVPR 2020. [10/30/2019] I attended CoRL 2019 to give a presentation. Huge thanks to the organizers for providing a wheelchair. [09/07/2019] S4G was accepted at CoRL 2019. [06/16/2019] I attended CVPR 2019, my first conference. [03/02/2019] CrowdPose was accepted at CVPR 2019.

Publications

*Equal contribution

Miscellaneous

Trivia

I'm known for my photographic memory, which gives me an edge in games and memory-heavy tests :-D I lost my hearing completely in my early 20s but regained part of it after learning to read lips. Speaking a bit louder would be appreciated I traveled around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. I love adventure and can offer local tour guidance in Mexico and beyond

Hobbies

Cooking I cook in a western style with Chinese flavors. One day, I'll open my own restaurantChef BZ Asian Fusion Cuisine 厨子很忙™

Games I excel at strategy games, board games, and poker games ℹ️I was kicked out 3 times in a day for winning too much at blackjack♠️ in Las Vegas😂

Music I enjoy classical and electronic music, especially trance and techno. Some favorites: Click the helmet to toggle Daft Punk Mode I play piano and suona Suona is a traditional Chinese double-reed wind instrument often used in folk music and ceremonies such as weddings and funerals.

Trading I consider myself a proficient trader in options and day trading. I achieved a 20x return 🚀Thank you NVDA! in 2 weeks during mid-2024