Director
Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory (ARCLab)
Medical Robotics Collaboratory, Contextual Robotics Institute
Associate Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Affiliate Professor
Computer Science and Engineering
Franklin Antonio Hall Rm 3202
(858) 822-4778
Michael Yip is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego, Director of the Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory (ARCLab), and Director of the Healthcare and Medical Robotics Collaboratory at the UCSD Contextual Robotics Institute. His research and expertise are in the areas of surgical robotics, biomimetic robots, and robot learning.
His research lab at UCSD has received numerous best paper awards at top robotics and AI conferences, and Dr. Yip has been recognized by the NSF CAREER award, NIH Trailblazer award, and as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. His research projects have led to the founding of several robotics startup companies. He was named the Faculty Innovator of the Year at UC San Diego in 2024 and elected as a Senior Member into the U.S. National Academy of Inventors.
Dr. Yip is also a former Disney Imagineer and Faculty Consultant to Amazon Robotics. His degrees are in Mechatronics Engineering (BS), Electrical Engineering (MS), and Bioengineering (PhD) from U. Waterloo, UBC, and Stanford University, respectively.
Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory (ARCLab)
Robot Manipulation in Dynamic Environments
Reinforcement Learning for Robot Control
Continuum and Snake-like Robots
Robotic Surgery
Ph.D. in Bioengineering, Stanford University
M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia
B.Sc., in Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo
Stanford University, Visiting Professor in Mechanical Engineering 2019
Amazon Robotics Machine Learning and Computer Vision Group, Visiting Professor, 2018
Disney Research, Research Associate, 2014
Harvard University, Research Assistant, 2008
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Research Assistant, 2007
Massachusetts General Hospital, Research Assistant, 2006
UCSD Faculty Innovator of the Year, 2024
Member, National Academy of Inventors (NAI), 2024
NIH Trailblazer Award, 2021
NSF CAREER Award, 2021
Best Paper Finalist, Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2021
Elevated to IEEE Senior Member, 2021
Best Paper Award for Cognitive Robotic Surgery, Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2020
IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Distinguished Lecturer, 2018
Hellman Fellow, 2017
Outstanding Researcher Award, NIH Center for Simulation in Rehab. Research 2017
Inaugural Best Paper Award, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2017
Best Paper Finalist, Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2015
Best Paper Award for Advances in Flexible Robotics for Medical Interventions, Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2014
Senior Program Committee, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Robotics, Science, and Systems (RSS), Primary Area Chair
Associate Editor, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)
Associate Editor, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
IEEE Haptics Symposium, Sponsorship Chair NSF
Panel Reviewer – NSF:ENG: National Robotics Initiative 2.0, NSF:IIS: Robust Intelligence, NIH: National Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Contributing Author, US Congressional Robotics Roadmap 2016 & 2020