Zachary Zhao 🎉

Zachary Zhao

(he/him)

AI Research Assistant

WPI

About Me

I am a PhD in Robotics & AI. My research focuses on multimodal perception, causal reinforcement learning, and embodied intelligence, with applications in human–robot interaction and vision–language–action (VLA) systems. I aim to develop generalizable AI agents that learn from human guidance and adapt to real-world environments.

Education

PhD Robotics (RL-VLM Focus)

WPI

MS Computer Engineering

University of Washington

Interests

Vision Language Models Causal Reinforcement Learning Computer Vision Safety AI
📚 My Research
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Multimodal perception, causal reinforcement learning, and embodied intelligence, with applications in human–robot interaction and vision–language–action (VLA) systems. I am currently looking for motivated graduate and undergraduate students to join my research. If you are interested, please send me your resume and the research direction you would like to pursue.
Featured Publications
Causal Reinforcement Learning based Agent-Patient Interaction with Clinical Domain Knowledge featured image

Causal Reinforcement Learning based Agent-Patient Interaction with Clinical Domain Knowledge

Present a novel framework called Causal structure-aware Reinforcement Learning (CRL) that explicitly integrates causal discovery and reasoning into policy optimization.

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Zachary Zhao
Speaking Memories: A Multimodal Adaptive Dialogue Framework for Reminiscence Robotics featured image

Speaking Memories: A Multimodal Adaptive Dialogue Framework for Reminiscence Robotics

we present Speaking Memories, a robot-agnostic, host–edge multimodal dialogue framework designed for emotion-aware reminiscence interaction.

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Zachary Zhao
A Distributed Multimodal Robotic Framework for Emotion-Aware Reminiscence Dialogue in Dementia Care featured image

A Distributed Multimodal Robotic Framework for Emotion-Aware Reminiscence Dialogue in Dementia Care

A distributed multimodal architecture for emotion-aware, personalized dialogue in socially assistive contexts.

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Zachary Zhao
Multimodal Perception-Driven Decision-Making for Human-Robot Interaction: A Survey featured image

Multimodal Perception-Driven Decision-Making for Human-Robot Interaction: A Survey

This survey provides a comprehensive review of advancements in multimodal perception and its integration with decision-making in robotics from year 2004–2024.

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Zachary Zhao
Recent Publications
(2025). Causal Reinforcement Learning based Agent-Patient Interaction with Clinical Domain Knowledge. In AAAI workshop.
(2025). A Distributed Multimodal Robotic Framework for Emotion-Aware Reminiscence Dialogue in Dementia Care. In ICRA.
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(2025). Multimodal Perception-Driven Decision-Making for Human-Robot Interaction: A Survey. Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, 2022(1).
(2022). Interval Short-Term Traffic Flow Prediction Method Based on CEEMDAN-SE Nosie Reduction and LSTM Optimized by GWO. Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, 2022(1).
Recent & Upcoming Talks
AAAI workshop Talk featured image

AAAI workshop Talk

Upcoming AAAI workshop talk

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Zachary Zhao
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