Yijiang Huang bio photo

Yijiang Huang

Postdoc with Prof. Stelian Coros at ETH Zurich

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About

I’m a postdoc at ETH Zurich’s Computational Robotics Lab, led by Prof. Stelian Coros. I do research on algorithms for digital design and fabrication. My goal is to build design tools and robot planning algorithms to make the design and manufacturing of performance-driven forms easy, and ultimately enable a new manufacturing-driven design paradigm.


I earned my Ph.D. degree in 2022 from MIT’s Building Technology Program of the Department of Architecture. My advisor was Prof. Caitlin Mueller, and I enjoyed being a part of her Digital Structures research group. Previously, I earned a Bachelor of Science in Applied Math at the University of Science and Technology of China.


I was fortunate to have received MIT Presidential Fellowship twice (2016, 2018) and I am currently supported by ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowship.


My Ph.D. thesis develops task and motion planning algorithms that offload tedious programming work from designers and advance the capability of robotic assembly systems.


I have formed invaluable research collaborations with experts across MIT, Princeton, and ETH Zurich to test my algorithms on real robot fabrication systems in various physical scales, including spatial printing of trusses, assembly of bar systems, Wire and Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) of metal connections, and the assembly of three two-story-high timber structures with integral joints.


In addition, I developed optimal matching algorithms to support circularity-driven structural design workflow that utilizes traditionally undervalued, discarded natural resources like tree branches and reclaimed building elements. One of these upcycling projects was featured on Dezeen.


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