People

Members and advisees

MILab is a University of Washington research lab based at UW Tacoma, focused on multimodal foundation models, embodied AI, and intelligent systems for real-world decision-making. The lab advises students and researchers across UW Seattle, UW Tacoma, and UW Bothell through graduate advising, research credits, and collaborative projects.

Principal Investigator

Portrait of Zhi-Qi Cheng

Zhi-Qi Cheng, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Appointment

Computer Science & Systems
School of Engineering & Technology, University of Washington Tacoma

Graduate Faculty

Graduate Faculty with doctoral endorsement
UW Graduate School

Lab Role

Director, Multimodal Intelligence Lab (MILab)

Email

zhiqics@uw.edu

Homepage

faculty.washington.edu/zhiqics/

Current Students and Researchers

MILab brings together students and researchers across UW campuses to advance multimodal foundation models, embodied AI, AI evaluation, and real-world AI systems.

Doctoral Students

Yifei Dong

CSS Ph.D. Student @ UW

GSFEI Top Scholar '25; Carwein-Andrews Fellowship; Columbia M.S.

Fengyi Wu

CSS Ph.D. Student @ UW

GSFEI Top Scholar '26; UESTC B.S./M.S.

Qifeng Wu

Incoming CSS Ph.D. Student @ UW

Northwestern M.S.

Tianyu Wang

Robotics Visiting Ph.D. Student @ UW

Robotics Ph.D. student, Georgia Tech.

Master's Students and Researchers

Zihao Han

RA @ UW Allen School

USC M.S.; Iowa State B.S.

Qiyu Hu

RA @ UW CEE

SHU M.S.

Evo Sokoloff-Toney

CSS M.S. Student @ UW

Thesis, TCSS 700.

Guanyu Chen

CSS M.S. Student @ UW

Capstone, TCSS 702.

Xu Zhu

CSS M.S. Student @ UW

Capstone, TCSS 702.

Undergraduate Students

Da Wei

Informatics B.S. Student @ UW iSchool

Independent Study, TCSS 490; Computer Graphics, TCSS 458.

Alumni & Former Advisees

Former advisees are listed with their later positions or next destinations where known.

Doctoral Alumni & Former Research Assistants

  • Ting-Yao HuPh.D., CMU; Machine Learning Research, Apple
  • Yuxuan ZhouRA @ CMU; Ph.D., MPI; ERNIE Team, Baidu
  • Changdae OhRA @ CMU; Ph.D., UW-Madison
  • Hyesu LimRA @ CMU; Ph.D., KAIST-AI

Master's Alumni & Former Research Assistants

  • Charles LeWarneRA @ UW; Software Engineer, AT&T
  • Siyao LiRA @ CMU; Applied Scientist, Microsoft
  • Joshua ChoiRA @ CMU; Senior Data Scientist, BNY
  • Yuran WangRA @ CMU; Motion Planning MLE, Tensor Auto

Undergraduate Alumni & Former Research Assistants

  • Johnny GarnicaRA @ UW; B.S., UW; M.S. student, Northwestern
  • Sean ChangB.S. @ CMU; Software Engineer, Google DeepMind
  • Aike ShiRA @ CMU; B.S. @ Georgia Tech; SWE, Microsoft

High School Mentees

  • Jasmine LiuISEF 2023 finalist; ACM Second Award; Robotics Fourth Award; admitted to MIT
  • Aimee ZhangISEF mentee; admitted to MIT
  • Susan WangISEF mentee; admitted to MIT
  • Zejia ShaoISEF mentee; admitted to UIUC
  • Ziyan (Eric) HuaYau Science Award mentee, 2024; admitted to UChicago
  • Qiyuan GuYau Science Award mentee, 2023; admitted to UChicago
  • Yusen HuYau Science Award mentee; admitted to Imperial
  • Yulun (Alan) WuYau Science Award Bronze Prize, 2020; admitted to Harvey Mudd
  • Chiyu ZhouYau Science Award mentee; admitted to Imperial

These students were mentored during high school; schools indicate later college admissions where listed.