About

👋 Hi there! I am Yiyan (Harry) Peng, an M.S. student in Computer Engineering at Northwestern University, where I am advised by Prof. Qi Zhu in the IDEAS Lab. I also collaborate with Professors Ruohan Zhang, Manling Li, Huajie Shao, and Minshuo Chen.

Previously, I received my B.Eng. in Electronic Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), where I was advised by Prof. Jun Zhang and Dr. Albert Kai-Sun Wong.

🔬 Research Interests

My research interests center on robot learning and embodied AI, with a focus on representations and learning mechanisms for robot foundation models. I am particularly interested in:

  • World models for data-efficient learning — using predictive models to support policy learning and adaptation.
  • Adaptive, long-horizon manipulation — connecting memory, reasoning, and feedback-driven action.

My goal is to build robots that generalize to new tasks and environments while remaining reliable, controllable, and safe.

📢 News

  • 2026.08:  Released ManiGuard.
  • 2026.07:  Released SENTINEL.
  • 2025.09:  Started my M.S. in Computer Engineering at Northwestern University.
  • 2025.05:  Graduated from HKUST with a B.Eng. in Electronic Engineering.
  • 2025.05:  Our Final Year Project received the HKUST ECE Best FYP/T Award 2024-2025, 2nd Runner-Up.

📚 Publications

* Equal contribution. Project lead.

ManiGuard: A Benchmark and Data Suite for Specification-Grounded Safety Evaluation and Improvement of Robotic Manipulation

ManiGuard: A Benchmark and Data Suite for Specification-Grounded Safety Evaluation and Improvement of Robotic Manipulation

Yiyan Peng*, Philip Wang*, Simon Sinong Zhan*†, Yiqi Lyu, Zhenyang Ni, Jixin Yan, Fiorelli Wong, Ruochen Jiao, Hang Yin, Xinyu Cao, Huajie Shao, Manling Li, Ruohan Zhang, Qi Zhu

arXiv preprint, 2026

  • A specification-grounded manipulation benchmark with 1,000 evaluation scenarios and 8,000 safety-annotated demonstrations for evaluating and fine-tuning VLA policies.
  • Across 23,000+ rollouts, 6–21% of successful executions still violate safety specifications, with evaluation spanning simulation and a real Franka robot.
SENTINEL: A Multi-Level Formal Framework for Safety Evaluation of Foundation Model-based Embodied Agents

SENTINEL: A Multi-Level Formal Framework for Safety Evaluation of Foundation Model-based Embodied Agents

Simon Sinong Zhan*, Philip Wang*, Justin Liu*, Yiyan Peng*, Yiqi Lyu, Zinan Wang, Qineng Wang, Zhian Ruan, Xiangyu Shi, Xinyu Cao, Frank Yang, Zhenyang Ni, Kangrui Wang, Ruohan Zhang, Huajie Shao, Manling Li, Qi Zhu

arXiv preprint, 2025

  • Multi-level safety evaluation for foundation-model embodied agents, using temporal logic to check semantic understanding, action plans, and execution trajectories.
  • Localizes safety violations with counterexamples in VirtualHome and AI2-THOR, enabling feedback-driven safety improvement.

💻 Projects

Respiratory Monitoring System

Respiratory Monitoring System

Group Leader, Principal Contributor

HKUST, ECE Final Year Project (FYP), self-proposed

🏆 HKUST ECE Best FYP/T Award 2024-2025 2nd Runner-Up

Developed MHA-VAE-LSTM for respiratory forecasting and anomaly detection, achieving >95% detection accuracy and ≥10% better reconstruction than VAE-LSTM. Integrated sensors, real-time inference, and ESP-NOW communication into an end-to-end monitoring system with sustained latency below 50 ms.

Vision and Learning for Robotics Manipulation and Grasping

HKUST, ELEC4260, Independent Course Project

Trained and evaluated GraspCNN1 & GraspCNN2 and PoseCNN models for robotic arm manipulation, designing grasp synthesis strategies and validating the grasping pipeline in simulated and real-world settings.

Frontier-based Autonomous Exploration for UGV

HKUST, ELEC4260, Independent Course Project

Implemented LiDAR-based SLAM with ICP alignment, A* path planning, Bezier-curve trajectory generation, and PID control to achieve frontier-based autonomous UGV navigation and exploration.

Autonomous Aerial Robotics

HKUST, ELEC5660, Independent Course Project

Implemented real-time trajectory planning for quadrotors, including tuning PID controller, minimum-snap trajectory generation and obstacle-aware path planning (A*, Dijkstra), to achieve smooth and safe autonomous navigation. Developed vision-based localization and state estimation pipelines: applied PnP pose estimation, stereo visual odometry, and fused IMU & vision data via augmented-state EKF, and validated in simulation and real-world flight tests.

Autonomous and Fast Robots

Cornell University, ECE4160/5160, Independent Course Project

Developed and programmed an autonomous driving framework for a fast robot car from scratch, with sensing (multi-sensor fusion), localization (Bayes filter-based localization), environment mapping, control (PID), path planning, and navigation on a microcontroller board (SparkFun RedBoard Artemis Nano).

🎓 Education

M.S. in Computer Engineering

Northwestern University

Sep 2025 - May 2027 (Expected)

B.Eng. in Electronic Engineering

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Sep 2021 - May 2025

Non-Degree Exchange, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Cornell University

Jan 2024 - May 2024

🏆 Honors and Awards

  • ECE Best FYP/T Award, 2nd Runner-Up, HKUST
  • First Class Honors, HKUST
  • Dean’s List, HKUST
  • University’s Scholarship Scheme for Continuing Undergraduate Students, HKUST