# Junwu Zhang > Robotics @ Blue River | ex-Alphabet, Stanford MS Alum Location: Stanford, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/junwu Robotics Engineer at Blue River Technology working on tractors! Ex-Alphabet (Intrinsic), ex-Vicarious, Stanford alum. Passionate about robotics, software, and machine learning applied to real-world products. Interested in robotic manipulation, medical robots, industrial automation, assistive robotics, human-robot interaction (HRI), etc. ## Work Experience ### Senior Robotics Software Engineer @ Blue River Technology Jan 2025 – Present | Santa Clara, California, United States ### Robotics Engineer @ Blue River Technology Jan 2023 – Jan 2025 | Santa Clara, California, United States ### Robotics Engineer @ Intrinsic Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area Grasping team. Joined via Vicarious acquisition. Lead a project on inhand object pose estimation. Wrote protos, gRPC, services, and tests in C++ and Python. ### Robotics Engineer @ Vicarious Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area Writing software for robotic manipulation for industrial robot applications. Insertion/Placement team. Improved kitting success rate on a customer line. Developed end-to-end tool to validate pick-and-place cycles in simulation to help with contract signing. Vicarious was acquired by Intrinsic in May, 2022. More information about the acquisition can be found at [https://intrinsic.ai/blog/posts/mission-momentum/]. ### Graduate Research Assistant @ Stanford University Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 | Interactive Perception and Robot Learning Lab (IPRL) PI: Prof. Jeannette Bohg • Learn to perform periodic tasks from human demonstrations using rhythmic dynamic movement primitives (DMPs) and synthetic demonstrations. • Led the effort to integrate our algorithm with hardware to run real robot experiments. ### Graduate Research Assistant @ Stanford University Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | Assistive Robotics and Manipulation (ARM) Lab, Stanford University PI: Prof. Monroe Kennedy • Main contributor to a project on human gait learning and prediction for fall prevention • Wrote Robot Operating System (ROS) packages to simultaneously collect point cloud data from Intel RealSense cameras and join kinematics data from Bluetooth IMUs ### Robotics Manipulation Contest Member @ Stanford University Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Interactive Perception and Robot Learning Lab • Designed robotic manipulation algorithms that minimize sim2real gaps; placed 2nd in Real Robot Challenge • Focused on co-developing residual policy learning, benchmarked against other approaches ### Lean LaunchPad GuardianMed @ Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | Stanford, California, United States • Recruited a team of 5 to work on prevention of pressure ulcers using computer vision and pose estimation. • Conducted 100+ interviews and learned about clinical trials, FDA approval, CPT codes for insurance, etc. Visited a local senior home. ### ME310 Student Collaborator @ Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford ( d.school ) Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 • Interviewed random strangers at IKEA and co-working spaces about renting experience • Set up a tent at Stanford Starbucks to learn people's productivity in mobile study pods • Co-develop a mobile app (in React Native and Firebase) for apartment hunt decision-making. ### Software Engineer Intern @ Zoox Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco Bay Area Intern in the Planning & Control Team • Wrote code for autonomous vehicle planning and decision making in complex environments • Worked closely with planning and simulation team to provide planner-specific visualizations ### Rotation Student @ Stanford University Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Autonomous Systems Lab (ASL), Stanford University PI: Prof. Marco Pavone • Proposed an architecture incorporating reinforcement learning (RL), sampling-based motion planning (SBMP), and model predictive control (MPC) for safe and proactive motion planning ### Undergraduate Research Assistant @ University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | Engineering System Design Lab (ESDL), University of Illinois PI: Prof. James Allison • Modeled and simulated solar car dynamics and velocity profile to find optimal gear ratio for the car with varying torque (hardware-in-the-loop simulation and optimization). • Designed a mechatronics gear performance testbed for a mechanical design class. ### Research Intern @ Technische Universität Darmstadt Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Darmstadt Area, Germany Developed a hybrid power steering system for autonomous commercial vehicles: • Researched and selected electric motor that suits high steering load of trucks • Designed worm gears to integrate computer-controlled steering torque and human driver input • Documented findings as a basis for future research; presented in front of a faculty panel ### Test & Validation / Prototype Build Intern @ Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC) Motor Technical Center Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 | Shanghai International Auto City, Anting, Shanghai City, China • Manually assembled various prototype cars and engines from scratch • Worked extensively with UK automotive engineers in quality control and operations management • Occasionally served as a translator between UK personnel and Chinese suppliers ## Education ### Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering Stanford University ### Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Mechanical Engineering; Minor in Electrical Engineering University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ### Nagoya University Summer Intensive Program (NUSIP) 2015 Nagoya University ### Middle School & High School Diploma Shanghai Foreign Language School Affiliated to SISU ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/junwuzhang - Website: https://junwuzhang.github.io/ --- Source: https://flows.cv/junwu JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/junwu/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-01