Dr. Stephen Tu

Biography

Stephen Tu joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Southern California as an Assistant Professor in the spring of 2024. Prior to this appointment, he worked as a research scientist on the Google DeepMind robotics team from 2019 to 2023, based in New York City. He earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 2019. His research focuses on the interplay of statistical learning theory, dynamical systems, and control theory. Stephen is broadly interested in building robust, intelligent systems that can safely interact with their surrounding environments. To achieve this goal, his research emphasizes learning from temporally correlated data, mitigating distribution shifts through imitation learning, leveraging generative models for feedback policies, and utilizing online learning and adaptive control techniques, along with non-convex optimization strategies.

Research Interests