My name is Xinlei (Leo) Yu, a second year CS PhD student at the University of Southern California, advised by Dr. Heather Culbertson. I’m also a Student Researcher at Google.

I’m working at the intersection of XR, robotics, and physical AI. My research develops models and representations that leverage human knowledge prior for robotic tasks. I am particularly interested in representations that are physically grounded, interactive, and human-aligned—supporting not only prediction and control for embodied agents, but deliver personalized and usable tasks for human.

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the many brilliant colleagues and mentors I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Their support and guidance—from insightful conversations that sparked new ideas, to their steady direction whenever I felt lost—have been instrumental in my journey, and for that, I am sincerely grateful.

I am open and happy to discuss new research projects, innovative ideas, and potential collaborations. Please feel free to contact me at xinleiyu@usc.edu

Publication

📢 One paper submitted to IEEE ICRA 2027
📢 Two papers submitted to ACM CHI 2027
📢 One paper submitted to IEEE VR 2027
📢 One paper submitted to WACV 2026

Propeller-based Handheld Forcefeedback Device for Navigation IEEE Transaction of Haptics 2026 Xinlei Yu, Yang Chen, and Heather Culbertson

CrazyJoystick: A Handheld Flyable Joystick for Providing On-Demand Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality IEEE World Haptics Conference 2025 [video] Yang Chen*, Xinlei Yu*, and Heather Culbertson

Project Playground

	Semantic 3D Perception and VLM-based Planning for Humanoid Loco-Manipulation [Demo Video Alternative]
	Real-Time UAV Teleoperation via an Immersive VR Interface [Demo Video] [System Diagram]
	VR Dressing Room [Demo Video]

And More