NUS Professor Shares Robotics Journey: Open-Source Hardware for $200
DJiafei · x · 2026-07-30
DJiafei, Presidential Young Professor at NUS and head of the MAGIC Lab, shared his academic and robotics journey in a recent podcast.
- Early Exploration: Built his first mobile manipulator at 16 using PVC pipes, toy car parts, and Arduino boards.
- Academic Path: Went from having zero academic experience to co-advising at UW with Dieter Fox and leading the open-source VLA model MolmoAct at Ai2.
- Current Vision: Aims to democratize physical AI by developing open robot policies accessible with just a $200 hardware setup.
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