John Hua Yao

I am a Research Assistant in the IRIS Lab at Stanford University, advised by Chelsea Finn. Previously, I worked with Zipeng Fu. Recently, I completed my Master's degree at the University of Amsterdam, and before that I graduated from Imperial College London.

I'm interested in high speed robot learning, contact-rich manipulation, and practical solutions to accelerating robot learning research.


Publications

ALOHA Lightning teaser

ALOHA Lightning: Learning Fast and Precise Manipulation

John Hua Yao, Qi Wu, Yihuai Gao, Chelsea Finn, Zipeng Fu

ICRA 2026

A full-stack system for learning fast, precise bimanual manipulation from near-human-speed kinesthetic demonstrations.