PhD Researcher · ICIC Lab · University of Florida
Working at the frontier of Embodied AI — teaching machines to perceive, reason, and act in the physical world through robotics, deep learning, and embedded intelligence.
I'm Xianyao Li, though most people call me Leo. I am a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida, working in the ICIC Lab (Informatics, Cobots and Intelligent Construction Laboratory).
My research centers on Embodied AI — building intelligent agents that can perceive, reason, and interact with the physical world. This spans robotics, deep learning, and embedded systems, with a current focus on embodied LLM agents built upon locally fine-tuned foundation models, physics-grounded world models, and SLAM-based navigation.
Before the PhD, I earned my M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UF (2025) and a B.Eng. in Automation (2023), with hands-on experience in underwater robotics and autonomous systems.
Whether it's a research collaboration, a question,
or simply a conversation — I'd love to hear from you.