Hello! I’m Milad Mesbahi.

I’m a Master’s student in Robotics at the University of Pennsylvania (Class of 2026), with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA. I’m currently seeking PhD positions for Fall 2026, which will hopefully allow me to further explore the beautiful intersection of control theory, machine learning, and optimization.

Research Interests

What really motivates me to pursue a PhD lies in the challenges that come with designing systems that make robust, intelligent decisions. Some models of the world are elegantly simple yet surprisingly effective; others are utterly complex but fail to capture what truly matters. I’m fascinated by that tension. The way we choose to represent a system (its structure, its agents, its assumptions) shapes what we can control, predict, and optimize.

Fundamentally:

• How can systems and agents learn, adapt, and stay reliable in unpredictable environments?

• How do we make real-time decisions that are safe, efficient, and grounded in uncertainty?

• How can we rethink the structure of a problem — its geometry, dimensionality, dynamics — to make complexity tractable?

• How can groups of agents cooperate safely to yield utilitarian outcomes, even when they don’t fully trust each other or share the same goals?

Through doctoral research, these are the kind of high-level questions I would love to solve.

Philosophy

My overarching mission with my life is to serve Earth and empower the communities that sustain it. As both an aspiring researcher, future entreprenuer, and young adult, success in my life will be defined by the purpose and integrity of my work, the strength and depth of my relationships, and my ability to help build a better and more sustainable world.