Hello! I’m Milad Mesbahi.

I’m a M.S. student in Robotics at the University of Pennsylvania (Class of 2026), with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA. I’m in the midst of applying for PhD positions starting Fall 2026, with a desired focus at the intersection of control theory, machine learning, and optimization within the context of robot learning and autonomous systems.

Research Interests

What truly constitutes intelligence?

A slime mold, without a single neuron, can find the shortest path through a maze to its favorite food. Ant colonies ochestrate social networks and very effiecntly allocate and distribute resources. The octopus, with nearly two-thirds of its neurons throughout its arms, is able to make decisions in a parallel, decentralized fashion. Plants are brainless and ubiquitous, yet they’ve shaped evolution and make up 80% of Earth’s biomass.

Biology reveals something profound about our traditional, anthropocentric description of intelligence. Purposeful behavior can emerge from simple rules, local interactions, and adaptation to the environment. Intelligence, in this broader sense, is less about neural density or algorithmic abstraction, and more about dynamic processes of learning, coordination, and self-organization.

Fundamentally, I ask:

• How can we design intelligent systems to remain reliable in unstructured, dynamic environments?

• How can agents make decisions that respect real-time constraints, physical dynamics, and fundamental uncertainty? Can we produce mathematical guarantees on behavior that isn’t overly conservative?

• How can we continue to bridge model-based control and learning-based approaches to harness the strengths of both paradigms?

• What makes safe and efficient cooperation possible in groups with imperfect and/or conflicting information?

• How can we close the gap between simulation and real-world learning for robots?

Through doctoral research, these are the kind of high-level questions I hope to address.

Philosophy

The technologies we create should first and foremost serve the planet and the people who depend on it. As both a researcher and human being, success in my life will be measured by the purpose and integrity of my work, the strength and depth of my relationships, and my capacity to help build a more just and sustainable world.