Nathan Christopher Tsoi
Postdoctoral Fellow
Texas Robotics, University of Texas at Austin
I am a full-stack robotics researcher specializing in human-robot interaction. My research explores learning-based systems that enable robots to not only complete tasks reliably, but to actively model and positively shape dynamic human-robot interactions by incorporating human expectations and perceptions of robot behaviors such as trust, comfort, and satisfaction. I hold a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Yale University, where I introduced novel simulation platforms and evaluation frameworks for human-robot interaction. Previously, I built AI and software systems as a Research Engineer at the Stanford AI Lab and a Senior Software Engineer at Sequoia Capital.
Education
Ph.D., Computer Science
Yale University, New Haven, CT
2019 - 2025
MPhil
Yale University, New Haven, CT
2023
M.S., Computer Science
Yale University, New Haven, CT
2021
B.S., Computer Science
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
2006 - 2010
Employment
Aug 2025 - Present
Postdoctoral Fellow
Texas Robotics, University of Texas at Austin
Oct 2017 - Aug 2019
Research Engineer
Stanford AI Group, Stanford Vision and Learning Lab
Dec 2015 - Aug 2019
Senior Software Engineer
Sequoia Capital
Jan 2011 - Dec 2015
Systems Developer
Sequoia Capital
Awards
2025
NSF I-Corps Customer Discovery Program - Participant at Yale Venture Lab
2021-22
Nathan Hale Associates: Teresa and Joshy Joseph Scholar
2021
HRI 2021 Pioneer
2021
HRI 2021 Best Paper Nominee
For the work: Challenges Deploying Robots During a Pandemic: An Effort to Fight Social Isolation Among Children
For the work: Challenges Deploying Robots During a Pandemic: An Effort to Fight Social Isolation Among Children
2020
HAI 2020 Best Poster Award - Runner Up
For the work: SEAN: Social Environment for Autonomous Navigation
For the work: SEAN: Social Environment for Autonomous Navigation
2019
Alan J. Perlis Graduate Fellowship Recipient
Conference and Journal Publications
2026
Nathan Tsoi, Eric Hsiung, Masayuki Yamazaki, Swarat Chaudhuri, Peter Stone, and Joydeep Biswas
Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems
2025
Qiping Zhang*, Nathan Tsoi*, Mofeed Nagib, Booyeon Choi, Jie Tan, Hao-Tien Lewis Chiang, Marynel Vázquez
ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
2025
Anthony Francis, Claudia Pérez-D'Arpino, Chengshu Li, Fei Xia, Alexandre Alahi, Rachid Alami, Aniket Bera, Abhijat Biswas, Joydeep Biswas, Rohan Chandra, Hao-Tien Lewis Chiang, Michael Everett, Sehoon Ha, Justin Hart, Jonathan P. How, Haresh Karnan, Tsang-Wei Edward Lee, Luis J. Manso, Reuth Mirksy, Sören Pirk, Phani Teja Singamaneni, Peter Stone, Ada V. Taylor, Peter Trautman, Nathan Tsoi, Marynel Vázquez, Xuesu Xiao, Peng Xu, Naoki Yokoyama, Alexander Toshev, Roberto Martín-Martín
ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
2024
Nathan Tsoi, Rachel Sterneck, Xuan Zhao, and Marynel Vázquez
ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
2024
Nathan Tsoi, Jessica Romero, Marynel Vázquez
Companion of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2023
Qiping Zhang*, Nathan Tsoi*, Marynel Vázquez
Companion of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2023
Kate Candon, Jesse Chen, Yoony Kim, Zoe Hsu, Nathan Tsoi, Marynel Vázquez
International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems
2022
Kate Candon, Zoe Hsu, Yoony Kim, Jesse Chen, Nathan Tsoi, Marynel Vázquez
Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction
2022
Nathan Tsoi, Kate Candon, Deyuan Li, Yofti Milkessa, Marynel Vázquez
Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems
2022
Nathan Tsoi, Alec Xiang, Peter Yu, Samuel S. Sohn, Greg Schwartz, Subashri Ramesh, Mohamed Hussein, Anjali W. Gupta, Mubbasir Kapadia, and Marynel Vázquez
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
2021
Nathan Tsoi, Mohamed Hussein, Olivia Fugikawa, J.D. Zhao, Marynel Vázquez
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
2021
Nathan Tsoi, Marynel Vázquez
Companion of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2021
Nathan Tsoi, Joe Connolly, Emmanuel Adéníran, Amanda Hansen, Kaitlynn Taylor Pineda, Timothy Adamson, Sydney Thompson, Rebecca Ramnauth, Marynel Vázquez, Brian Scassellati
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2021
Joe Connolly, Nathan Tsoi, Marynel Vázquez
Companion of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2020
Nathan Tsoi, Mohamed Hussein, Jeacy Espinoza, Xavier Ruiz, Marynel Vázquez
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction
2020
Mason Swofford, John Peruzzi, Nathan Tsoi, Sydney Thompson, Roberto Martín-Martín, Silvio Savarese, Marynel Vázquez
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
2020
Joe Connolly, Viola Mocz, Nicole Salomons, Joseph Valdez, Nathan Tsoi, Brian Scassellati, Marynel Vázquez
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2019
Hamid Rezatofighi, Nathan Tsoi, JunYoung Gwak, Amir Sadeghian, Ian Reid, Silvio Savarese
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Preprints
2024
D. Li, TD. Lee, M. Vázquez, N. Tsoi
2024
A. Narcomey, N. Tsoi, R. Desai, M. Vázquez
2023
A. Lew, S. Thompson, N. Tsoi, M. Vázquez
Teaching
2026-Present
Assistant Professor of Practice
2021, 2023
Teaching Fellow
Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction, Yale (CPSC484)
2021, 2023
Teaching Fellow
Service
- Occasional Reviewer AAAI, HRI, ICRA, IEEE RL-A, IEEE T-RO, IROS, Nature, NeurIPS, ROMAN, T-HRI
- Co-Organizer 5th Workshop on Social Robot Navigation (ICRA 2026)
- Program Committee Member ICAPS 2026
- Co-Organizer Advances in Social Navigation Workshop (ICRA 2025)
- Co-Organizer Unsolved Problems in Social Navigation Workshop (RSS 2024)
- Co-Organizer Social Robot Navigation: Advances and Evaluation (IROS 2023)
- Co-Organizer SEANavBench Workshop (ICRA 2022)
- Web Chair HRI 2023
- Graduate Representative Department Climate & Diversity Committee (2023)
Invited Talks and Presentations
Mar 2026
Lightning talk at the Texas Symposium on Machine Learning, Responsible AI & Robotics.
Feb 2026
Presenting the talk "From Tools to Teammates: Aligning Robot Learning with Human Perception" at the Austin Robotics & AI Meetup.
Nov 2025
Participating as a panelist in the Responsible AI and Interactive Robots panel.
May 2025
May 2025
Presenting my work at MIT (Roy Group).
Jan 2025
Visiting Salt Lake City and presenting my work at the University of Utah (Brown Group).
Jan 2025
Visiting Georgia Tech and presenting my work as part of the Faculty Pathways Program.
Jul 2024
Speaking at the Data Generation for Robotics Workshop, presenting my work at TU Delft (Hung Group), and co-organizing the 2024 Workshop on Unsolved Problems in Social Robot Navigation in conjunction with RSS'24.
Mar 2024
Presenting my work at CU Boulder (Hayes Group) and attending HRI'24.
Oct 2022
Oral presentation of SEAN 2.0 (RA-L) at IROS'22.
Extracurricular
2026-Present
Children's Program Volunteer, Trinity Church
Austin, TX
2019-2025
Volunteer Teacher, Trinity Baptist Children's Program
New Haven, CT
2017
Embedded Platforms and Open Source Contributions (Betaflight, Px4, Omnibus flight controller)