Research Interests

Robotics, computer vision, machine learning, AI for science

Bio

Boyuan Chen is a professor at Duke University where he directs General Robotics Lab. His research is driven by the mission of building Discovery Machines that can learn, act, and collaborate by continually discovering how the world works on its own. The following fundamental questions guide his work:

  • Can we build truly cognitive machines?
  • What does it take for machines to learn, evolve, and adapt on their own, continuously improving through experience and interaction?
  • How can we enable machines to be true partners with humans and augment human intelligence?
  • What does embodiment mean and what should it look like?
  • Can science itself be automated and accelerated to go beyond human intuition?


Answers to these questions can help illuminate the mysteries of intelligence, both artificial and natural, and pave the way for machines that not only perform tasks but truly understand, learn, and connect.


Boyuan Chen obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Columbia University with Hod Lipson.

Education

  • Ph.D. Columbia University, 2022

Positions

  • Dickinson Family Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
  • Assistant Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
  • Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Assistant Professor in Computer Science

Courses Taught

  • ME 592: Research Independent Study in Mechanical Engineering or Material Science
  • ME 591: Research Independent Study in Mechanical Engineering or Material Science
  • ME 555: Advanced Topics in Mechanical Engineering
  • ME 494: Engineering Undergraduate Fellows Projects
  • ME 493: Engineering Undergraduate Fellows Projects
  • ME 492: Special Projects in Mechanical Engineering
  • ME 491: Special Projects in Mechanical Engineering
  • ME 490: Special Topics in Mechanical Engineering
  • ME 394: Engineering Undergraduate Fellows Projects
  • EGR 393: Research Projects in Engineering
  • ECE 899: Special Readings in Electrical Engineering
  • ECE 590: Advanced Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 495: Special Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 494: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 493: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 392: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 391: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 292: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 291: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • COMPSCI 590: Advanced Topics in Computer Science
  • COMPSCI 394: Research Independent Study
  • COMPSCI 393: Research Independent Study

In the News

Representative Publications

  • Hu, Yuhang, Jiong Lin, Judah Allen Goldfeder, Philippe M. Wyder, Yifeng Cao, Steven Tian, Yunzhe Wang, et al. “Learning realistic lip motions for humanoid face robots.” Science Robotics 11, no. 110 (January 2026): eadx3017. https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adx3017.
  • Shaw, Ryan J., and Boyuan Chen. “Physical artificial intelligence in nursing: Robotics.” Nursing Outlook 73, no. 5 (September 2025): 102495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2025.102495.
  • Guo, G., J. Goldfeder, L. Lan, A. Ray, A. H. Yang, B. Chen, S. J. L. Billinge, and H. Lipson. “Towards end-to-end structure determination from x-ray diffraction data using deep learning.” Npj Computational Materials 10, no. 1 (December 1, 2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41524-024-01401-8.
  • Hu, Yuhang, Boyuan Chen, Jiong Lin, Yunzhe Wang, Yingke Wang, Cameron Mehlman, and Hod Lipson. “Human-robot facial coexpression.” Science Robotics 9, no. 88 (March 2024): eadi4724. https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adi4724.
  • Chen, Boyuan, Robert Kwiatkowski, Carl Vondrick, and Hod Lipson. “Fully body visual self-modeling of robot morphologies.” Science Robotics 7, no. 68 (July 2022): eabn1944. https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.abn1944.