Michael Yip is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego, IEEE RAS Distinguished Lecturer, Hellman Fellow, and Director of the Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory (ARCLab). His group currently focuses on solving problems in data-efficient and computationally efficient robot control and motion planning through the use of various forms of learning representations, including deep learning and reinforcement learning strategies. His lab applies these ideas to surgical robotics and the automation of surgical procedures. Previously, Dr. Yip's research has investigated different facets of model-free control, planning, haptics, soft robotics and computer vision strategies, all towards achieving automated surgery. Dr. Yip's work has been recognized through several best paper awards at ICRA, including the inaugural best paper award for IEEE's Robotics and Automation Letters. Dr. Yip has previously been a Research Associate with Disney Researchj Los Angeles in 2014, a Visiting Professor at Stanford University in 2019, and a Visiting Professor with Amazon Robotics' Machine Learning and Computer Vision group in Seattle, WA in 2018. He received a B.Sc. in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Waterloo, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia, and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Stanford University.