Join Tea Lab

TEA Lab is a new robotics research group at Virginia Tech building the next generation of intelligent robots and agents. We are looking for students to join us!

We are always looking for motivated students who are excited about building intelligent and adaptive autonomous systems. While we are based in Mechanical Engineering, we also work with students from other departments like Computer Science. You can learn more about our current focus areas on our research page, but broadly we are interested in applicants who want to explore topics like:

• Hybrid / neuro-symbolic models
• Mobile manipulation and robot control
• Large language and vision models
• Human-Robot Interaction
• Lifelong and continuous learning

If you are interested, please refer to the Department of Mechanical Engineering Graduate Program for details on the application process and to submit your application. In your application, please mention Prof. Simon Stepputtis. Please note that we can not provide feedback on individual applications, but if you would like to connect about our research, you are welcome to reach out by email (please include “TEA Lab Inquiry” in your subject line).

Current Virginia Tech Students

We welcome current VT students interested in getting hands-on research experience.

To get started, email Prof. Stepputtis with “TEA Lab Inquiry” in the subject line and include:

• A few lines about why you would like to work with us.
• A short paragraph about of your goals (grad school, industry, learning robotics/ML, etc.).
• A short paragraph about relevant experience (courses, projects, prior publications, etc.).
• Your CV and applicable transcript(s).

Taking one of Prof. Stepputtis’s classes is also a great way to get involved.

Visitors and Interns

We do not offer remote internships or visitor positions.