Hello! My name is Ananya Yammanuru. I’m a 4th year PhD candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I’m a member of the Parasol Lab and the Human-Centered Autonomy Lab.

My research includes human-robot interaction and motion planning. I am working on integrating human preferences, intentions, and behavior predictions into motion planning and decision making methods. I have used ML tools including Reinforcement Learning, LLMs/VLMs, finetuning techniques, and Vision-Language Action models, as well as standard techniques like Bayesian models and basic motion planning. You can see a listing of my current and past projects on my CV, and published works on the research page.

I am looking for internships for Summer 2026 :).

I earned bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Brain and Cognitive Science from UIUC in 2022.