Erik Frey
Robotics And Simulation Research
Palo Alto, California, United States
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolErik Frey is a robotics and simulation researcher with 17 years of software engineering experience, currently driving research at Google in Palo Alto. He blends deep systems and physics-simulation expertise—demonstrated by substantive contributions to the high-profile MuJoCo physics engine, including collision, constraint-solving, and performance optimizations—with product-facing engineering from multiple stints in Google’s Special Projects. A former founder (Forward, Inc.) and head of data science at Wavii, he pairs startup instincts with large-scale engineering rigor. Trained in computer science with math and electrical engineering minors, he prefers tackling low-level numerical and integration challenges that make robot behaviors both realistic and performant.
17 years of coding experience
10 years of employment as a software developer
BS (with Honors) Computer Science minor Math & Electrical Engineering, BS (with Honors) Computer Science minor Math & Electrical Engineering at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Github Skills (14)
simulations10
simulation10
constraint10
jax10
physics10
numerical-integration10
simulator10
linear-algebra10
python9
back-end-development9
c117
c177
mujoco7
collision-detection7
Programming languages (7)
Github contributions (5)
google-deepmind/mujoco
Oct 2023 - Mar 2025
Multi-Joint dynamics with Contact. A general purpose physics simulator.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:8 releases, 13 reviews, 1 PR in 1 year 4 months
Contributions summary:Erik primarily contributed to the MJX physics simulator by adding and modifying code related to collision detection, constraint solving, and integration methods. Their work included implementing joint equality constraints, supporting elliptic friction, and improving the functionality of the Euler integrator. They also made performance improvements, particularly by optimizing the matrix multiplication operations and refactoring the model to support the new condim and by adding support for fixed tendons, enhancing the capabilities of the physics engine.
physics-enginephysicsroboticsrobotics-simulationbullet-physics
erikfrey/mjx_warp
Jan 2025 - Mar 2025
Contributions:130 reviews, 112 PRs, 135 pushes in 1 month
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