Summary
Yu Zhang is a Senior Software Engineer with 11 years of experience specializing in SLAM, robotics, autonomous driving, and computer vision, currently contributing to Latitude.AI's localization efforts. He has been an early technical hire at multiple startups—building map and localization stacks from the ground up at Inceptio and Precivision (acquired by DeepMap/Nvidia)—and has deep hands-on expertise in VIO, EKF/ESKF, ICP, RTK, and HD map engines. Yu combines production-grade C++ systems design with practical tooling and pipeline work, having implemented high-performance map data structures, non-blocking query engines, and sensor drivers that supported vehicle and drone testing. His engineering approach emphasizes modular patterns (Factory, Composition, Builder), robust algorithmic marginalization/sliding-window strategies, and performance optimizations that yielded substantial CPU and IO gains. Currently based in San Jose, he is also pursuing advanced study in computer vision and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon, bridging academic research with scalable autonomous systems. A less obvious strength is his cross-domain fluency—from low-level Lie-algebra pose math to large-scale map cache design—making him effective at both algorithmic innovation and system-level integration.
11 years of coding experience
6 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.), Heating, Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Refrigeration (HAC, HACR, HVAC, HVACR), Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.), Heating, Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Refrigeration (HAC, HACR, HVAC, HVACR) at Tsinghua University
Master of Science (M.S.), Main Degree, Mechanical Engineering, Master of Science (M.S.), Main Degree, Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University
English, Chinese