University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Urbana, IL | Starting August 2026
Ph.D. Student in Computer Science, Advisor: Prof. Nancy Amato
University of New Mexico | Albuquerque, NM | August 2022 - May 2026
B.S. in Computer Science with Honors, Minor in MathematicsDistinctions: Departmental Honors Distinction (Thesis Advisor: Prof. Lydia Tapia), Cum Laude, Dean's List (5x), UNM Amigo Scholarship, UNM CS Automation Learning Research Scholarship
CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award (Honorable Mention), 2026
Distinguished as a top undergraduate researcher in North America for outstanding research potential and contributions.Convocation Student Speaker - UNM School of Engineering, 2026
Selected as the sole undergraduate speaker to represent the graduating class and address faculty, peers, and guests.Outstanding Senior Award - UNM School of Engineering, 2026
Selected by faculty as the top graduating senior in Computer Science based on academic excellence and research impact.Best Presentation Award - Southwest Robotics Symposium, 2025
Won 1st Place among 10 invited speakers selected from ~50 accepted submissions.[1] Yazied Hasan, Adrian B. Faust, Evan C. Carter, and Lydia Tapia, "Exploiting LiDAR Symmetries to Enhance Value Estimation Policies," in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters Journal (RA-L), vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 4897-4904, April 2026. [PDF, Video]
[2] Adrian B. Faust, Yazied Hasan, Vadim Polyakov, Jared Saia, and Lydia Tapia, "Post-Learning Adaptability of Reinforcement Learning Policies to Noise," In Review (Conference Paper), March 2026.
[2] Adrian B. Faust, Yazied Hasan, and Lydia Tapia, "Improving Real-World Policy Robustness at No Additional Training Cost," Southwest Robotics Symposium 2026 (Symposium Paper)
Research Assistant - Tapia Lab, UNM Department of Computer Science, December 2022 - Present
Advisor: Prof. Lydia TapiaPublished RA-L journal paper on using task symmetries to improve RL policies at inference time with validation on physical hardware.
Submitted 1st Author conference paper on adapting pretrained models to specific noisy environments without retraining.
Optimized observation representation for a 7-DoF arm to improve decentralized rendezvous performance.
Software Team Lead - Lobo Motorsports FSAE, UNM School of Engineering, August 2023 - Present
Advisor: Prof. Gene KallenbachDirected a team of 5 to develop embedded systems for the 2026 race car.
Designed C++ systems to manage battery management, powertrain, and traction control systems.
Visiting Research Assistant - NSF REU in Robotics/Autonomous Systems, University of Southern California, June 2023 - August 2023
Advisors: Prof. Somil Bansal and Prof. Stefanos NikolaidisCollaborated across two labs to build an automated testing system to detect and classify failure types in complex motion planning tasks using generated quality-diverse task scenarios.
Research Assistant - Baca Lab, UNM Department of Emergency Medicine, January 2023 - May 2023
Advisors: Dr. Robert Taylor and Prof. Justin BacaAnalyzed correlations in bacterial biomarkers to enable rapid pneumonia diagnostic protocols.
[1] “Improving Real-World Policy Robustness at No Additional Training Cost,” Southwest Robotics Symposium. Tempe, AZ. Oct 2025. (Best Presentation Award, Only Undergraduate Presenter).
[2] “Exploiting Symmetries for Robust Motion Planning in Real-World Environments,” UNM CS Student Conference. Albuquerque, NM. April 2025. (Only Undergraduate Presenter)
[3] “Enhancing Value Estimation Policies by Post-Hoc Symmetry Exploitation” UNM CS Conference. Albuquerque, NM. April 2024. (Only Undergraduate Presenter)
[1] “Teaching in the Age of AIs,” Panelist, UNM Office of the Provost. March 2023. (900+ Attendees)
UNM CS Chair Student Leadership Committee, 2026 Class Representative, Oct 2022 - May 2025
Provided guidance to the UNM CS Department Chair on the student needs and approved course fee spending.
UNM Men’s Lacrosse Club, Co-Founder & Team Captain, Aug 2022 - Present
Founded the organization in my freshman year and raised funds to hire a full coaching staff and fund national travel over 4 years.
Led the team to 2 Rocky Mountain Conference Titles while managing practice/travel schedules and budgets.
ICRA 2025 Student Volunteer, Atlanta, Georgia, May 2025
Assisted Session Chairs with logistical and technical support for research presentations.