Here is a virtual but warm greeting from Ziqiao, as you just came across this page!
As many of my friends found it hard to pronounce my name (马子乔, pronounced as Tsz-Chaw in Mandarin),
it's absolutely fine to just call me Martin alternatively.
The three constant themes of my research are Language, Interaction, and Embodiment from a scalable and cognitive angle.
My current research interests are two-fold: Grounding and alignment: connecting language to those non-linguistic.
Grounding language to the physical world: Understanding and generating language that is grounded to sensorimotor experiences and physical situations. There are more to look at beyond 2D grounding, e.g., video, 3D, generative world models.
Grounding language to human interactions: (Co-)situated Human-AI interaction in shared environment with disparate mental states, and collaborations towards a common ground.
Alignment in post-training and at inference time: Human-like planning and reasoning that is deliberate, (inter)active, lifelong, and steerable upon pre-trained systems.
Applications of frontier models in situated/embodied agents as well as content generation.
Scalable (data-driven but sufficiently efficient learning of) representations as computational abstractions of cognition.
Scaling law and developmental psychology: Exploring the developmental trajectories of data-driven models and the emergent cognitive capabilities over the course of development.
Efficient learning with minimal supervision: Learning that is data-efficient, over multiple modalities, on (semi-)structured data.
Benchmarking and computational inquiry of human-like cognition: Computational abstractions to inquire about potential mechanisms of how humans acquire cognitive skills, process language, as well as collaborate.
My ultimate goal is to enable Mechanistic Alignment & Grounding for Interactive Cognition (aka MAGIC).
I include a more dynamic and spontaneous sharing of my thoughts in my Research Blueprint.
[Sep. 2024] One papers to appear in NeurIPS 2024, see you in Vancouver :)
[Jun. 2024] One papers to appear in IROS 2024, see you in Abu Dhabi :)
[Feb. 2024] Two papers to appear in CVPR 2024, see you in Seattle :)
[Oct. 2023] One paper to appear in EMNLP 2023, see you in Singapore :)
[Sep. 2023] One paper to appear in NeurIPS 2023, see you in New Orleans :)
[May. 2023] Two papers to appear in ACL 2023, and I will serve as an on-site volunteer in Toronto :)
Archived news...
[Apr. 2023] One paper to appear in IJCAI 2023, see you in Macau :)
[Oct. 2022] Two papers to appear in EMNLP 2022, and I will serve as an on-site volunteer in Abu Dhabi :)
Seminar Talks
[20241204] Understanding You without Becoming You: Towards Situated Machine Theory of Mind @ Cognitive Science Seminar Series, UMich.
Previous talks...
[20240712] Babysit A Language Model From Scratch: Interactive Language Learning by Trials and Demonstrations @ Deep Learning: Classics and Trends (DLCT). Host: Rosanne Liu
[20240705] Language Grounding to the Visual World and Human Interactions: How Far Are We from Embodied Dialogue Agents @ Data Science Group, KAIST.
[20240627] Babysit A Language Model From Scratch: Interactive Language Learning by Trials and Demonstrations @ CoCoDev Seminar. Host: Abdellah Fourtassi
[20240529] Language Grounding to the Visual World and Human Interactions: How Far Are We from Embodied Dialogue Agents @ University of Maryland. Host: Furong Huang
Experiences
Education
Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering, Certificate in Cognitive Science
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | Sept 2021 - May 2026 (Expected) Advisor: Joyce Chai
(Dual) BSE in Computer Science, Minor in Mathematics (Summa Cum Laude)
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | Sept 2019 - May 2021
(Dual) BSE in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai | Sept 2017 - Aug 2021
Visiting Student
Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin | Jan 2019 - Feb 2019
High School
Chengdu Foreign Languages School, Chengdu | Sept 2011 - June 2017
Industry
Adobe Research, San Jose | Jan 2024 - Now
Research Scientist Intern
Amazon AGI, Sunnyvale | May 2023 - Aug 2023
Applied Scientist Intern
I seriously considered a career in game design, and although I ultimately chose a different path,
it provided excellent preparation for my work in embodied AI research, which often involves intensive programming with simulators.
Here are some of the projects we worked on, along with a list of games I enjoyed: Mogu, Turbo Neon.
Contracts
Zekai Fan, Shiyu Qu, Juan Rivera Plata, Yihao Huang, Ziqiao Martin Ma
I understand that access to research oppotunities can be hard, particularly for beginners and the underrepresented.
If there is a match in research interests, I am happy to collaborate with undergrads and masters when I have the bandwidth.
Please check my Research and Mentoring Statements
and fill out our application form to indicate that you want to collaborate with me.
I've been fortunate to have (co-)mentered and collaborated with these amazingly talented young researchers:
I was given my Chinese name, 马子乔, through a visually symbolic process, breaking down the radicals of 骄子, which roughly translates to 'the gifted child' in English. This is one of the reasons why logographic languages are so beautiful.
I was born and raised up in Chengdu, the home of pandas. I am proud of Chengdu Foreign Languages School, my high school, and identify myself as a CFLSer. 成外人永远不会成外人.
I am INFJ according to the Myers-Briggs, and my friends said that I exhibit stereotypical traits of this personality type...lol
I love literature and drama. I am particularly interested in Shakespeare's plays, ancient Chinese drama, Latin American literature, and modern Asian literature. Here is one of my essays about Cross-Dressed Heroines in Shakespearean and Ming-Qing Comedies.
I love movies, I am obsessed with the Czechoslovak New Wave and psychological thrillers these days.
[NEW] Lately, I've become deeply fascinated with herbariums. I just started to keep a personal herbarium journal!
Random Tours
Take a random virtual stroll over to one of my friends' homepage!
It's like a digital house call, minus the awkward small talk and the "sorry, my place is a mess" excuse!
Take a random click over to one of my favorite papers (which does not imply that I agree with every statement and all experimental setups)...the kind I secretly wish I had written myself (but hey, I'll settle for being an enthusiastic admirer)!
When I was exhausted but couldn't take time off to travel, I'd go on virtual adventures instead:
randomly searching for remote destinations and dropping pins on Google Maps.
Here are a few spots that I swear I'll visit in person...someday, eventually!
Why I am still staying alive?
Chat?
If you would like to have a random (virtual) coffee chat with me, please visit my calendly page.
I am happy to talk if you want to share your stress or just want to chat about life in general (when I have time),
but be sure to check out the On-Campus Mental Health Resources @ Michigan.
Get In Touch
You are welcome to drop me a message :)
Phone
xxx-xxx-xxxx
marstin0607
ziqiao_ma
Address
Bob and Betty Beyster Building 4909,
2260 Hayward Street,
Ann Arbor, MI 48109.