Hello, I'm
Joanna Wolski
Robotics & ML Engineer
Currently a Collaborating Researcher at Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, I focus on bridging the gap between foundation models and real-world robotics applications. My work spans leading international research labs, including Harvard and EPFL.
About Me
I'm an EPFL engineer specializing in Robotics and Machine Learning, passionate about building intelligent systems that can perceive, reason, and act in the physical world. My interests lie at the intersection of machine learning, embodied AI, and real-world robotics.
Currently, I'm a Research Collaborator at Mila Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, where I develop a robotic guide dog system for assistive navigation. Previously, I worked at the Slade Lab at Harvard University SEAS on wearable robotic exoskeletons, and at Chanel as a Data Scientist intern.
Wherever I am, I'm driven by curiosity. I love research and enjoy finding new solutions to both old and emerging problems.
When I'm not in the lab, you'll probably find me skiing in the mountains or kitefoiling on the water.
Robotics
SLAM, perception, navigation, motion planning, control
Machine Learning
Deep learning, reinforcement learning, VLMs, NLP
Personality
Curious, creative, positive
Passions
Skiing, Kitefoiling
Languages
French
Mother Tongue
English
C1
Polish
Fluent
German
B2
Experience
These are my past and current research and industry experiences.
Research Collaborator
Feb 2026 — Present
- •Developing a robotic guide dog system for assistive navigation in real-world environments for visually impaired users
- •Designed a multimodal perception system on a Unitree Go2 quadruped robot, integrating IMU, LiDAR and vision with Vision-Language Models (VLMs) for semantic scene understanding
- •Training Reinforcement Learning (RL) policies for goal-directed locomotion and obstacle avoidance in unstructured environments
- •Built end-to-end robotics pipelines using PyTorch for autonomous robotic system, including sensor fusion, mapping, control, and hardware deployment
Education
Summary of my academic background.
Master Thesis
Mar 2025 — Oct 2025Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, USA
Grade: 6.0/6.0
M.Sc. in Robotics and Data Science
Sep 2022 — Oct 2025Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
B.Sc. in Microengineering
Sep 2018 — Sep 2022Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
Skills & Technologies
A curated set of tools and technologies I use to bring ideas to life
Programming
Deep Learning
Data & ML Tools
Machine Learning
Robotics
Cloud & DevOps
Embedded Systems
Experimental Systems
Design & Fabrication
Let's Connect
Get In Touch
I'm currently open to new opportunities in robotics and machine learning in Switzerland or France. Whether you have a question, want to collaborate, or just want to say hi, feel free to reach out!
Connect on LinkedIn