Portrait
Michael Anoruo
Ph.D. Student
Carengie Mellon University
About Me

I am a third-year Ph.D. student in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), advised by Dr. Wennie Tabib in the Resilient Intelligent Systems Lab (RIS Lab).

My research lies at the intersection of AI and robotic control, focusing on building autonomous systems that can operate in complex, dynamic settings. Because the world is constantly changing, robots need control strategies that can adapt in real time. At the same time, the world is governed by known physical laws, and we can leverage this knowledge to help robots make better decisions. My work combines reinforcement learning with differentiable physics to help robots leverage both experience and physical prior knowledge for adaptive, efficient, and robust control. While my current research focuses on aerial systems, my long-term goal is to extend these adaptive control methods across different robotic platforms, enabling robots to operate safely in the real world and work alongside humans to accomplish challenging tasks.

Education
  • Carnegie Mellon University
    Ph.D., Robotics
    Aug. 2024 - present
  • University of Maryland, Baltimore County
    B.S., Computer Science
    Aug. 2020 - Dec. 2023
Honors & Awards
  • GEM Fellow
    2024
  • Summa Cum Laude
    2023
  • Meyerhoff Scholar
    2020
News
2026
Presented my research at NVIDIA Day at Carnegie Mellon University
May 13
2024
Started my Ph.D. in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University!
Aug 26
2023
Graduated Summa Cum Laude from UMBC with a B.S. in Computer Science 🎓
Dec 21
Selected Publications (view all )
Learning Agile Intruder Interception using Differentiable Quadrotor Dynamics
Learning Agile Intruder Interception using Differentiable Quadrotor Dynamics

Michael Anoruo, Xiaoyu Tian, Abhishek Rathod, Timothy Naudet, Thomas Canchola, Eric Sturzinger, Kshitij Goel, Wennie Tabib

arXiv preprint, 2026 Preprint

Knowledge Guided Two-Player Reinforcement Learning for Cyber Attacks and Defenses
Knowledge Guided Two-Player Reinforcement Learning for Cyber Attacks and Defenses

Aritran Piplai, Michael Anoruo, Kayode Fasaye, Anupam Joshi, Tim Finin, Ahmad Ridley

IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), 2022

All publications