CV
Minghao Ning
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Waterloo
Summary
Ph.D. candidate in autonomous driving and robotics with 5+ years of experience in multi-sensor perception, cooperative infrastructure perception, motion planning, model predictive control, and V2X connected mobility. Built and validated perception and planning systems on field-tested autonomous shuttles, roadside infrastructure networks, and indoor mobile robot platforms.
Education
- Ph.D. Candidate in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering2026University of WaterlooGPA: 94/100
- Bachelor of Engineering in Vehicle Engineering2020Beijing Institute of TechnologyGPA: 92.16/100
Work Experience
- Autonomous Driving Perception and Motion Planning2020 - 2024University of WaterlooDeveloped onboard perception and planning methods for autonomous driving.
- Developed LiDAR point-cloud potential-field and LiDAR-camera-HD map fusion methods for real-time drivable-space generation, road-boundary representation, obstacle avoidance, and MPC-based trajectory generation.
- Validated perception and planning modules in simulation and on the WATonoBus full-scale autonomous shuttle under complex road scenes and Canadian winter conditions.
- Cooperative Infrastructure Perception (CoInfra)2023 - PresentUniversity of WaterlooDesigned and deployed roadside infrastructure perception systems for vehicle-infrastructure cooperation.
- Designed and deployed a 14-node roadside infrastructure network for adverse-weather traffic perception, city-scale data collection, cloud-side fusion, and globally consistent 3D tracking.
- Developed calibration, synchronization, latency compensation, delay-aware fusion, and large-scale dataset pipelines for multi-agent perception research.
- Led technology transfer and deployment of nine intelligent sensor nodes for municipal intersection traffic monitoring and analysis in Waterloo, Kitchener, and Guelph.
- Edge-Cloud Cooperative Mobility for Vehicles and Mobile Robots2023 - PresentUniversity of WaterlooDeveloped cloud-based autonomous mobility systems for connected vehicles and indoor robots.
- Developed a Cloud-based Autonomous Mobility framework integrating distributed infrastructure sensor nodes, edge perception, 5G/Wi-Fi communication, and cloud-level fusion.
- Integrated cooperative 3D human perception and delay-aware tracking with closed-loop MPC planning on a real-world medical-bed robot platform.
- Autonomous Shuttle and Field Demonstrations2021 - 2025University of WaterlooLed and supported autonomous shuttle development, demonstrations, and media outreach.
- Led second-generation perception development and the transition from a custom in-house autonomy stack to an Autoware-based next-generation platform.
- Supported real-world demonstrations and media outreach with ESV, MathWorks, and UWaterloo News.
- Autonomous Farming Robotics2026 - PresentUniversity of WaterlooDeveloping perception and localization systems for agricultural field robotics.
- Developing visual-LiDAR fusion methods and a modular sensor box for agricultural field localization, odometry robustness, crop detection, and tool anomaly detection.
Skills
Programming
- Python
- C++
- MATLAB/Simulink
Robotics and Autonomous Driving
- ROS1/ROS2
- Autoware
- MPC
- Motion planning
- Vehicle control
Perception and Sensor Fusion
- OpenCV
- PCL
- Sensor calibration
- Multi-sensor fusion
- Cooperative perception
- 3D object tracking
- SLAM
- V2X
- Uncertainty-aware perception
Machine Learning
- PyTorch
- scikit-learn
- TensorRT
- Deep learning
- Object detection
- Semantic segmentation
Publications
- CoInfra: A Large-Scale Cooperative Infrastructure Perception System and Dataset in Adverse Weather2026Under review at Transportation Research Part CLarge-scale cooperative infrastructure perception system and dataset for adverse-weather vehicle-infrastructure cooperation.
- Real-World Deployment of Cloud Autonomous Mobility System Using 5G Networks for Outdoor and Indoor Environments2026Under review at IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems MagazineReal-world cloud autonomous mobility deployment using 5G networking in outdoor and indoor environments.
- SAP-CoPE: Social-Aware Planning using Cooperative Pose Estimation with Infrastructure Sensor Nodes2026Revised manuscript under review at IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and EngineeringSocial-aware planning with cooperative pose estimation from infrastructure sensor nodes.
- A Novel Motion Planning for Autonomous Vehicles Using Point Cloud Based Potential Field2024IEEE Transactions on Vehicular TechnologyPoint-cloud-based potential-field motion planning for autonomous vehicles.
- An Efficient Approach to Generate Safe Drivable Space by LiDAR-Camera-HD Map Fusion2024IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation SystemsLiDAR-camera-HD map fusion for safe drivable space generation.
- Enhancing Indoor Mobility with Connected Sensor Nodes: A Real-Time, Delay-Aware Cooperative Perception Approach2024IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation SystemsDelay-aware cooperative perception for intelligent indoor mobility.
Presentations
- Trustworthy Diagnosis in Connected Mobility2024IEEE ITSC 2024Session organizer and chair for the IEEE ITSC 2024 technical session Trustworthy Diagnosis in Connected Mobility.
Languages
- ChineseNative
- EnglishFluent
Interests
- Autonomous systemsAutonomous driving, Robotics, Perception, Sensor fusion, Motion planning, Cooperative infrastructure autonomy