About Me

I lead robotics research at Apple, within Vladlen Koltun's research organization. Previously, I led the Embodied AI Lab at Intel, working on projects spanning artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, and robotics. In my free time, I enjoy traveling, spending time with family, and exploring hobby projects combining electronics, 3D printing, and coding. I'm passionate about making AI and robotics more accessible to everyone.

Short Bio: Matthias holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering (Math Minor) from Texas A&M University and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from KAUST, with theses on Persistent Aerial Tracking and Sim-to-Real Transfer for Autonomous Navigation. He has authored over 35 publications in top-tier venues, including Nature, Science Robotics, CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, ICML, NeurIPS, RSS, CoRL, ICRA, and IROS, with several works presented as Oral or Spotlight papers and some nominated for Best Paper awards.

35+

Publications

14k+

Citations

10+

Years Research

Best Paper Awards

Physical AI Robotics Autonomous Navigation Computer Vision Robot Learning Embodied AI Sim-to-Real

Featured Project

OpenBot

Turning Smartphones into Robots

An open-source robotic platform that turns a standard smartphone into the brain of a low-cost wheeled robot — making AI and robotics accessible to researchers, students, and hobbyists.

$50 build cost — fully 3D-printable chassis
Smartphone-powered: vision, compute, and connectivity
Active open-source community of researchers and makers

openbot.org GitHub Demo

Background

Experience

Apple

Lead of Robotics Research · Senior Researcher

Grew robotics research team from 2 to 20+ within one year
Define research strategy and drive technology development

Intel Labs

Lead of Embodied AI Lab · Research Scientist

Built and led 16-person research team across AI, CV, and robotics
Created OpenBot; collaborated with ETH, EPFL, and UZH

Microsoft Research

PhD Intern

Autonomous flight in simulation and real world

BMW AG

R&D Electrical Engineer

Developed 48V mild-hybrid electric machine, now in production vehicles

Education

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science — Computer Vision

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

Thesis: Sim-to-Real Transfer for Autonomous Navigation
M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science — Computer Vision

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

Thesis: Persistent Aerial Tracking
B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Math Minor

Texas A&M University

News

2026
AprInvited talk "Curiosity, Passion, and Learning to Learn" at InkubasiaLAB · Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
2024
JulMesh2NeRF accepted at ECCV'24
FebLiSA selected as highlight at CVPR'24 3.6% acceptance
Feb2 papers accepted at CVPR'24
JanOpenBot-Fleet accepted at ICRA'24
JanGIM accepted at ICLR'24 as spotlight 5% acceptance
2023
OctSimCS accepted at AAAI'24
AugArticle about our Nature paper on outperforming professional human pilots in drone racing Nature
JunBest Paper Award for LDM3D at the CVPR'23 3DMV workshop Best Paper
Jan3 papers accepted at ICRA'23
2021
OctLearning high-speed flight in the wild published in Science Robotics Science Robotics
AugPromoted to Lead of the Embodied AI Lab at Intel
JulTraining Graph Neural Networks with 1000 Layers presented at ICML'21
2020
JulDDA nominated for Best Paper Award at RSS'20 Best Paper Nominee
FebSGAS accepted at CVPR'20
2019
AugDeepGCNs accepted as Oral at ICCV'19
AprOIL accepted at RSS'19
2018
SepBest Paper Award for Teaching UAVs to Race at ECCV'18 UAVision Best Paper
JunDemo of Sim4CV at CVPR'18 · Outstanding Reviewer Award Outstanding Reviewer
JunInternship at Microsoft Research in Redmond
2017
Mar3rd place in challenge 2 of MBZIRC robotics competition
MarContext-Aware CF Tracking accepted as Oral at CVPR'17

In the Press

Selected media coverage of our research.

Champion-Level Drone Racing · Nature 2023

Nature News· IEEE Spectrum· NPR· Gizmodo· UZH News· Silicon Republic

Learning High-Speed Flight in the Wild · Science Robotics 2021

IEEE Spectrum· UZH News· Robohub· Inside Unmanned Systems· EurekAlert

OpenBot: Turning Smartphones into Robots · ICRA 2021

IEEE Spectrum· VentureBeat· Arduino Blog· Hackster· Synced

About Me

Background

News

In the Press

Selected Publications

All Publications

Contact