Manni Cui
Undergraduate at HUST, exchange student at UC Berkeley
I am a third-year undergraduate at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), studying Electronic Information and Communication Engineering in the Innovation Experimental Class (Advanced Mathematics and Physics Track). For the 2026–27 academic year I am an exchange student at UC Berkeley.
I currently work on robotics and embodied AI in the ICON Lab (Berkeley Intelligent Control Lab), led by Prof. Negar Mehr. Before that, I worked on AI-generated content (AIGC) detection as a research intern in the Security Department of Ant Group and as a remote research assistant at the Pattern Recognition Laboratory, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Research
- Robotics and embodied AIGeneralization and robustness of vision-language-action (VLA) models, world models, and how learning connects with control and optimization. Currently in the ICON Lab at UC Berkeley.
- AIGC detectionDetectors for AI-generated images and videos that generalize to unseen generators and stay robust to real-world degradations. At the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, I worked on AI-generated video and image detection (Rethinking the Readout, MIRROR); at Ant Group, on continuous supervision for AI-generated image detection (CuRe). Two papers at NeurIPS 2026 (see publications).
News
- Joined the ICON Lab at UC Berkeley to work on robotics.
- Two papers accepted to NeurIPS 2026: Rethinking the Readout and MIRROR.
- CuRe, on continuous supervision for AI-generated image detection, is out on arXiv.
- Started a year as an exchange student at UC Berkeley.
- Joined the Security Department of Ant Group as a research intern.
- Joined the Pattern Recognition Laboratory, Institute of Automation, CAS, as a remote research assistant.
Publications
* Equal contribution
Education
- University of California, BerkeleyExchange student
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST)B.Eng. in Electronic Information and Communication EngineeringInnovation Experimental Class (Advanced Mathematics and Physics Track). National Scholarship.
Experience
- ICON Lab (Berkeley Intelligent Control Lab), UC BerkeleyUndergraduate researcher in Prof. Negar Mehr's group. Generalization of vision-language-action (VLA) models.
- Ant Group, Security DepartmentResearch intern, Hangzhou. AI-generated image detection with continuous supervision (CuRe).
- Pattern Recognition Laboratory, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of SciencesRemote research assistant. AI-generated video and image detection (Rethinking the Readout, MIRROR).
- Automated Animal Behavior Analysis via 3D ModelingTeam lead. Joint project of the HUST School of Electronic Information and Communications and Tongji Medical College.The system was adopted by our medical collaborators and led to two patent applications with me as first inventor.
Honors
- National Scholarship
- HUST Outstanding Student; Excellence Scholarship for Cultural and Athletic Activities
- National First Prize, National Undergraduate Embedded Chip and System Design Competition
- Grand Prize, “D-Robotics Cup” (one of only two winning teams among 20,000+)
- National Gold Award (First Prize), Medical-Engineering Interdisciplinary Track, National College Student Medical Innovation Competition