Kyle Morgenstein

About Kyle Morgenstein

I am a sixth year Ph.D. student at UT Austin working on reinforcement learning and safety for humanoid robots in the Human-Centered Robotics Group under Professor Luis Sentis. I\'m excited about building friendly robots, and their potential to fundamentally improve the lives of humans. My work seeks to answer questions surrounding pro-social behaviors with safety and explainability guarantees. I am also a reinforcement learning researcher at Apptronik where I lead efforts in perceptive locomanipulation, motion imitation, and safe human-robot physical interaction. I was most recently a visiting researcher at the Boston Dynamics AI Institute/Robotics and AI Institute working with Farbod Farshidian and Gabe Nelson on Reinforcement Learning for control and estimation for legged robots. I graduated from MIT in Spring 2020 with degrees in Aerospace Engineering & Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science. My engineering background is primarily in computer vision, machine learning/artificial intelligence, and optics. My aerospace engineering thesis characterized the dynamics of an infrared stellar interferometer. My geology thesis explored the microbe-mineral interactions that lead to the preservation of Proterozoic microfossils, specifically Cyanobacteria. For this work, I won the Christopher Goetze Prize for undergraduate research. Contact me at kyle.morgenstein [at] gmail.com for business and academic inquires. Follow my personal twitter @KyleMorgenstein and check out my website KyleMorgenstein.com to stay up to date on my projects.

Experience

1. Reinforcement Learning

   Apptronik

   Oct 2025 — Present · Austin, TX, US

Education

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD

  2020 — 2026

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Bachelor of Science - BS

  2016 — 2020

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Master of Engineering - MEng

• Cary High School

  High School

  2012 — 2016

Skills

• Python
• Machine Learning
• Team Leadership
• Sports
• Social Media Marketing
• Blogging
• Sports Writing
• Sports Marketing
• Working with Children
• Microsoft Word
• Public Relations
• Matlab
• Jewish Education
• English
• Data Analytics
• Press Releases
• Powerpoint
• Microsoft Excel
• Social Networking
• Circuit Design
• Jewish History
• Research
• Teamwork
• Community Outreach
• Writing
• Mechatronics
• Jewish Studies
• Event Planning
• Social Media
• Microsoft Office
• Time Management
• Public Speaking
• Spanish
• Facebook
• Leadership