About the role#
We are seeking Machine Learning Research Interns to join our autonomy team. You will work on bringing end-to-end machine learning models, from pixels to trajectories, into deployable systems. This role bridges the gap between research and real-world product needs. You will work alongside researchers, data engineers, and autonomy engineers to scale prototypes into production.
What you'll do#
- Conduct research to advance generative modelling for end-to-end planning from vision in automated driving.
- Implement scalable end-to-end architectures to process raw sensor data into vehicle trajectories.
- Prototype, validate, and iterate on model architectures using imitation learning and large-scale data.
- Perform closed-loop evaluations in sensor simulations and real-world testing environments.
- Explore multi-modal and language-conditioned models to broaden policy applicability.
- Integrate ML-based components for perception, planning, and control.
What you'll need#
- Currently pursuing a Ph.D. or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering, or a related field.
- Proficiency in Python for implementing and evaluating research ideas.
- Experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch.
- Understanding of version control, testing, and software engineering fundamentals.
- Experience in ML engineering workflows, including data sampling, curation, pre-processing, training, ablation, evaluation, deployment, and inference optimization.
- Understanding of debugging and profiling on the NVIDIA CUDA stack.
- Experience with ML ops tooling like Weights & Biases, MLflow, or Metaflow.
- Hands-on experience working with robotics or real-world sensor data, such as video, lidar, IMU, or radar.
- Experience in state-of-the-art architectures for object detection and 3D perception.
- Familiarity with foundation models, pre-training, fine-tuning, multimodal Transformer architectures, and distributed training.
- Experience working with ROS, simulation frameworks like CARLA or Nvidia DriveSim, or vehicle interfaces.
- Experience with robot motion planning techniques, including trajectory optimization, sampling-based planning, or model predictive control.
- Passion for collaborative engineering and building reliable ML systems.
Location & details#
- Location: Los Altos, California.
- Term: Summer 2027 (12 weeks).
- Work Modality: Hybrid.
- Employment Type: Full-time intern.
- Compensation: Paid position.
About Toyota Research Institute
Toyota Research Institute is a research organization founded in 2016. Based in Los Altos, California, it operates as a subsidiary of Toyota. The company focuses on artificial intelligence, robotics, automated driving, and material sciences. Its staff of approximately 485 employees works to develop technology for vehicles and robots while researching new materials for batteries and fuel cells.
How to get in at Toyota Research Institute
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