About the role#
As a Ph.D. Research Intern, you will join the Extreme Performance Intelligent Control team. You will focus on developing a world foundation model for driving. This involves creating a unified representation of driving knowledge using large-scale real-world and simulated data. You will work on multi-agent interaction, causal reasoning, and embodied intelligence.
What you'll do#
- Conduct original research in areas such as world modeling, multi-agent interaction, reinforcement learning, perception, or sim-to-real transfer.
- Collaborate with full-time researchers to design, train, and evaluate learning-based driving systems.
- Develop and test prototypes in closed-loop simulation environments and potentially on high-performance autonomous driving hardware.
- Present your findings through internal talks and work toward a top-tier academic publication.
- Integrate and work with large-scale internal and open-source datasets.
What you'll need#
- Current enrollment in a Ph.D. program for Computer Science, Robotics, Machine Learning, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
- Strong background in machine learning, specifically deep learning, generative models, reinforcement learning, or probabilistic modeling.
- Hands-on experience training world models, model-based reinforcement learning, 3D reconstruction, sensor fusion, or large-scale simulation.
- Proficient coding skills and experience with deep learning frameworks like PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow.
- Prior publications in top-tier AI or ML conferences.
- Bonus points for experience with probabilistic modeling, autonomous driving datasets, open-source foundation models, or Amazon Web Services.
Location & details#
- This is a full-time, 12-week paid internship for Summer 2027.
- The role is based in Los Altos, California.
- This position follows a hybrid work model.
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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