UCLA Mathematics Professor Chenfanfu Jiang is collaborating with the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) as a part of the next five-year phase of their University Research Program, known as URP 3.0. This marks Jiang’s second collaboration with TRI.
“Starting in 2026, URP 3.0 supports 69 research projects across 31 universities, bringing together 88 TRI researchers and 104 faculty members. This is the biggest cohort since the program’s inception, with 11 new institutions participating for the first time and bringing fresh perspectives and expertise.
TRI funds collaborative university research projects that are intentionally structured for deep collaboration. Each project is co-led by a university researcher and a TRI co-investigator working as peers to ensure that fundamental research and real-world application evolve together.”
Response from Professor Chenfanfu Jiang:
“‘Pushing the Limits of GPU-based Physics Simulations for Robotics,’ focuses on developing fast, accurate physics simulations that allow robots to train and be evaluated in complex virtual environments before real-world deployment. Our team is building new GPU-accelerated algorithms, simulation tools, and 3D AI asset-generation pipelines for challenging robotic interactions involving soft objects, cloth, rope, articulated objects, and other deformable materials. What excites me most about this collaboration with Toyota Research Institute is the opportunity to connect mathematical and computational advances directly with real robotic systems and generative AI frontiers. We hope this work will help make robot learning more reliable, scalable, and useful in contact-rich real-world settings.”
Learn more about Professor Jiang’s lab here.
Read the full TRI blog post here.
Learn more about TRI’s University Research Program here.
