Amber Young

amberyoung-Hearts to Humanity Eternal

Amber (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Dept. of mechanical Engineering, where she conducts research in the Embodied Dexterity Group under Professor Hannah Stuart.  Her research interests include robophysics, bioinspired design, and the physics of animal locomotion.  Currently, Amber is developing control algorithms for a mole crab-inspired legged robot that can burrow into a granular substrate.  She hopes to enable the robot to walk, burrow, and transition between these modes for exploring unstructured terrains on other planets and moons in our Solar System.

Amber is passionate about equitable access to quality science education.  She has taught a range of courses, including Physics, Bioinspired design, and Advanced Robotics Engineering, to middle school, high school and college students.  She also volunteers with Cientifico Latino, the Women+ of Color Project, and the Amgen Scholars Program, where she supports underrepresented students.

Amber has received NASA Space Technology & Grant Research Opportunity and Google+ Black in Robotics PhD Award.  She holds an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley (May 2024) and a B.S. in Physics from Yale University (May 2021).