Marthens Hakizimana

Hello, I'm Marthens - a Robotics and Control Engineer in Training, currently a PhD student in Mechatronic Systems Engineering at Simon Fraser University, with a research focus on Physical AI and robotic welding systems at the BCIT Centre of Welding Technologies and Metallurgy Research and SFU Motion and Power Electronics Control Lab.

My work sits at the intersection of embedded systems, motion control, and artificial intelligence. From building in-pipe welding robotic arms with custom embedded controllers, to integrating LLMs and VLMs into live robotic welding loops, I'm driven by the challenge of making machines smarter, safer, and more capable.

My current focus is trustworthy Physical AI: putting language models inside a live robotic welding cell without letting an opaque model drive a robot unchecked. That pulls me toward a set of questions I care about more broadly, cybersecurity, AI ethics, and governance, how powerful but opaque systems can be deployed safely, securely, and accountably in the physical world.

What sets my approach apart is end-to-end, full-stack hardware-software experience. I've worked across the entire stack — from electrical wiring and drive-stage integration alongside the PCB design, to embedded firmware on DSPs and ARM MCUs, all the way up to high-level control algorithms and software interfaces. This gives me a distinct edge when designing and optimizing control algorithms: I understand the hardware constraints first-hand — actuator dynamics, sensor noise floors, communication latencies, and computational limits — and use that knowledge to make smarter implementation decisions rather than treating the hardware as a black box.

Beyond the lab, I'm an athlete at heart. I love football, running, and hiking.