Qianyi Deng

Qianyi Deng is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a co-founder of Piggy Robotics, a Y Combinator (YC F25) startup based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work focuses on robotics, machine learning, and applied artificial intelligence, with strong links between academic research and real-world product development.

At Piggy Robotics, she is building mass-producible humanoid robots powered by artificial muscles. The company aims to make robots affordable for everyday home use, at prices similar to consumer electronics. Within two months, the team built a full-size humanoid robot for under $1,000 using their own muscles, valves, and pump systems. This work combines hardware innovation with advanced software and control systems.

Alongside her startup role, Qianyi has strong teaching and research experience. At the University of Oxford, she worked as a Laboratory Demonstrator for nearly three years, teaching software development and database design. Her students included senior professionals from organisations such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, UBS, and NASA. She is also active in leadership roles, including Vice President of the Oxford Women in Computer Science Society and committee work on equality and diversity.

Her research background includes work at Fudan University on transformer models for image editing, and at Tencent, where she improved multilingual OCR and handwriting recognition using large-scale vision models and datasets. Earlier, she worked at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on data visualisation projects involving large cultural datasets and geographic analysis, contributing to national research publications. At Kuaishou Technology, she supported research linking machine learning with social impact.

Qianyi’s entrepreneurial journey began early. At the age of 13, she founded an outdoor adventure business in China, building the largest laser tag and quad bike centre in her region. She has also been involved in STEM outreach in the UK and volunteered as a teacher in Nepal, teaching mathematics and languages to orphaned children.

Her education includes a DPhil in Computer Science at Oxford, an MSc in Data Science from UCL with distinction, and a first-class undergraduate degree in Mathematics with Management and Finance from King’s College London. Her academic interests include multi-sensor systems and 3D human pose estimation.

Qianyi Deng was born and spent her early years in China. From a young age, she showed strong interest in learning, problem solving, and building practical systems. At the age of 13, she started her first business, Youda Outdoor Adventure Co., in Hunan, China. Between 2014 and 2019, she built and operated the largest laser tag arena and quad bike centre in the region. This early experience gave her hands-on knowledge of leadership, operations, finance, and customer management.

In 2014, she also volunteered as a teacher at an orphanage in Kathmandu, Nepal. During this time, she taught mathematics, Chinese, and English to more than 45 children. This experience shaped her long-term commitment to education and social impact.

Qianyi completed her A-level education at St George’s School, Ascot, where she studied Mathematics, Further Mathematics, and Photography. She was actively involved in school leadership and extracurricular activities and achieved high academic results. She later earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics with Management and Finance from King’s College London, graduating with First Class Honours. During this period, she took part in international academic exchanges at the University of Hong Kong and Tsinghua University and received leadership and cultural achievement awards.

In 2019 and 2020, she worked in research and data roles at Kuaishou Technology and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Her work included machine learning research, data analysis, large-scale web scraping, geographic visualisation, and contributions to national-level cultural research publications. She also co-authored research work focused on technology and social development.

She later completed a Master of Science in Data Science at University College London, graduating with distinction. Her studies covered machine learning, reinforcement learning, statistics, and applied data science, and her thesis focused on stochastic multi-armed bandit models.

Qianyi went on to begin a DPhil in Computer Science at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on multi-sensor systems and 3D human pose estimation, under the supervision of senior faculty members. Alongside her research, she worked as a Laboratory Demonstrator from 2022 to 2025, teaching software development and database design to senior professionals from global organisations including Google, Microsoft, Meta, UBS, and NASA. She also held leadership roles in student and equality-focused organisations within the university.

In 2025, she co-founded Piggy Robotics, a Y Combinator-backed startup based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The company develops mass-producible humanoid robots using artificial muscle systems. Within two months, the team built a full-size humanoid robot for under $1,000 using proprietary hardware systems.

Currently, Qianyi Deng is continuing her doctoral research at Oxford while working as a co-founder at Piggy Robotics, focusing on building affordable, practical humanoid robots and advancing applied robotics research.

Qianyi Deng’s vision is to make advanced robotics useful, affordable, and accessible to everyday people. She aims to bridge academic research and real-world products by turning complex computer science and robotics research into practical systems. Her work focuses on building humanoid robots that can support daily tasks, improve quality of life, and reduce physical workload for people. She believes technology should be reliable, safe, and designed for real human needs. Through research, teaching, and entrepreneurship, her goal is to develop robotics systems that are scalable, cost-effective, and suitable for large-scale use in homes and workplaces.

Qianyi Deng has received recognition for her academic excellence, leadership, and technical contributions throughout her education and career. She graduated with First Class Honours from King’s College London and completed her Master’s degree at University College London with distinction. She received leadership and cultural achievement awards during her undergraduate studies. Her research work has contributed to national-level publications in China and academic projects in machine learning and data science. She was selected as a Y Combinator founder in 2025 for Piggy Robotics, recognising her work in building affordable humanoid robotics systems and translating research into scalable products.