# Ian Zhou

Member of Technical Staff at Cognition (Devin, Windsurf); ex-Applied Intuition, ex-Nuro; Yale CS  
Cognition  
United States

## At Cognition

- Role: Member of Technical Staff (Engineering)
- Joined: May 2026
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: Engineering, Applied Intuition
- Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: Nuro; Google; Yale University (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together)

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1
- Domain: cognition.com

## Notes
- Joined Cognition (maker of Devin and Windsurf) as Member of Technical Staff in San Francisco in May 2026, after roughly 2.5 years at Applied Intuition; the move from autonomy/simulation tooling to AI coding agents follows nearly eight years in autonomous-vehicle software. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)
- Worked in Engineering at Applied Intuition (Mountain View, CA) from Oct 2023 to May 2026, the vehicle-software and simulation company serving automakers and AV programs. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)
- Spent four years at Nuro (Mountain View) as Software Engineer from Aug 2018, promoted to Senior Software Engineer in Mar 2022 and leaving Sep 2022. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)
- Earned combined Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Computer Science at Yale University (2014-2018). (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)
- Co-authored the IVA 2016 paper 'Talk to Me: Verbal Communication Improves Perceptions of Friendship and Social Presence in Human-Robot Interaction' with Elena Corina Grigore, Andre Pereira, David Wang and Brian Scassellati of the Yale Social Robotics Lab. (https://scazlab.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/GRIGORE_IVA2016.pdf)
- Public headline says "Software Engineer". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)
- Held a Software Engineer role from Sep 2022 to Oct 2023 with no employer named on his LinkedIn profile, a gap between Nuro and Applied Intuition. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)
- Interned as a Software Engineer at Google in Seattle in summer 2016. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)
- Co-authored ICSR 2016 paper 'Comparing Ways to Trigger Migration between a Robot and a Virtually Embodied Character' with Elena Corina Grigore, Andre Pereira, Jie Jessica Yang, David Wang and Brian Scassellati; the Talk to Me paper is later cited in an ACM THRI 2018 human-robot teaming paper. (http://elenacorinagrigore.com/papers/icsr_2016.pdf)
- Undergraduate researcher in the Yale Social Robotics Lab (Brian Scassellati's ScazLab) in summer 2015. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)
- Competed in the USA Computing Olympiad (USACO) as class of 2014: scored 711 in the Feb 2013 Bronze and 867 in the Mar 2013 Bronze contests, then 700 in the Mar 2014 Silver contest. (https://usaco.org/current/data/mar13_bronze_results.html)
- Scientific Computing Intern at Emerald Cloud Lab (South San Francisco) in summer 2017, the remote-controlled robotic life-sciences lab. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)
- Part-time Software Developer at Trinity Mobile Networks in New Haven while at Yale (Sep 2015 - May 2017). (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)
- Previous roles include Engineering at Applied Intuition; Software Engineer; Senior Software Engineer at Nuro; Software Engineer at Nuro; Scientific Computing Intern at Emerald Cloud Lab; Software Developer Part-Time at Trinity Mobile Networks; Software Engineering Intern at Google; Undergraduate Researcher at Yale Social Robotics Lab. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)
- Location is United States. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1)

## Experience
- Member of Technical Staff at Cognition - San Francisco, CA (May 2026 - Present)
- Engineering at Applied Intuition - Mountain View, CA (Oct 2023 - May 2026)
- Software Engineer (Sep 2022 - Oct 2023)
- Senior Software Engineer at Nuro - Mountain View, CA (Mar 2022 - Sep 2022)
- Software Engineer at Nuro - Mountain View, CA (Aug 2018 - Mar 2022)
- Scientific Computing Intern at Emerald Cloud Lab - South San Francisco, CA (May 2017 - Aug 2017)
- Software Developer Part-Time at Trinity Mobile Networks - New Haven, CT (Sep 2015 - May 2017)
- Software Engineering Intern at Google - Seattle, WA (May 2016 - Aug 2016)
- Undergraduate Researcher at Yale Social Robotics Lab - Yale University (May 2015 - Aug 2015)
- Bioinformatics Research Intern at Stanford Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Lab - Stanford University (Jun 2013 - Sep 2013)

## Education
- Yale University - Bachelor's and Master's, Computer Science - (Jan 2014 - Jan 2018)

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianzhou1
- https://scazlab.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/GRIGORE_IVA2016.pdf
- http://elenacorinagrigore.com/papers/icsr_2016.pdf
- https://patch.com/california/pleasanton/an--amador-valley-math-team-places-first-at-local-mat16b32d0c6c
- https://usaco.org/current/data/mar13_bronze_results.html
- https://usaco.org/current/data/mar14_silver_results.html
- https://cognition.com/
- https://api.github.com/users/ianzhou


Researched with Autumn (https://www.autumn.ai) from public sources. Updated 2026-11-04. Profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people/ian-zhou · Everyone at Cognition: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people