Daniel Layeghi

My work has moved between robotics, research in control and learning, and starting a product company. Most recently, I co-founded Z2 Labs because I wanted serious engineering and careful product design to sit together. Its first product, Souida, is a natural-language book-discovery platform. I developed the high-performance machine-learning, retrieval and production systems behind it. I also worked on distribution and scoped technical projects for consulting clients.

Before Z2, I completed a PhD and postdoc at the University of Edinburgh and published in reinforcement learning, optimal control and robot manipulation. I am particularly interested in connecting model-based control with learning, including through differentiable simulation. My PhD thesis was Optimal Control Theoretic Value Function Learning.

Earlier, I joined Automata as an early engineer (#8 hire) and built its robotics stack from scratch. The software was later used in NHS pathology laboratories; Automata subsequently raised a $50M Series B.