Yajing Shen received his PhD degree in 2012 from Fukuda Lab., Nagoya University, Japan, and he is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering, the Director of HKUST Smart Manufacturing Center, and the core member of the Robotics Institute at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, an Executive member of the China Micro-nano Robot Society, China Coexisting Cooperative-Cognitive Robot Society, and the former Associate Editor of the flagging robotics journal IEEE Trans on Robotics (2019-2022).
Dr. Yajing’s main research interest is miniature intelligent robotic systems. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal/conference papers, including the top multidisciplinary journal (e.g., Science Robotics, Nature Communications, PNAS), top specialized journal (e.g., IEEE Trans on Robotics), top international conference (e.g., ICRA, IROS), with widely fetched by international media, e.g., Associated Press, Thomson Reuters, etc. He received the Best Manipulation Paper Award at IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in 2011, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Japan Chapter Young Award in 2011, the Early Career Awards of Hong Kong UGC in 2014, the Big-on-Small Award at MARSS in 2018, IEEE Distinguish lecture in 2019, CityU Outstanding Supervisor Award in 2020. He also received the “National Excellent Young Scientist Fund (Hong Kong & Macau)” for the topic “micro/nano robot” in 2019.
Mitch received B.Sc. in Condensed Matter Physics from Nanjing University in 2009 and Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Hong Kong in 2013. From 2014 to 2020, he worked successively at Hong Kong Polytechnic University as Research Associate, Postdoctoral Fellow, and Research Assistant Professor. In Dec 2020, he joined the faculty of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as an assistant professor at the Division of Integrative Systems and Design and the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering. He was chair of the IEEE Hong Kong Magnetics Chapter (2021-2022) and vice-chair of the IEEE Hong Kong EDSSC joint Chapter (2020-2022). He is an Associated Editor of IEEE ACCESS and an Associate Director of the Research Center on Smart Manufacturing at HKUST.
Molong Duan obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in theoretical and applied mechanics at Peking University. He earned his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His primary research focuses on manufacturing and aerospace automation applications for enhanced accuracy, productivity, efficiency, flexibility, intelligence, and safety. In manufacturing applications, he focuses both on physics-based and data-driven modeling of machine dynamics and the manufacturing processes, including machining and additive manufacturing. Building on these models, his research exploits smart controllers, input/output redundancy, advanced trajectory generation methods, and vibration compensation methods to enhance manufacturing performance. His manufacturing research application expands to the monitoring and control of additive manufacturing processes, multi-axis continuous fiber additive manufacturing, robotic manufacturing, and robotic construction.
Dr. Yanglong Lu obtained his doctoral and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2020 and 2016, respectively. He also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan from 06/2021 to 06/2022. He aimed to improve the quality of manufactured parts by establishing physical models, statistical models, and digital twin models to understand the forming mechanisms of manufacturing processes. After joining the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as an assistant professor in July 2022, Dr. Lu’s research expanded further into the development and optimization of bioprinting systems. This includes optimizing medical devices, developing algorithms for quality monitoring during printing processes, studying high-performance biomaterials, and designing artificial tissue structures. Dr. Lu received the Best PhD Dissertation Award from ASME-CIE, and was a finalist in the 2023 NSF Manufacturing Blue Sky Competition. Additionally, in 2016, Dr. Lu co-founded SolCharged, a solar energy company in the U.S.A.
Rob Scharff is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Integrative Systems and Design of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Prior to that, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Bioinspired Soft Robotics group at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). Dr. Scharff obtained his Ph.D. degree at the department of Design Engineering from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in 2021 and received his M.Sc. degree in Integrated Product Design from the same institute. His research focuses on soft robotics, with an emphasis on the integrated design and manufacturing of bioinspired soft robots with proprioception and tactile sensing capabilities. He is founding member of the HKUST Smart Manufacturing Center, member of the HKUST Cheng Kar-Shun Robotics Institute (CKSRI) and was chair of the 2022 Soft Robotics PhD Summerschool in Delft, The Netherlands.
