Keynote Speakers & Invited Speakers

Dr. Dan Zhang is a Kaneff Professor in Advanced Robotics and Mechatronics, as well as the Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University. From July 1st 2004 to December 31 2015, Dr. Zhang was a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Advanced Robotics and Automation, was a founding Chair of the Department of Automotive, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Engineering with the Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science at University of Ontario Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Laval University, Canada, in June 2000.
Dr. Zhang's research interests include robotics and mechatronics; high performance parallel robotic machine development; sustainable/green manufacturing systems; rehabilitation robot and rescue robot.
Dr. Zhang’s contributions to and leadership within the field of robotic and automation have been recognized with several prestigious awards, within his own university (Research Excellence Award both from university level (2009) and faculty level (2008)), the Province of Ontario (Early Researcher Award in 2010), the professional societies (election to Fellow of the ASME in 2016, the EIC in 2012 and the CSME in 2010), and federal funding agencies (Canada Research Chair in January 2009 and renewed in January 2014). Besides, he was awarded the Inaugural Teaching Excellence by the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science of UOIT in 2006 and the Best Professor Award by UOIT Engineering Students' Society in2012.
Dr. Zhang is the editor-in-chief for International Journal of Mechanisms and Robotic Systems, the editor-in-chief for International Journal of Robotics Applications and Technologies, Associate editor for the International Journal of Robotics and Automation (ACTA publisher) and guest editors for other 4 international journals. Dr. Zhang served as a member of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Grant Selection Committee.
Dr. Zhang was director of Board of Directors at Durham Region Manufacturing Association, Canada, and director of Board of Directors of Professional Engineers Ontario, Lake Ontario Chapter, Canada. Dr. Zhang is a registered Professional Engineer of Canada, a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC), a Fellow of (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) ASME, and a Fellow of (Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering) CSME, a Senior Member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and a Senior Member of SME.

Prof. Ian Walker

IEEE Fellow, AIAA Senior Member

Professor Walker is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Senior Member of the AIAA. He has served as Vice President for Financial Activities for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and as Chair of the AIAA Technical Committee on Space Automation and Robotics. He has also served on the Editorial Boards of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics, the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, the International Journal of Robotics and Automation, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, and the International Journal of Environmentally Conscious Design and Manufacturing. His research has been funded by DARPA, the National Science Foundation, NASA, NASA/EPSCoR, NSF/EPSCoR, the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Department of Energy, South Carolina Commission of Higher Education, Sandia National Laboratories, and Westinghouse Hanford Company.
Professor Walker's research centers on robotics, particularly novel manipulators and manipulation. His group is conducting basic research in the construction, modeling, and application of biologically-inspired "trunk, tentacle, and worm" robots. Dr. Walker also conducts research in the area of fault tolerance and reliability of robots. New work focuses on the creation of animated environments. This work in Architectural Robotics, a fast-emerging area, exploits key aspects of engineering and architecture in exploring how our environments of the future could morph in real time. Applications being investigated by Walker's group focus on assisted living and aging in place.

Prof. Huosheng Hu
University of Essex, UK, FIET, FInstMC
 

Huosheng Hu is a Professor in the School of Computer Science & Electronic Engineering at the University of Essex, United Kingdom. He received the MSc degree in industrial automation from the Central South University in China and the PhD degree in robotics from the University of Oxford in the U.K. His research interests include behaviour-based robotics, human-robot interaction, service robots, embedded systems, data fusion, machine learning algorithms, mechatronics, and pervasive computing. He has published over 500 papers in journals, books and conferences in these areas, and received several best paper awards. His H-Index is 58 (Google Scholars) and the number of citations is 16066. He has been recognised as among the top 100,000 or in the top 2% of most cited scholars in the world. Prof. Hu is a Fellow of Institute of Engineering & Technology, a Fellow of Institute of Measurement & Control, and a founding member of IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Technical committee on Networked Robots. He has been a Program Chair or a member of Advisory/Organising Committee for many international conferences such as IEEE IROS, ICRA, ICMA, ROBIO conferences. He is currently Executive Editor for International Journal of Mechatronics & Automation, former Editor-in-Chief for International Journal of Automation and Computing, and former Editor-in-Chief for MDPI Robotics Journal.