Andrew Y. C. Nee

Fellow of Academy of Engineering Singapore, Fellow of CIRP, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Professor Andrew Y. C. Nee received his PhD from the Institute of Science and Technology, Victoria University of Manchester (UMIST) in 1973. He joined the then University of Singapore in 1974. In 1982, he became the first recipient outside USA to receive the Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer’s Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. In 1986, he was appointed Director of CAE/CAD/CAM Centre when it was first established, a position which he held until 1995. In 1989, he was promoted to full professorship. In the same year, he was appointed Vice-Dean (Academic Affairs). In 1990, he was elected an Active Member of CIRP and a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, he was the first person in the ASEAN region to be elected in each case. From 1993 to 1996, he was appointed Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Engineering from August 1995 to August 1998.

After completing the 3-year term as Dean of Engineering in August 1998, he was appointed directors of two offices at the University level, Director (Special Projects) of the Office of University Relations, and Director of the Office of Quality Management. From 1 August 1999 to December 2000, he was appointed Dean of Admissions to head the then newly established Office of Admissions. From January 2001 to February 2002, he was appointed the Deputy Executive Director, Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) of the National Science and Technology Board. From 1 March 2002 to 28 February 2005, he was appointed the Co-Director of Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), which is an innovative engineering education and research collaboration among the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2002, he was awarded the Doctor of Engineering (DEng) degree from UMIST for his research achievements in manufacturing engineering. From September 2003 to August 2004, he was appointed as the CEO of the Design Technology Institute. From 1st March 2005, he was appointed the Director of the Office of Research of NUS. In August 2006, he was elected the Chairman of the CIRP STC Design (Dn), and a Council Member of CIRP. He is currently Chairman of an NUS-spin off company, Manusoft Technologies Pte Ltd which specializes in plastic injection mold design, and markets the commercial product IMOLD. In 2012, he was elected President of CIRP, and was the first ethnic Chinese to hold this office since 1953. In July 2018, he was awarded the prestigious title of Emeritus Professor, the first recipient in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He has a google citation of more than 28,976, and a H-index of 82.

Jiansheng Dai

Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of Academia Europaea, Fellow of IEEE, Southern University of Science and Technology, China

Professor Dai is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng). He is also IEEE Fellow, ASME Fellow, RSA Fellow, IMechE Fellow, is Chair Professor of Mechanisms and Robotics, and is the Editor-in-Chief of international journal Robotica (established in 1983) and Subject Editor of Mechanism and Machine Theory. Pioneering contributions in reconfigurable mechanisms and robots, in origami robots, in ankle rehabilitation robots and in metamorphic robots, he established and lead the field of reconfigurable mechanisms and the sub-field of metamorphic mechanisms in robotics, a concept that bridges the gap between versatile but expensive robots, and efficient but non-flexible machines, and their applications to health, home and manufacture.

Recipient of the 2015 ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Award as the 27th recipient since the inception in 1974 and the recipient of the 2020 ASME Machine Design Award as the 58th recipient since the inception in 1958. The citation of the 2020 ASME Machine Design Award is for pioneering contributions in establishing the field of reconfigurable mechanisms and the subfield of metamorphic mechanisms; and for making a lasting impact through research, application, teaching and service that have made it possible to bridge the gap between versatile but expensive robots and efficient but nonflexible machines. Received many other awards with twelve personal awards including the 2010 Overall Supervisory Excellence Award by King’s College London, the 2012 ASME Outstanding Service Award and the 2012 Mechanisms Innovation Award, five Best Journal Paper Awards including the 2018 Crossley Award, seven Best Conference Paper Awards including the 2019 AT Yang Award in Theoretical Kinematics. Elevated by IEEE in 2017 as an IEEE Fellow with citation as ‘for contributions to reconfigurable and metamorphic mechanisms in robotics’.

Published over 600 peer-reviewed papers, 10 authored books and with over 14000 citations including a book on “Geometrical Foundations and Screw Algebra in Mechanisms and Robotics”, a book on “Evolutionary Design of Parallel Mechanisms”, a book on “Screw Algebra and Lie Groups, Lie Algebra” and a book on “Screw Algebra and Kinematics Approach for Mechanisms and Robotics”. In addition to Editor-in-Chief for Robotica, serves as a Subject Editor of Mechanism and Machine Theory, Associate Editor of ASME Transactions: Journal of Mechanical Design, and Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science.

Zhiyun Lin

Foreign academician of the Russian Academy of Engineering, Fellow of IEEE、IET, Southern University of Science and Technology, China

Zhiyun Lin received his PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Toronto, Canada, in 2005. He is currently a Full Professor in School of System Design and Intelligent Manufacturing, Southern University of Science and Technology. Preceding to this position, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate(2005-2007) in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada, worked as a Research Professor (2007-2011) and Full Professor (2012-2017) at College of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University, China, and served as the Director of Artificial Intelligence Institute (2017-2021), Hangzhou Dianzi University, China. He has held many visiting professor appointments at world-leading universities, including Yale University (USA), The Australian National University (Australia), University of Groningen (The Netherlands), University of Cagliari (Italy), University of Newcastle (Australia), University of Technology Sydney (Australia), etc. He served as a technical committee member of The International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) on Networked Systems as well as on Discrete Event and Hybrid Systems, and also a standing committee member ofChinese Institute of Command and Control (CICC) on Swarm Intelligence and Cooperative Control. He was also an Associate Editor of several international journals, including IEEE Control Systems Letters, Nonlinear Analysis:Hybrid Systems, Electronic, The Chinese Journal of Artificial Intelligence, etc. His research interests focus on multi-agent systems, distributed artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and swarm robots, and cyber-physical systems. He has authored and coauthored one monograph and over 200 peer-reviewed papers in leading international journals and conferences. According to Google Scholar, his work has been cited over 6900 times. From 2014 to 2020, he has been consecutively selected in the list of “Mostly Cited Chinese Researchers” by Elsevier for seven years. He has over 50 granted/pending invention patents and is the founder of Zhejiang CoTEK robotics Co., ltd. He has received a number of awards and honors for his research, including Natural Science Award of Zhejiang Province, Science and Technology Award of Zhejiang Province, Science and Technology Innovation Award of China Society for the Promotion of Science and Technology Commercialization, Science and Technology Innovation Award of China Industry-University-Research Institute Collaboration Association, Qianjiang Plan of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Provincial Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars, 151 Talents Project of Zhejiang Province, 521 Talents Project of Hangzhou, etc. He is a Fellow of IET.

Yongsheng Ma

Southern University of Science and Technology, China

Dr. Yongsheng Ma has joined Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, China since July, 2021 as a full professor. Before that, Dr. Ma had been a full professor with the University of Alberta (UA) since 2007. He was an associate professor with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore during 2000-2007. Dr. Ma started his career as a polytechnic lecturer in Singapore (1993-1996); and then a research fellow, senior research fellow and group manager (1996-2000) at Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology.

Dr. Ma received his B.Eng. from Tsinghua University, Beijing (1986), both M.Sc. (1990) and Ph.D. (1994) from UMIST, UK. Dr. Ma has had an established research profile with many research projects from different sources, and published more than 200 papers internationally in recognized top journals, conferences, and book chapters. Dr. Ma had served as an Editorial Board Member of Advanced Engineering Informatics (ADVEI, Elsevier) since 2012, and became an associate editor since 2020. Concurrently, he also serves as an associate editor for ASME Journal of Computer Information Science and Engineering (JCISE), and an Editorial Member of Scientific Reports (Springer Nature). Dr. Ma had also been an associate editor of IEEE Transaction of Automation Science and Engineering (2009-2013). Dr. Ma is a member of ASEE, SME, SPE, ASME, CSME and a Canada (Alberta) registered Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) since 2009. In 2012, he won the prestigious ASTech award sponsored by The Alberta Science and Technology Leadership Foundation together with Drader Manufacturing Ltd. Dr. Ma had also served as a senator of UA during 2014-2016.

Yanguo Jing

Leeds Trinity University, UK

Professor Dr Yanguo Jing is the Dean of the Faculty of Business, Computer Science and Digital Industries, Leeds Trinity University. He is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence. He has a PhD (Heriot-Watt University, UK), a MSc, a 1st class BSc (Hons) in Computer Science and a PGCert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. He has over 20 years’ teaching, research and enterprise experience in the UK and in China. Prof. Jing is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Charter IT professional and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK. Prof. Jing’s prime research interests are AI and big data. His recent research work focuses on the use of machine-learning methods to capture interaction and user behaviour patterns that can be used to develop intelligent applications. This research has been applied in applications such as business analytics, sports analytics, and user behaviour pattern recognition in social networks and extra-care/ Assisted Living settings. He participated in several research, KTP and consultancy projects with sponsors and clients such as Cadent Gas, Pfizer, Welsh Government, KPIT, UK’s Comic Relief charity and JISC in the UK. Prof. Jing has been instrumental in bringing over £30M funding in innovation and executive education.

Weidong Li

University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, China

Professor Li Weidong has been a full professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering of Coventry University since 2013, and joined the School of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology as Dean, professor and doctoral supervisor in November 2021. Since receiving his doctorate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2002, Professor Li has served as research fellow, lecturer, senior lecturer, Associate professor, and full professor at the National Institute of Manufacturing Research in Singapore, University of Bath, University of Cranfield, and University of Coventry. In the past 10 years, he has presided over 12 EU cooperation projects (including sub-projects) and UK scientific research projects, obtained a total of 5 million euros in direct research funds during his work in Coventry University, and the total amount of cooperation projects exceeded 20 million euros, served as the leader of the EU Marie Curie Innovation team twice, and won the EU Successful Industrial Case Award twice. In close cooperation with top European research groups such as the University of Birmingham, the Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden, the Fraunhofer Institute of Germany, and the Polytechnic University of Milan in Italy, we have jointly completed a number of important advanced manufacturing projects in Europe. He has published 5 works (Springer) by international publishing houses, 110 papers in international SCI journals, more than 100 papers in international conferences, won the annual Best Paper Award of famous international manufacturing journals twice, won the best paper of international conferences 4 times, and served as deputy editor of 4 international journals (including the international journals of the 1st District of the Chinese Academy of Sciences). At the same time, Professor Li Weidong is a member of the Steering committee of the British University Manufacturing and Engineering Association, an expert in intelligent manufacturing professional review of the University of Liverpool, an adjunct professor of the University of Bournemouth, and a member of the IEEE CSCWD Committee. At present, he is the leader of the high-end equipment system innovation team of Shanghai universities and presided over a number of vertical and enterprise horizontal scientific research projects.

Hong Zhang

Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow of IEEE, Southern University of Science and Technology, China

Zhang Hong, a member of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, IEEE Fellow, a leading talent in Guangdong Province's "Pearl River Talent Program", is currently a professor in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology. He was a tenured professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Alberta, Canada, for many years. While working in Canada, he completed a number of major research and development projects and served as the Chief Industrial Research Professor of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Foundation of Canada (NSERC IRC). His current research interests include mobile robot navigation, autonomous driving, computer vision, and image processing. He has trained more than 80 masters, doctors and postdocs, many of whom are teaching at famous universities at home and abroad, including the University of Toronto in Canada. He has served as editorial board member and conference Chair of several international journals, and is currently the chief editor of the Editorial Board of IROS, the flagship conference of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (2020-2023).

Zhihai He

Fellow of IEEE, Southern University of Science and Technology, China

Professor He has worked in the Department of Electronic Engineering at the University of Missouri for 18 years. Before leaving, he was the tenured full professor of the department and the Robert Lee Tatum Distinguished Chair Professor. During his work in the United States, he undertook more than ten key research projects of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense (DoD), and National Institutes of Health (NIH). The current research direction is deep learning, machine vision & artificial intelligence Internet of Things (AIoT). He was selected into the Stanford University's World's Top 2% Scientists Lifelong Science Impact Ranking and the 2019 Science Impact Ranking.