Faculty & Staff

My research spans robotics, haptics, multi-modal perception, and artificial intelligence, at the intersection of computer science and engineering. There are two highly related themes in my robotics research: one is the focus on “contact sport”, i.e., the contact and interaction between a robot or a part/tool it holds and the environment, and the other is real-time adaptiveness of robots to uncertainty and uncertain changes in an environment based on perception. Under the first theme, my work includes compliant motion planning involving complex contact scenarios for high-precision robotic ...

Dr. Lewin is the Associate Head of Robotics Engineering. He teaches courses that focus on system integration, sensor and data processing, and system design. Prior to joining WPI, Dr. Lewin was an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia, where he directed the Technology Leaders Program, an interdisciplinary engineering program focusing on the design of cyber-physical systems. He has performed research and development of sensor systems, turbomachinery, energy systems, and robots in both academic and industrial settings. In his spare time, he enjoys cycling and he’ll be happy to tell ...

The focus of my research is designing innovative tools for swarm robotics. I am developing Buzz, a programming language specifically designed for real-world robot swarms. During my Ph.D., I have designed ARGoS, which is currently the fastest general-purpose robot simulator in the literature. Recent work focuses on human-swarm interaction and multi-robot learning. I am also working on swarm robotics solutions for disaster response scenarios, such as search-and-rescue and firefighting.

Vincent Aloi is an Associate Teaching Professor with a background in continuum roboitcs. Their doctoral degree was awarded from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2022. They received their bachelors of science in mechanical engineering but began a robotics focus in graduate school. Their research interests include mechanical modeling, sensing, and controlling flexible structures. This research was performed with the REACH lab at UTK, and has been published and presented to various robotics conferences and journals. Currently, Vince has shifted focus to engineering education and helping ...

I genuinely enjoy teaching and interacting with students. I am both an instructor and a researcher at heart and believe that teaching and research are complementary as they advance one another.Teaching: As an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Robotics Engineering Department at WPI, I teach a range of courses, including Kinematics, Dynamics, and Controls courses in both undergraduate and graduate levels. I do believe that teaching entails much more than merely instructing and imparting knowledge on how to solve particular problems related to particular ...

Berk's research primarily focuses on problems related to robotic manipulation, which is a key functionality largely missing from the current state of the art in robotics for unstructured environments, including homes, modern warehouses, and collaborative manufacturing stations. He develops multi-modal robotic manipulation strategies mainly focusing on the role of vision feedback for coping with uncertainties of unstructured environments. He integrates advanced control methods, active vision framework, machine learning and intelligent mechanical design to provide robust dexterous manipulation ...

I am an Assistant Professor in Robotics Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2023 at Rice University, working under the supervision of Dr. Lydia Kavraki and Dr. Anshumali Shrivastava. I am honored to have received an NSF-GRFP fellowship for my doctoral studies. I received my Diploma from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki as an Electrical and Computer Engineer in 2017.My research interests lie in algorithmic robotics, focusing on integrating learning-based methods with classic robotic planning algorithms. The current research directions I ...

Liaohai Leo Chen earned his PhD in Chemistry from University of Rocester, New York in 1997.  Following the graduation, he did his postdoc training in Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), New Mexico for two years, and then became a technical staff in Los Alamos. In 2001, he moved to Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), first as an assistant Molecular Biologist and later as a Molecular Biologist (tenured equivalent). In ANL, he created a Nano-Bio group in 2005,  and had been the group leader for 7 years.  In 2012, he joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Utah State ...

My research interests are in the application of robotics and computer science to enhance medicine, and particularly surgery. What gets me out of bed in the morning is the prospect of helping doctors save lives and improve the quality of life of their patients. My students and I work side-by-side with clinical collaborators to create technology that presents a tangible clinical value – for instance, making an existing surgical procedure more accurate or enabling new procedures that are not feasible with current instrumentation. Close interaction with medical doctors is a fundamental component ...

Professor Fischer is the William Smith Dean's Professor and a faculty member in Robotics Engineering with a appointments in Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at WPI. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2008 from Johns Hopkins University, where he was part of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Computer Integrated Surgery. At WPI he has been an integral part of developing the Robotics Engineering program and teaches primarily junior-level and graduate courses in Robotics. He is the founding director of the Automation and Interventional Medicine (AIM) ...

Kevin Leahy is an Assistant Professor in Robotics Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His current work involves AI for autonomous systems, with an emphasis on formal methods and multi-agent systems. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2017, his MS degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2016, and his BA in Economics in 2009, all from Boston University. From 2017 to 2023, he was a member of the Technical Staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. At MIT Lincoln Laboratory he focused on a variety of domains, including learning decentralized control strategies for multi-agent ...

BioDr. Guanrui Li earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at New York University, USA, with a focus on robotics and aerial systems. He obtained his Bachelor degree in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Sun Yat-sen University, where he was recognized as an Honors Undergraduate, and his Master degree in Robotics from the GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. His research is centered on control and perception of aerial robots, with applications in aerial transportation and manipulation, as well as human-robot collaboration. Guanrui has received several notable ...

My research bridges the gap between human-robot interaction and human movement science. I am particularly interested in the design of human-robot interfaces and assistive robot autonomy, based on the understanding of the perception-action coupling of humans and cyber-human systems. At WPI, I primarily work on tele-nursing robots and assisted teleoperation interfaces. I also have extensive experience in exoskeletons for rehabilitation and tele-surgical robots.

I joined the faculty of the ECE Department in 1991 after leaving Raytheon Company, where I spent approximately 12 years involved with the development of embedded computers for guidance, communications, and data processing systems for spaceborne and terrestrial applications. At WPI I perform research and teach in the areas of navigation, communications, and computer system design. I supervise the WPI Center for Advanced Integrated Radio Navigation (CAIRN), where I am developing a Public Safety Integration Center focused on the integration of communications, navigation, and information ...

An integral part of a rewarding academic career is being an educator. It is a wonderful opportunity to work with students and guide their development to fulfill their potential. I enjoy teaching the fundamentals of robotics engineering, science and technology as well as training students in advanced independent research. I aim to teach students about research-based thinking and problem solving, to give them a real career choice to determine their future in further research or the industry. With its hands-on culture and students taking responsibility for their own learning, WPI is the perfect ...

I am a tenure track assistant professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and principal investigator of FuTURE Lab. I am interested in the design and control of continuum robots for diagnosis and treatment of cancerous tissue or faulty organs deep in the anatomy. Previous to becoming an assistant professor, I was a postdoctoral research fellow in Boston Children’s Hospital - Harvard Medical School. I received my B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and M.S. in Robotics and Automation from the University of Pisa, Italy. I received the M. Res. in Medical Robotics and Image Guided Intervention ...

I deeply enjoy teaching courses where students combine theoretical components to a practical application. I have been a faculty at ShanghaiTech University, China, for five years, where I created syllabi and taught two courses on Robotics for over four years. While in China I organized outreach activities, teaching Scratch programming to children from low-income neighborhoods in Shanghai. Here in WPI my MQPs usually combine machine learning algorithms with robots and manipulators, or cool/innovative inventions that my students may have! I focus on the design of robots and soft robots, ...

I envision a future where we are surrounded by small robots doing various tasks such as pollinating flowers, searching for survivors, carrying payloads, entertaining us and even as our personal pets/companions. To advance autonomy on these tiny mobile robots with on-board sensing and computation, we draw inspiration from nature’s experts – insects, birds and other small beings. My doctoral work culminated in building the world’s first prototype of a RoboBeeHive that involved hummingbird-sized nano-quadrotors capable of pollinating flowers, where all the sensing ...

I am Assistant Teaching Professor in the Robotics Engineering department with a passion for robotics education. Like many students here, a lot of my high-school experience was defined by my participation in robotics competitions. In 2018, I earned a Bachelor of Science in Robotics Engineering here at WPI. I got my PhD from the University of Utah under Dr. Tucker Hermans focusing on motion planning, control and numerical optimization for robotics. Most of my research was centered around developing techniques to use magnets to manipulate non-magnetic objects, with hopes of using them to ...

My research primarily focuses on socially assistive robotics, multimodal human-robot interaction, and human-centered AI to enhance dementia care and other healthcare applications. Motivated by the needs of individuals with dementia and their families, I am dedicated to developing AI and robotic systems to better care for those affected by dementia. My work encompasses robotic perception, decision-making, and feedback mechanisms within the human-robot interaction process.Inspired by human intelligence in caregiving, I am particularly interested in transferring aspects of human intelligence—such ...

The research program led by Dr. Haichong (Kai) Zhang focuses on the interface of medical robotics, sensing, and imaging, and to develop a novel biomedical imaging systems that delineates both anatomical and physiological properties of a biological tissue that have been inaccessible. In addition, we will develop robotic assisted imaging systems as well as image-guided robotic interventional platforms, where ultrasound and photoacoustic (PA) imaging are two key modalities to be investigated and integrated with robotics.The scope of innovation includes (1) co-robotic imaging, where a robotic ...