People
ZHANG Li 張立
Professor
TEL: 852 - 3943 1150
Room 309, William M.W. Mong Engineering Building

Li Zhang is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering (MAE) and a Professor by Courtesy in the Department of Surgery at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is also a director of the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) – CUHK Joint Laboratory of Robotics and Intelligent Systems. Before he joined CUHK as an Assistant Professor in 2012, he worked in Prof. Bradley Nelson’s group as a postdoc and then as a senior scientist and lecturer in the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRIS), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland.

Dr. Zhang’s main research interests include small-scale robotics and their applications for translational biomedicine. He has authored or co-authored over 260 papers, including Science Robotics, Nature Machine Intelligence (News & Views), Science Advances, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Matter, ACS Nano, AFM, TRO, IJRR, SoRo, Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems, as the corresponding author. His research work at ETH Zurich was indexed by the Guinness Book of World Records 2012 for the “Most Advanced Mini Robot for Medical Use.” Dr. Zhang has won several awards or in the Finalist from IEEE international conferences, including ICRA, IROS, CASE, ROBIO, ICARM, NANOMED, 3M-NANO and Living Machines. He won the Hong Kong Research Grants Committee (RGC) Early Career Award in 2013, CUHK Young Researcher Award 2017, United College Early Career Research Excellence Merit Award 2018, CUHK Research Excellence Award 2019-20, and RGC Research Fellow (RFS) Award 2021/22. He currently serves as Editor/Associate Editor/Editorial Board Member of ten international journals, such as IEEE TRO, IEEE/ASME T-MECH, IEEE T-ASE, Advanced Intelligent Systems (Wiley), Biomicrofluidics (AIP),  and Research (AAAS). Dr. Zhang is a Distinguished Lecturer appointed by IEEE NTC in 2020 and 2021. Since 2012 (after he joined CUHK), he has been acted/acting as PC/PI for 23 competitive grants from RGC (12 projects including Early Career Award, RFS Award, RIF, and EU-RGC), ITC (8 projects including MRP, Tier-2, and Tier-3), the Croucher Foundation (2 projects) and NSFC (1 project). He is also Co-PI in 2 RGC CRF projects. Dr. Zhang is elected as Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), and acts as Senior Member of IEEE and member of ASME.

Research Interests
  • Micro- and Nano-Robotics
  • Robot Swarm
  • Sensors and Actuators
  • Biomedicine and Minimally Invasive Intervention
Current Projects
  • Public Sector Trial Scheme Project: Development of Enhanced Micro Hybrid Powertrain Systems
  • Development of RefluxChip - A Miniature Battery-free Remote Sensing System for Real-time Monitoring of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease
  • Development of QuickCAS: An Easy-to-use Analysis System for Quick Detection of C. Diff Toxin in Patients Stool
  • Development of a Magnetically Enhanced TPA Accumulation (META) System to Enhance Endovascular Treatment for Elderly Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke
  • 3D Printing of Miniature Robots for Minimally Invasive Ophthalmological Treatment
Teaching by Years
2020/2021
MAEG3920 Engineering Design and Applications
2019/2020
MAEG5120 Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology: Fundamentals and Applications
MAEG3920 Engineering Design and Applications
2018/2019
MAEG3920 Engineering Design and Applications
MAEG5120 Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology: Fundamentals and Applications
Publications