About
Robotics Engineer, MRes, BEng.
I am currently a Robotics Research Engineer at EPFL, Switzerland. I earned my Master of Research degree in Medical Robotics with Distinction from the Hamlyn Centre at Imperial College London. I am grateful to be supported by Chiang Chen Foundation and Imperial College during my master's degree. Prior to Imperial, I spent my last year undergraduate at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, mainly for my bachelor's thesis. I obtained the Bachelor of Engineering degree in Automation from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in June 2023, with a semester abroad at KTH and a year abroad at ETH Zurich, and with the highest honor "Top Ten Outstanding Graduates of Harbin Institute of Technology" (哈尔滨工业大学十佳大学生).
- Institution: EPFL
- E-mail: shengyang.zhuang (AT) epfl (DOT) ch
- Location: Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- ResearchGate: CLICK HERE
- LinkedIn: CLICK HERE
- GitHub: CLICK HERE
- YouTube: CLICK HERE
Research Interest
I am interested in Robotics, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning, particularly with applications in lab automation, dexterous manipulation, life sciences and healthcare.
My motto is: if I am going to do something, I want to learn how to do it well. I might not become the best in the world at it, but I will learn how the people who are the best in the world are doing it.
Research & Development help get myself out of the comfort zone and push my boundaries. I like to put theory into practice. Most of the time, I am driven by problems rather than methods. I often think about how my work can make a difference. I enjoy the sense of achievements when my projects are published and seen by the world that it may someday aid those in need, or even pioneer new directions in my field. Ever since I could remember, a robot that actually does something on its own makes me excited. In my life, I like working in a diverse and interdisciplinary environment.
I am looking for a PhD position in Robot learning or the opportunities in Industry R&D internship, graduate scheme, or Research assistantship, in Robotics, Computer vision, or relevant software and systems development!
News
- [30/10/2024] Post-master career update: I am happy to share that I will start my Robotics Engineer Intern at ALCHEMY, EPFL. I will work with Prof. Daryl Yee to develop a vision-based robotics lab assistant. Looking forward to reunite with my friends in Switzerland again!
- [11/11/2024] I will be in Shanghai for ROSCon China 2024 from 7th - 8th December. I will also give a talk on the handeye_calibration_ros2 and hand_eye_calibration_ros2_sim, and other ros2 packages developed from my master's thesis. Feel free to drop by and chat about ROS!
- [15/10/2024] The Imperial College Board of Examiners have made decision to award me Master of Research with Distinction, following my completion of the academic year and consideration of my academic profile! (Click here to understand Imperial College grade classification)
- [04/10/2024] Our work SonoPrint has been featured as the cover image in the Advanced Materials Journal!
- [11/09/2024] I am happy to share that I have passed my master's thesis viva. More information about my project can be found here.
- [25/07/2024] I am thrilled to announce that my bachelor's thesis paper has been officially published in Advanced Materials!
- [24/06/2024] I am selected for the "Cambridge Chinese Students and Scholars Association 2024 Homecoming Exchange Trip - Shanghai Station". I will be in Shanghai together with students from Cambridge University, ETH Zurich, and MIT from August 1st to 4th 2024.
- [31/05/2024] I will present a poster regarding the preliminary results of my MRes thesis "Multi-Robot System Prototyping for Cooperative Control in Robot-Assisted Spine Surgery" at The 16th Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, on 25th June, at Royal Geographical Society, London, UK. I look forward to many constructive research discussions!
- [29/05/2024] I will attend The Cambridge Ellis Unit Summer School on Probabilistic Machine Learning 2024, from 15th to 19th July, at University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK!
- [03/05/2024] I will be in Chania, Crete, Greece from 8th to 10th June, for the AERO-TRAIN Summer School organized by Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zurich! Looking forward to meeting many amazing talented young researchers there!
- [02/01/2024] I joined the Mechatronics in Medicine (MiM) Lab for my eight-month MRes thesis supervised by Prof. Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena. I would be closely working with Mr. Connor Daly and Dr. Hisham Iqbal on the perception and control of dual-arm spine robotics systems!
- [08/08/2023] My bachelor's thesis-related paper's preprint was now available at bioRxiv!
- [05/07/2023] I was selected as one of the 9 students in mainland China to be awarded the Chiang Chen Overseas Fellowship 2023/2024 ($50,000), which supports my full-time study at Imperial College London!
- [09/06/2023] I received a Bursary from the Hamlyn Centre, Imperial College which partially covered my living expense during my master study!
- [25/01/2023] I was offered a place in the Hamlyn Centre MRes in Medical Robotics and Image Guided Intervention at Imperial College London. Looking forward to my next academic journey in UK!
- [10/06/2022] I joined the Acoustic Robotics Systems Lab at ETH Zurich, Switzerland as an undergrad student researcher!
- [21/10/2021] I received the student exchange offer from KTH Royal Institute of Technology. I will be affiliated with the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science for a six-month study!
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Imperial College London
Sept. 2023 -- Nov. 2024
London, UK
Master of Research (M.Res.) in Medical Robotics
MRes thesis: "Multi-Robot System Prototyping for Cooperative Control in
Robot-assisted Spine Surgery", grade: Distinction
Supervisor: Prof. Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena
ETH Zürich
Jun. 2022 -- Jun. 2023
Zürich, Switzerland
Invited visiting student in Mechanical Engineering
Bachelor's thesis: "Acoustically-Assisted Volumetric 3D Printing with
Feedback Optimization", grade 6.0/6.0
Supervisor: Prof. Daniel Ahmed
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Jan. 2022 -- Jun. 2022
Stockholm, Sweden
Exchange student in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Harbin Institute of Technology
Aug. 2019 -- Jan. 2022
Harbin, China
Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) in Automation
Supervisor: Prof. Huijun Gao
Xiamen No.1 High School of Fujian
Sept. 2016 -- Jun. 2019
Xiamen, China
High School Diploma
Current Employment
EPFL
Feb. 2025 -- present
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Robotics Research Engineer (internship)
Topics: Developing AI & Robotics assistant for lab automation AUTOHIAM.
Supervisor: Prof. Daryl Yee
Experience
The Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, Imperial College London
Jan. 2024 - Oct. 2024
London, UK
Graduate student researcher at Mechatronics in Medicine Lab
Oct. 2023 - Dec. 2023
London, UK
Graduate student researcher at Human-Centred Automation, Robotics and Monitoring in Surgery Lab (Imperial College St. Mary's Hospital)
Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zürich
Jun. 2022 -- Jun. 2023
Zürich, Switzerland
Undergraduate student researcher at Acoustic Robotics Systems Lab (Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center IBM Research Zurich & ETH Zürich)
School of Physics, Harbin Institute of Technology
Aug. 2021 -- Dec. 2021
Harbin, China
Teaching assistant
Global Youth Leadership Academy, United Nations
Jun. 2021 -- Aug. 2021
Turing, Italy
Program assistant managed by Dr. Liangrong Zu (Senior United Nations Official)
Conferences
- ROSCon China 2024, Shanghai, China, December 7th - 8th 2024 Gave a Lightning Talk on "ROS2 packages for plug-in-play hand-eye calibration, cuRobo GPU-accelerated motion planning, Marker-less object detection".
- Cambridge Ellis Unit Summer School on Probabilistic Machine Learning 2024, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, July 15th - 19th 2024 Attended lectures on Gaussian process, Advanced probabilistic models, Reinforcement learning, Generative models, and Causal ML, etc.
- The 16th Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, Royal Geographical Society, London, UK, June 25th - 29th 2024 Presented a Poster title: "Multi-robot system prototyping for cooperative control in robot-assisted spine surgery".
- AERO-TRAIN summer school (Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Network), Chania, Crete, Greece, June 8th - 10th 2024 Attended lectures and exercises on aerial robot perception (motion planning, target detection); visual servoing control; teleoperation and haptics for human-robot interaction.
Scholarships
- Chiang Chen Overseas Fellowship 2023/2024, Chiang Chen
Industrial Charity Foundation and HongKong Chen Hsong Group, 07 2023
Awarded $50,000 for academic excellence (9 recipients nationwide) to fund full-time study at Imperial College. - Hamlyn Bursary, Hamlyn Centre and Institute of Global Health
Innovation at Imperial College, 06 2023
Awarded £3,000 to partially fund the living costs during master’s study. - Top Ten Outstanding Graduates [哈尔滨工业大学十佳大学生], Harbin
Institute of
Technology, 12 2021
Awarded ¥10,000 for top academic performance (10 recipients across Harbin, Shenzhen, and Weihai campuses).
Competitions
- 2021 National College Students’ Mathematical Modeling Competition, Higher
Education Press Cup. [全国大学生数学建模竞赛]
First Prize in Heilongjiang Province, China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 11 2021 - 2020 National College Students’ Mathematical Modeling Competition, Higher
Education Press Cup. [全国大学生数学建模竞赛]
First Prize in Heilongjiang Province, China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 12 2020 - The 12th National College Students’ Mathematics Competition, non-mathematics
major. [全国大学生数学竞赛(非数学类)]
First Prize in Heilongjiang Province, Chinese Mathematical Society, 12 2020 - The 2018 National High School Students' Mathematics Olympiad
Competition.
[全国高中生数学竞赛]
Second Prize in Fujian Province, Chinese Mathematical Society, 10 2018
Portfolio
Master's thesis
Multi-Robot System Prototyping for Cooperative Control in Robot-Assisted Spine Surgery
Object tracking in robot-assisted surgery has been clinically validated worldwide. However, optical marker is prone to light-of-sight blockage. A multi-robot cooperative system was developed, where one robot performed continuously tracking while avoiding collision with environmental obstacles and the second robot which performed surgery. We translated cuRobo, a GPU-accelerated motion planner, by integrating with LBR-stack ROS2 driver. A demo showcasing markerless knee tracking with collision avoidance was implemented.
Bachelor's thesis
SonoPrint: Acoustically Assisted Volumetric 3D Printing with Feedback Optimization
SonoPrint is an innovative 3D printer that revolutionizes composite manufacturing by integrating acoustic reinforcement patterning directly into the printing process. It operates on the principle of volumetric printing, which reconstructs the entire 3D object simultaneously rather than layer by layer. It generates complex geometries with embedded reinforcement particles, such as glass, metal, and polystyrene (regardless of their size, shape or charge), within seconds to tens of seconds. It unlocks new possibilities in tissue engineering, biohybrid robots, and composite fabrication.
Semester project
Soft Optical Tactile Sensor for Tumour Detection in Robotic Surgery
Robotic minimally invasive surgery has proven to enhance patient outcomes. However, there is a lack of tactile feedback which provides crucial information for surgery. Here we developed a soft optical tactile sensor to detect tumour size, hardness, and location beneath the skin. A replacable mechanical airtight structure was designed via CAD and PDMS molding. Two different computer vision algorithms were developed to identify changes of dot patterns. A CNN model was further trained to identify the results.
Related publications:
Video- All
- Robotics
- Machine Learning
- Computer Vision
- Others
Publications
Journal articles
Theses
Posters
Miscellaneous
Media Coverage in Chinese/English
- “海联世界 相聚长宁”——2024欧美名校菁英长宁行活动举行,长宁统战,2024年8月2日
- Our "Say Hello to..." series features Shengyang this week!,ETH Zurich,February 3, 2023
- 榜样在身边 | 我院学生、集体在校级评奖评优活动中荣获多项荣誉, 哈尔滨工业大学航天学院,2021年11月30日
- 在科创中成长——访校级优秀团员、优秀团干部标兵庄昇洋, 哈尔滨工业大学航天学院,2021年6月4日
Student associations/clubs membership
- Erasmus Student Network (ESN) Imperial, Imperial College Union, 11 2023 -- 11 2024
- Imperial College Snowsports Club, Imperial College Union, 09 2023 -- 06 2024
- Erasmus Student Network (ESN) Zürich ETH, VSETH, ETH Zürich, 10 2022 -- 10 2023
Volunteering
- MRes Medical Robotics 2023/2024 cohort student representatives, social role, Imperial College London, 09 2023 -- 09 2024
- Graduation volunteer, Imperial College London, 05 2024
- Volunteering teacher, online support education for Luoning No. 1 High school, partnered with Harbin Institute of Technology, 06 2020 -- 06 2021
Music & Sports
- Saxophone, since primary school, certificate from The Chinese Central Conservatory of Music
- Skiing, Surfing, Scuba diving
- Long jump, ranked 1st in the Jimei District Primary and Secondary School Sports Games
- High jump, ranked 2nd in the Jimei District Primary and Secondary School Sports Games
- Basketball, former school team member of Ningbao primary school of Jimei District, Xiamen