Dr Dandan Zhang
ROBOTICS · AI · EDUCATION
IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON
Dr Dandan Zhang
Adaptive physical intelligence across scales.
Dandan is an Assistant Professor at Imperial College London and leads the Multi-Scale Embodied Intelligence (MSEI) Lab. Her work spans AI and Machine Learning and Biomedical Robotics, across the Digital Foundry and the Department of Bioengineering.
Her research connects robot design, sensing, learning and control to understand how robots adapt to changing tasks, physical forms and environments. Applications span healthcare and autonomous scientific experimentation.
Touch & perception · Tactile sensing and multimodal understanding
Learning & manipulation · Adaptive control and shared autonomy
Microrobotics · Optical and magnetic manipulation
Academic career
Research, teaching & supervision
2023–present · Imperial College London
Assistant Professor in AI and Machine Learning and in Biomedical Robotics. Founder and lead of the MSEI Lab, with appointments across the Digital Foundry and Bioengineering.
2021–2023 · University of Bristol
Lecturer in Robotics and PI of Intelligent Robotics Across Scales. Deputy Programme Director for MSc Biorobotics, teaching biosystems, biorobotics and research projects.
Teaching & supervision
Module Lead for ELEC70129 Deep Learning (2024–present); research supervision across robotics, AI and bioengineering; undergraduate and postgraduate personal tutor. Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Recognition
Selected distinctions & academic service
2021 · UK Best PhD in Robotics Award — first place; Amazon PhD Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Robotics.
2022 · ICRA Outstanding Interaction Paper Award — first and corresponding author.
Group achievements · Best Student Paper Awards at MARSS 2025 and ICAC 2026.
Academic service · Programme Co-Chair, IEEE ROBIO 2026; Secretary, IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Human-Centred AI for Medical Robotics.
Research community · Co-organiser of the ECCV 2026 Safe World Models and IROS 2026 Physical World Models workshops; invited keynote at BMVA Human Behaviour Understanding 2026.
Education
Imperial College London
PhD · 2021
Department of Computing
Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery
Amazon PhD Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Robotics
MRes · 2018
Medical Robotics and Image-Guided Intervention
Department of Surgery and Cancer
Distinction; Faculty of Medicine Dean’s Prize
