My major research interests lie at the intersection of robotics and machine learning. I envision that intelligent robots will reshape our world by providing tangible benefits in our daily life, contributing to the healthcare system, or assisting humans in hazardous environments. In addition, I also work on micro-robotics, teleoperation, and human-robot shared control.
Team Members
Visiting PDRA
Dr. Qiming Liu
Robotic Manipulation and Navigation
4th Year PhD
Wen Fan
Tactile Perception
3rd Year PhD
Jialin Lin
Micromanipulation
2nd Year PhD
Wei Lan
Machine Learning
1st Year PhD
Zongcai Tan
Micromanipulation
1st Year PhD
Kangyi Lu
Micromanipulation
1st Year PhD
Piotr Blaszyk
AI for Heathcare
WELCOME
2026 Cohort - MRes/MSc/MEng/Interns
MRes Programme - Hamlyn - Group A
Yongchen Wang
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Kangyi Lu
Support: Lan Wei
Project: Human-Robot Shared Control for Magnetic Micro-Robot Navigation
Yacui Zhao
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Wen Fan
Support: Lan Wei, Kangyi Lu
Project: Tactile-Informed RL Fine-Tuning for Flow-Based VLAs
Xinyu Zheng
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Wen Fan
Project: Adaptive Multimodal Imitation through Real-to-Sim-to-Real Learning Pipeline
Zhidan She
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Wen Fan
Project: Learning Physical Properties under Object-centric Explicit Representation Using VLM-based Prior and Robot Tactile Feedback via Learnable Implicit Modelling
MRes Programme - Hamlyn - Group C
Xinyuan Dou
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Qiming Liu
Support: Lan Wei
Personalised Robotic Assistant Empowered by Large Language Models (LLM)
Junlin Wu
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Qiming Liu, Wen Fan
Project: Hierarchical LLM for Robotic Manipulation in Cluttered Environment
MSc Robotics Programme
Gaus Sayyad
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Etienne Burdet
Support: Wen Fan
Project: Multimodal control of a wearable dual-arm robotic system for assisted object manipulation
Yange Sun
Supervisors: Etienne Burdet, Alexis Devillard, Dandan Zhang
Project: Design and Fabrication of a Tactile Sensor Array for a Robotic Hand
MSc AI Programme - IX
Sherlyn Ong
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Qiming Liu
Support: Lan Wei
Project: Personalised Robotic Assistant Empowered by Large Language Models (LLM)
Erin Sarlak
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Lan Wei
Project: Multi Robot Collaborative Control Empowered by Multimodal Large Language Models with Dynamic Task Allocation
Jonathan Wachsmuth
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, George Poulogiannis, Theodoros Karalis,
Project: Decoding the Metabolic Drivers of Cancer Metastasis Using Machine Learning
MRes Programme - Hamlyn - Group B
Haotian Jiang
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Lan Wei
Project: MLLM-Driven Multi-Robot Collaboration with Real-Time Self-Correction
Liang Wang
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Lan Wei
Project: Multi-Robot Collaborative Control Empowered by Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) with Dynamic Task Allocation
Mu Xing
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Dan Elson, Lan Wei
Support: Piotr Blaszyk
Project: Trustworthy Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) for Uncertainty-Aware Surgical Skill Assessment
Zhouxuan Xia
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Qingbiao Li
Project: Intelligent Surgical Multimodal Frameworks for Autonomous Robotic-Assisted Surgery and Skill Analysis and Scene Understanding
MEng Programme - Year 4
Samuel Parsons
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Wen Fan
Project: Vision-based tactile sensor for 3D contact deformation and dense distributed force reconstruction
Jessica Mead
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Wen Fan
Project: Mechanical characteristics of tactile sensor with functional-gradient material in medical palpation
MEng Programme - Year 3
Synaptech Team
Supervisors: Dandan Zhang, Wen Fan
Members:
Victoria Bamgboye,
Rami Bidaoui,
Sara Ben Haj Hammouda,
Taichi Itoi,
May Kwok,
Yunjia Li,
Aika Ono,
Leo Xu
Interns
Zihao Tan (Harry Tan)
Li Feng Xuan