Zhiwu Zheng

I received my Ph.D. at Princeton University in Electrical and Computer Engineering in May 2023. I received my B.S. degree in Physics from Nanjing University in 2016 and my M.A. degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 2019. 

I am a Senior Research Scientist in Machine Learning at the Analog Garage, Analog Devices' innovation lab in Boston, where I work on robot learning for dexterous manipulation: diffusion policies, vision-language-action models, and force-conditioned control for contact-rich tasks on real robots. My Ph.D. research was on piezoelectric soft robot design, modeling and control, together with flexible sensing hardware and algorithms.

My work has been published in top journals and conferences, and my work received the Best Presentation Award for Workshop on Bioinspired and Biohybrid Systems at 2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Outstanding Presentation Prize for Workshop on Software for Soft Robotics Research at 2022 5th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), Best Presentation Award at 2021 International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (ICSSSAM), and Outstanding Presentation Award at 2022 Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC). Our work on eViper was a Best Robot Mechanisms and Design Award Finalist at the 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).

I was the recipient of 2018-2023 Fellowships of the Program in Plasma Science and Technology (PPST) at Princeton University, 2014 Shi Shi-Yuan Scholarship and 2014 Infineon Scholarship, as well as 2013-2016 Fellowship of China National Innovational Undergraduates Program, Nanjing University 2013 Excellent Student, 2013 Scientific Innovation Scholarship, and 2013-2016 First-Place Talent Scholar Awards. I am serving as a peer reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems as well as the International Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering. I also review for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), IEEE Transactions on Mechatronics, Biomimetic Intelligence and Robotics, and the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), and I serve on the editorial board of the International Journal of Robotics and Automation Technology.