Dan Zhang
Dr. Dan Zhang is a Chair Professor of Intelligent Robotics and Automation at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Laval University, Canada in 2000. He joined Ontario Tech University (OTU), Canada, as Assistant Professor in 2004 and was promoted to Associate Professor and Professor in 2006 and 2011 respectively. During the appointment period in OTU, he also served as Founding Chair in the Department of Automotive, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and was awarded the Canada Research Chair in Advanced Robotics and Automation in 2009 and Early Researcher Award by Province of Ontario in 2010. Since 2016, he transferred to York University, Canada as a Kaneff Professor and also took up the role of Department Chair in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He was awarded the Tier 1 York Research Chair in Advanced Robotics and Mechatronics in 2017. His research interests include synthesis and optimization of parallel and hybrid mechanisms; generalized parallel mechanisms research; smart biomedical instruments (e.g., exoskeleton robots and rehabilitation robotics); AI/robotics/autonomous systems. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC), Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME).