About Me

I am an Associate Professor 🧟 in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. My research mostly focuses on fundamental problems 🫨🔬🧫 involving the planning, learning, and control of robot motion tasks (though, I'm interested in interdisciplinary studies). I am the Principal Investigator 👨🏻‍🔬 of The Robotics and Machine Intelligence Laboratory 🤖, the premier research group in robotics and embodied AI at PolyU.

Academic and Research History

• Visiting Professor, Laboratoire des sciences du numérique de Nantes (LS2N), École Centrale de Nantes, France, summer 2026.
• Co-Principal Investigator, Research Centre for Assistive Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2026–Present.
• Programme Leader, MSc in Intelligent Robotics Engineering (IRE), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2025–Present.
• Fellow, Institute for Higher Education Research and Development (IHERD), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2023–Present.
• Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2023–Present.
• Investigator, Research Institute for Smart Ageing (RISA), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2021–Present.
• Visiting Researcher, Institute for Cognitive Systems, Technical University of Munich, Germany, summer 2019.
• Visiting Professor, COSMER Laboratory, University of Toulon, France, spring 2019.
• Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), elevated in 2019.
• Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2017–2023.
• Research Assistant Professor, T Stone Robotics Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015–2017.
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014–2015.

Academic Qualifications

• PhD in Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), 2014.
• MSc in Robotics and Advanced Manufacturing, Centre for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV), 2009.
• BEng in Electronic Engineering, National Technological Institute of Mexico, 2003.

Journal Editorship

• Associate Editor (AE), IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2023–Present.
• Associate Editor (AE), IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine (RA-M), 2023–Present.
• Technical Editor (TE), IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (T-MECH), 2025–Present.

Research Supervision

I welcome applications from prospective PhD students 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻 from engineering disciplines, computer science, or applied mathematics. All candidates must apply through our competitive scholarship frameworks, where to be funded, students must possess:

• Very high bachelor's GPA > 3.7/4 obtained from a top-ranked university 🔥 in your home country.
• Excellent track record in robotics research 🔬📄 (e.g., as demonstrated by publications in top conferences/journals).
• Master's degree with a dissertation 🎓 (this must be completed before commencement of studies).

Interested candidates must send the following 3 documents 📧: (1) Detailed CV; (2) PDFs of your publications; (3) Portfolio (a slides-like presentation of your research work).

Do not send long AI-written emails 💀.

PhD Students (Graduation Year)

• GOMEZ Domingo
• LIAN Lihan
• JIA Zhanxiao
• HUANG Songhao
• SUN Haoxiang
• CHEN Qihan
• LIU CHEN Wanli
• ZHOU Zeyu
• HAN Ning
• TIAN Yuan
• XU Yuexuan
• WU Jinsong
• LYU Shipeng
• ZHI Hui
• GONG Gu
• ZHANG Bin
• WANG Fangyuan (2026)
• LABAZANOVA Luiza (2025)
• HUO Shengzeng (2025)
• LEE Hoi-Yin (2024)
• MA Wanyu (2023)
• ZHOU Peng (2022)
• MUDDASSIR Muhammad (2022)
• ZAHRA Omar (2021)
• VICTOROVA Maria (2021)

Contact Information

Email: dnavar [æ] polyu [ð] edu [ð] hk

Office Address: FG638, PolyU, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Phone: (+852) 2766 7816