2023 Keynote Speakers
Prof. Bradley Nelson
(IEEE Fellow,
ASME
Fellow)
Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Biography: Brad Nelson has been the Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems
at ETH Zürich since 2002, where his research focuses on microrobotics and nanorobotics.
Fundamentally, he is interested in how to make tiny intelligent machines that are millimeters to
nanometers in size.
He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois and the University of Minnesota,
worked as a computer vision researcher at Honeywell and a software engineer at Motorola, served
as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Botswana, Africa, and then obtained a Ph.D. in
Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of
Illinois at Chicago and an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota before moving to
ETH.
Prof. Nelson has over thirty years of experience in the field of robotics and has received a
number of awards for his work in robotics, nanotechnology, and biomedicine. He received the
Grand Hamdan International Award for AI in Healthcare and was named to the "Scientific American
50", Scientific American magazine's annual list recognizing fifty outstanding acts of leadership
in science and technology. His lab is the undefeated international champion in Robocup's
Nanogram Soccer League, and he is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the "Most Advanced
Mini Robot for Medical Use." His research group has won more than a dozen best paper awards at
various international conferences and in international journals.
Prof. Nelson is a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering (SATW) and serves on the advisory
boards of a number of academic departments and research institutes across North America, Europe,
and Asia. He is on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including the founding
editorial boards of Science Robotics and Annual Review of Controls, Robotics, and Autonomous
Systems. He has been the Department Head of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH twice,
Chairman of the ETH Electron Microscopy Center, and a member of the Research Council of the
Swiss National Science Foundation.
Prof. Biao Huang
(IEEE Fellow, Fellow
of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada)
University of Alberta, Canada
Biography: Biao Huang obtained his PhD degree in Process Control from the University of Alberta, Canada, in 1997. He had MSc degree (1986) and BSc degree (1983) in Automatic Control from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He joined the University of Alberta in 1997 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, and is currently a Full Professor and NSERC Senior Industrial Research Chair. He is an IEEE Fellow, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada, and recipient of a number of awards including Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship, APEGA Summit Award in Research Excellence, ASTech Outstanding Achievement in Science and Engineering Award and a best paper award from the Journal of Process Control. Biao Huang’s research interests include: process data analytics, machine learning, system identification, image processing, fault detection and isolation, and soft sensors. He has applied his expertise extensively in industrial practice. He has published 5 books and over 390 SCI journal papers. Biao Huang currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief for IFAC Journal Control Engineering Practice, Subject Editor for Journal of the Franklin Institute, and Associate Editor for Journal of Process Control.