Opportunities

Research positions in soft robotics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa

The Soft robotics And Intelligent machines Laboratory (SAIL) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UH Manoa, led by Dr. Tianlu Wang, warmly invites self-motivated applicants with backgrounds in soft robotics, mechanics, electronics, fluid dynamics, and related fields to join our multidisciplinary research team in the very center of the Aloha State! 

Our mission: 

The mission of SAIL is to develop high-performance soft robotic systems to tackle critical real-world challenges in environmental sustainability and healthcare. Our current primary interests lie in the millimeter to centimeter scales. To this end, we leverage and advance the fundamentals of design, fabrication, modeling, actuation, sensing, and control to enable the robust and reliable locomotions and functions of these unique systems in complex conditions. For more details, please refer to the lab website: https://sites.google.com/view/uhm-sail.

Positions:

• Fully funded Ph.D. positions starting from the Fall of 2024

• Several positions of research assistants, exchange students, and interns 

Desired Qualifications:

• Enthusiasm for translating soft robotics techniques to tackle medical and environmental challenges

• Background in design, fabrication, modeling, analysis, and control of soft robotic systems (hardware & software)

• Experiences in mechanics analysis of soft systems, fluid-structure interactions, and circuit development

Application:

For Ph.D. applicants, please contact Dr. Tianlu Wang at tianluw@hawaii.edu by sending (1) Resume, (2) research statement, (3) contact information of 3 references, (4) 1 representative article (research article/thesis/research report), and (5) transcripts from previous studies.

For research assistant applicants, please send (1) Resume and (2) 1 representative article to the above email address, and indicate the interested research topics.

About PI & UH Manoa:

Dr. Tianlu Wang received Doctor of Sciences and Master of Science degrees, both from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany under the supervision of Prof. Metin Sitti before joining UH Manoa. He has been working on small-scale soft robotic systems towards real-world applications over the past years. His research has been published in prestigious journals and conferences, including Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), and Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS). He received the Young Researcher Award at the 14th European Solid Mechanics Conference, the Best Paper Award at RSS, and the Best Poster Award at the Gordon Research Conference on Robotics.

Established in 1907, UH Manoa is one of 146 R1: Research Universities, considered the top tier, and one of a handful of land-, sea-, space-, and sun-grant institutions in the U.S. It is ranked 48th among U.S. public universities in the level of extramural research expenditures and 37th among U.S. public universities in the level of Federal research expenditures. With these funds, UH Mānoa maintains a vibrant and active research program. It has widely recognized strengths in subjects such as tropical agriculture, tropical medicine, oceanography, and electrical engineering, and it is a global leader in earth and environmental sciences, consistently ranked among the top 15 universities internationally. UH Manoa is located in the beautiful Manoa Valley, just outside downtown Honolulu, the state capital of Hawaii. Honolulu is famous for its safe and vibrant life with easy access to numerous exciting outdoor activities. According to Forbes, Honolulu was named the safest large city in the U.S. in 2023.