Prof. ZHANG Fumin, Chair Professor of Electronic & Computer Engineering and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, and Director of the HKUST Cheng Kar-Shun Robotics Institute, has been elected a Fellow of the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the class of 2024, bringing the total number of IEEE Fellows among School of Engineering faculty members to 45.

Prof. Zhang was recognized for his contributions to autonomy of robotic sensing networks and control of marine robots. His research interests include marine robotics and autonomous systems, mobile sensor and actuator networks, bio-inspired distributed active perception, and human-autonomy interaction and integration. Currently, he is also the Director of the HKUST-Bright Dream Robotics Joint Research Institute.

Prof. Zhang joined HKUST in January 2023. Prior to that, he held Dean’s Professorship in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and served as Director of the Decision and Control Lab at the university, where he joined in 2007. He received a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland (College Park) in 2004, and held a postdoctoral position in Princeton University from 2004 to 2007.

He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2009 and the ONR Young Investigator Program Award in 2010, among many honors and awards at the international, national and institutional levels. He also holds leadership positions in the IEEE Control Systems Society, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society.

The IEEE grade of Fellow is conferred upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. It is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement. IEEE members total over 420,000 in more than 190 countries. The number of fellowship recipients each year does not exceed 0.1% of the total voting IEEE membership.