People

Yue Hu - Assistant Professor (Lab Director)

Yue Hu

yue.hu@uwaterloo.ca

519-888-4567 x40709

Location:E7 3416

Link to profile:Yue Hu

Link to personal webpage:Yue Hu

Ibrahim Abdulhafiz - PhD student

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Ibrahim is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, performing research on physical interactions with humanoid robots.

Hisham Khalil - PhD student

Hisham Khalil

Hisham is a PhD student in Mechatronics Engineering starting Winter 2024. Hisham obtained his BEng in Mechanical Precision Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2023. He was also a Research Student at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Japan supervised by Prof. Gentiane Venture. His research interests include applied machine learning for human state and motion analysis, learning-based control, and physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). His goal is to develop personalized frameworks that allow collaborative robots to provide effective caregiving services to humans, especially for elder adults.

Geoffrey Hanks - PhD student

Geoffrey Hanks

Geoffrey Hanks is Mechanical Engineering PhD student started in Fall 2024. Geoffrey obtained his MASc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in August 2024 at the AIRLab. Geoffrey's research is on learning from demonstration applied to robot control.

Anas Mahdi - PhD student

Anas

Anas Mahdi is a PhD student in System Design Engineering, co-supervised by Prof. Katja Mombaur at the CERC in Human-Centred Robotics and Machine Intelligence (HCRMI).

Adam Sanderson - PhD student

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Adam is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, performing research on the teleoperation of dual-arm collaborative robots.

JaeEun Shin (Jen) - PhD student

Jen

JaeEun is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Waterloo. She is co-supervised with Prof. Leah Zhang-Kennedy and the Safe Interactions Lab. Her research interests lie in human-robot interaction, especially in privacy and cybersecurity risks in social robots. Her current research explores privacy perception in child-robot interaction and the design of safe interactions with humanoid social robots.

Amr Hamdi - MASc

Amr Hamdi

I am a recent Mechatronics graduate from Ain Shams University in Egypt. With a passion for robotics, humanoids, and human-robot interactions, I have embarked on a new academic journey by joining the Spring 2023 semester for a Master of Applied Science (MASc) program. My specific interest lies in the field of robotics, where I am fascinated by the development of intelligent machines that can interact and cooperate with humans. I am particularly drawn to humanoid robots, which possess human-like characteristics and abilities, enabling them to perform tasks in a manner that is more relatable and compatible with human expectations. In pursuing my MASc, I am eager to delve deeper into the realm of robotics and explore advanced topics related to humanoid robots and human-robot interactions. I aim to contribute to the development of intelligent machines that can work alongside humans in a safe, efficient, and collaborative manner. By integrating my knowledge of mechatronics, robotics, and human-robot interactions, I hope to make significant contributions to this rapidly evolving field. I am co-supervised by Yue Hu from A.I.R Lab and Kerstin Dauntehaun from SIRRL are conducting research in social human-robot interactions (HRI).

Kevin Joseph - MASc Student

Kevin Joseph

Kevin Joseph is pursuing his MASc in Mechatronics Engineering starting in the Fall of 2023 under the supervision of Dr. Yue Hu. Kevin has a BESc in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Western Ontario. His research interests lie in robotics, machine learning and controls.

Neil Fernandes - MASc

Neil

Neil is a MASc student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, co-supervised with Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn in the SIRRL Lab. Neil's research is on developing a social robot for human-robot interaction in the educational setting. Neil's personal page.

Jeffrey Lee- MASc Student

Jeffrey Lee

Jeffrey is a Masters student in Mechatronics Engineering supervised by Professor Yue Hu and co-supervised by Professor Alex Wong in Systems Design Engineering. His interests are in Human-Robot Interaction and Artificial Intelligence. Jeffrey will  mainly focus on research in Human-Robot Collaboration using multi-modal human estimation with computer vision and various artificial intelligence learning tools.

Cheng Tang - Research Assistant

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Cheng Tang is a 3rd year Computer Engineering student working part-time on the development of a social robot for immigrant children, and a joint project with the Cheriton School of Computer Science on cybersecurity of teleoperated robots.

Shawn Yang - URA

Shawn

Hello! I'm an undergraduate student majoring in Mechatronics Engineering. I have a deep passion for robotics, human-robot interaction, and artificial intelligence. My specific interests revolve around robotic arms, bionic prosthetics, and surgical robotics; areas in which I aspire to make meaningful contributions as I continue to expand my technical knowledge. Under the supervision of Dr. Hu, I am currently assisting with user studies involving human-robot interaction. These experiences are shaping my understanding and skills in this field, further fuelling my enthusiasm for robotics and its applications.

Ben Boguslavsky - Volunteer

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Ben is a 2nd year Mechatronics Engineering student and a volunteer who is working on implementing control for a collaborative robot arm for a user study.

Wendi Liang - Remote volunteer

  

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Wendi was a Mitacs Globalink Intern from HongKong in Spring 2024, working on Reinforcement Learning for robot arm control. Wendi is now a remote volunteer.

Iris Zhang - Co-op

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Iris is a 4th year Mechatronics Engineering student, working on the development of a pet robot.

Past Members

​​​​​​Graduate students

  • Spring 2022 - Winter 2024, Victoria Yang (MASc)
  • Spring 2022 - Spring 2024, Nourhan Abdulazeem (MASc and RA)

Undergraduate students

  • Winter 2022, Benjamin Li (URA, ME 4B)
  • Spring 2022, Saawan Patel (URA, ME 2B)
  • Spring/Fall 2022, Navanith Niranjan (URA, ME 2B)
  • Fall 2022, Kaveeshan Thurairajah (USRA, ME 4A)
  • Winter 2023, Jeffrey Lee (URA, MTE 4B)
  • Winter 2023, Steven Feng (URA, MTE 4B)
  • Winter 2023, Aswin Visva (URA, MSCI, 4B)
  • Winter, Spring 2023, Todd Tang (URA, MTE 3A)
  • Spring 2023, Rijin Muralidharan (URA, MTE 3A)
  • Fall 2022, Winter, Fall 2023, Aimen Awan (USRA, URA, ME 2B, 3A, 3B)
  • Fall 2023, Bilal Ali (URA, MTE 2B)
  • Fall 2022 - Winter 2024, Elin Liu (Volunteer)
  • Winter 2024, Shawn Yang (URA, MTE 1B)
  • Winter 2024, Khushi Savla (URA, MTE 1B)
  • Winter 2024, Abhi Gupta (URA, MTE 4B)

Other

  • Winter 2022, Henning Heck (Exchange student with TUHH, Hamburg University of Technology)
  • Spring 2022, Julie Pivin (Visiting from Université de Sherbrooke)
  • Spring/Fall 2022, Mustafa Akbaba (Visiting intern, Middle East Technical University)
  • Winter 2023, Nils Sichert (Exchange student with TUHH, Hamburg University of Technology)
  • Spring 2023, Devyani Gorkar (Mitacs Globalink Intern)