About Me.

My name is Qiang Zhang, and I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama. My research is in the areas of biological signal-based neuromusculoskeletal modeling, control of rehabilitative/assistive robotic exoskeletons and functional electrical stimulation, human-robot interaction, human motion intent prediction, neuromuscular signals processing (surface electromyography and ultrasound US imaging), human locomotion biomechanics, Lyapunov-based nonlinear control and adaptive control, machine learning-based control, linear/nonlinear observer design, sensor fusion, and their applications to wearable robotic devices’ control and next-generation healthcare.

Before joining UA, I was a postdoctoral research fellow under the supervision of Dr. He (Helen) Huang, Dr. Michael D. Lewek, and Dr. Derek Kamper, in the Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training Projects (ARRTs) funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) at the Closed-Loop Engineering for Advanced Rehabilitation (CLEAR) in the UNC/NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. During the postdoc training, my research project focused on robotic assistance personalization control based on a reinforcement learning (RL) control framework, with different control goals, including imposing healthy gait patterns, maximizing walking gait symmetry, and minimizing energetic expenditure. The targeted groups are both unimpaired human participants and individuals with mobility deficits, such as individuals with paretic stroke. This RL-based robotic assistance personalization control is applicable to many types of wearable robotic devices, including exoskeletons and prostheses.

I got my Ph.D. degree from the UNC/NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Nov. 2021. My Ph.D. supervisors were Dr. Nitin Sharma (the director of the Neuromuscular Control and Robotics Lab) and Dr. Kang Kim (the director of the Multi-modality Biomedical Ultrasound Imaging Lab). My Ph.D. research efforts were on human ankle joint effort prediction by using ultrasound imaging and surface electromyography fusion, assist-as-needed control of ankle exoskeleton during walking, and functional electrical stimulation (FES)-elicited ankle joint trajectory tracking control with ultrasound imaging-based muscle state feedback. I have collaborated on iterative learning control of a lower limb hybrid neuroprosthesis for the sit-to-stand tasks, as well as model predictive control of the elbow joint by stimulating antagonistic muscles.

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Prior to my Ph.D. program, I got my bachelor's and master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics Engineering from Wuhan University, China. My research work focused on 1) the development of a lower limb bipedal walking robot with four active degrees of freedom and feedforward adaptive control design for its walking on compliant ground surface; 2) the development of an upper limb exoskeleton robot with four active degrees of freedom and two passive degrees of freedom and impedance control design to provide assistance when necessary. Each active DOF is actuated by a customized serial elastic actuator plus Bowden cable.

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I have published my research work in various scientific peer-reviewed journals and conferences of IEEE, EMBS, IFAC, and ASME societies. I have been selected as one finalist for the Best Student Paper Award at the 16th IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR 2019), the UNC/NCSU BME Department Ph.D. Student Research Award in 2021, the 2022 ASME DSCD Rising Star Award, and the 2023 Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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My academic training and more than eight years of experience working as a research assistant in three labs have prepared me to be an effective researcher in the areas of human-in-loop robotics, biomechanics analysis, control of biomechatronic devices, and so on. I am always looking for opportunities where I can combine my research acumen with my research experience to help real-world medical and daily needs.