Prof. Li Zhang, Professor of the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering (MAE) of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Director of the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) - CUHK Joint Laboratory of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, has been received a five-year project funding with over HK$ 6 million funding amounts from the Research Impact Fund (RIF) 2021/22 in support to his pioneering project titled, “A Microrobotic Platform with Swarming Magnetic Microgels for Endovascular Embolization”. The project aims to address the key challenges and study functionalized magnetic swarming microgels for the image-guided endovascular intervention of embolization treatment.
Prof. Zhang’s main research interests include small-scale robotics and their applications for translational biomedicine. He has published over 260 articles, including Science Robotics, Nature Machine Intelligence (News & Views), Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems, etc. He is the recipient of the Hong Kong Research Grants Committee (RGC) Early Career Award in 2013, CUHK Young Researcher Award 2017, United College Early Career Research Excellence Merit Award 2018, CUHK Research Excellence Award 2019-20, and RGC Research Fellow (RFS) Award 2021/22. He is elected as the Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), and acts as a Senior Member of IEEE.
Prof. Zhang said, “I am deeply honored to receive the funding from the RIF 2021/22. It is achieved by the unfailing support from the colleagues of the Faculty of Engineering and the Department of MAE, the long-term trust relationship with our industry partners, the close collaborations with the talented minds from the Faculty of Medicine at CUHK, The University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong as well as the relentless effort of my research team members. Without their years of support, it would not have been made possible.”
About the Research Impact Fund
The Research Impact Fund (RIF) aims to encourage local academics to consider and articulate the potential of research to deliver benefits to the wider community; and to encourage more impactful and translational research projects and to encourage a greater volume of collaborative research beyond academia (e.g. with government departments, the business sector, the industry and research institutes). Under the RIF exercise, mandatory matching funds are required from UGC-funded universities/organisational partner(s) for approved projects on a 70% (RGC)/30% (university/organisational partner(s)) basis. Every successful application can receive a funding amount of up to HK$ 10 million from the RGC.
