Huyue Chen, a Class of 2025 doctoral graduate from Shanghai Jiao Tong University Global College (SJTUGC, abbreviated as GC hereafter), has been selected for the 2025 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Nomination of the university.
The SJTU award recognizes high-quality academic research and aims to promote innovation, encourage originality among doctoral students, and acknowledge the vital role of faculty in graduate education. In 2025, a total of 14 dissertations were named Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations, with 28 additional works receiving nominations.
Research diagram of Huyue Chen’s dissertation
Huyue Chen’s doctoral dissertation, “Designing Physical Intelligence in Small-scale Robotics: From Mechanisms to Biomedical Engineering,” focuses on advancing the theoretical and practical foundations of small-scale robotic systems. His research centers on the concept of physical intelligence (PI), achieved through the integration of structural and material intelligence, enabling robotic systems to operate autonomously in complex and extreme environments, with promising applications in in vivo biomedical contexts.
Addressing key challenges in the field—including limitations in sensing performance, dependence on centralized electronic computation, restricted actuation flexibility, and constraints in onboard energy and communication—Chen proposes a series of innovative solutions. These include a metamaterial-based sensing strategy to enhance signal detection in complex environments, a mechanically integrated computing architecture with thermo-mechanical transistors for electronic-free computation, and a self-vectorized magnetic soft actuator capable of real-time motion programming and multimodal deformation. By integrating sensing, computation, and actuation, he developed an autonomous robotic system based on physical intelligence, which has been validated in large animal models.
This work contributes to the development of next-generation robotic systems that are smaller, more flexible, and more intelligent, offering safer and more effective solutions for biomedical applications. Inspired by natural systems, the research demonstrates new engineering paradigms and advances the field of physical intelligence.
Personal Introduction
Huyue Chen was a direct-entry GC PhD student in Mechanical Engineering enrolled in 2020, supervised by Associate Professor Lei Shao. His research focuses on small-scale robotics and metamaterials. During his doctoral studies, Chen published multiple papers as first or co-first author in leading international journals, including Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Nature Communications, and Science Advances. He also conducted research visits at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, Koç University in Turkey under Professor Metin Sitti, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong under Professor Li Zhang. Following graduation, he joined the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) as a postdoctoral researcher, working with Professor Xuanhe Zhao of MIT.
Lei Shao, Associate Professor at GC and Chen’s doctoral advisor, conducts research in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), precision instrumentation, and microrobotics. He has received support from programs including the Shanghai Sailing Program, the National Key R&D Program for Young Scientists, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Young Scientists Fund, Category B). His work has been published in journals such as Physical Review Letters, Nature Communications, and IEEE Transactions.
