{"id":20,"date":"2023-08-17T11:38:30","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T15:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/roarlab\/?page_id=20"},"modified":"2025-09-16T17:18:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T21:18:54","slug":"people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/roarlab\/people\/","title":{"rendered":"Members"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Principal Investigator<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Mengxue Hou<\/a><\/strong>, Assistant Professor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Hou received B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2016, and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA in 2022. From 2022 to 2023, she was the Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellow in College of Engineering, Purdue University. Professor Hou seeks to enable smart and autonomous robotic systems by exploring cutting-edge interdisciplinary research that integrates robotics, AI, machine learning, and control theory. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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PhD students<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Yu Zhou<\/a><\/strong>, Graduate Research Assistant<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yu Zhou received B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA, in 2020, and M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University, Durham, NC, USA in 2023. Starting in Aug. 2023, he is a a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering Department and research assistant in the ROAR lab at University of Notre Dame. His research interests include robotics, human-robot interaction, and machine learning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Xiaoran Zha<\/strong><\/a>, Graduate Research Assistant<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xiaoran Zha obtained a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University in 2021, and a M.S. degree in Engineering Science (Mechanical Engineering) from University of California San Diego in 2023. He is now a Ph.D. student within the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, affiliated with the ROAR Lab. His research focuses on robotic systems, encompassing areas such as robot motion planning and reinforcement learning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Zongyao Liu, Graduate Research Assistant<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zongyao Liu received B.S. degree in Robotics Engineering from the Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering at Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China, in July 2024. Beginning in August 2024, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Notre Dame, affiliated with the ROAR Lab. His research interests include robotic systems and deep learning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Robotic Members<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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MUR<\/strong> Expertise: Lake\/river sampling (special credit to Dr. Qiuyang Tao, Dr. Scott Mayberry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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BlueROV<\/strong> Expertise: Underwater manipulation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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GT-MAB <\/strong> Expertise: Human robot interaction, indoor inspection & monitoring (credit to Dr. Fumin Zhang)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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BlueBuzz<\/a><\/strong> Expertise: underwater acoustic communication (credit to Dr. Scott Mayberry, Dr. Aijun Song)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Kinova Gen3<\/strong> Expertise: manipulation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Lab Photos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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MUR field test, UNDERC, WI [Jul. 2025]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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MUR field test, UNDERC, WI [Jul. 2025]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Fish alien \ud83d\udc7d landed in Lake Crampton, WI [Jul. 2025]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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mu-net workshop, University of Alabama, AL [Jul. 2024]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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mu-net workshop, University of Alabama, AL [Jul. 2024]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Lab photo of underwater robotic members [Jan. 2025]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Principal Investigator Mengxue Hou, Assistant Professor Professor Hou received B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2016, and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA in 2022. From 2022 to 2023, she was the Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellow in College of Engineering, Purdue University. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4626,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/roarlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/roarlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/roarlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/roarlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/roarlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/roarlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":400,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/roarlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20\/revisions\/400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/roarlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}