Dr Dezong Zhao
- Reader (Autonomous Systems & Connectivity)
email:
Dezong.Zhao@glasgow.ac.uk
pronouns:
He/him/his
James Watt South Building, School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ G12 8QQ
Biography
Work Experience
- Reader in Autonomous Systems, University of Glasgow, 2023 - present
- Senior Lecturer in Autonomous Systems, University of Glasgow, 2020 - 2023
- Lecturer in Intelligent Systems, Loughborough University, 2017 - 2020
- Research Associate, Loughborough University, 2011 - 2017
- Research Fellow, Tsinghua University, 2010 - 2011
Qualifications
- PhD in Control Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing China, 2006 - 2010
- MSc in Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, China, 2003 - 2006
- BEng in Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, China, 1999 - 2003
Research interests
Dr Zhao’s research spans multiple areas of robotics and autonomous systems, including perception, decision making, modelling, control, reasoning, learning and computing. He is passionate in investigating fundamental theories and developing tools to deliver safe, trustworthy and efficient autonomous systems. In applications, he aims to tackle the challenges raised in connected and autonomous vehicles, robotics, low carbon vehicles and mechatronics.
Grants
- EPSRC National Hub, TransiT - Digital Twinning Research Hub for Decarbonising Transport, Co-I, £46 million, 2024-2029.
- EPSRC Innovation Fellowship, Towards Energy Efficient Autonomous Vehicles via Cloud-Aided Learning, PI, £527k, 2018-2022.
- Royal Society-Newton Advanced Fellowship, Cooperative Vehicular Communication and Robust Control for Mixed Vehicle Platoons, PI, £74k, 2020-2023.
- University of Glasgow Reinvigorating Research Project, Human-Autonomy-Infrastructure Teaming, Co-I, £100k, 2021-2022.
- University of Glasgow TNE project, Flagship Legged Robotic Platform for the Excellence of Research and Teaching, Co-I, £100k, 2021 - 2022.
- EPSRC Capital Award, HDL-32E LiDAR sensor from Velodyne, Co-I, £35k, 2018-2018.
- Advanced Propulsion Centre project, Dynamic Analysis Modelling and Optimisation of GDI Engines, Co-I, £12.2 million (£2.27 million to the institute), 2017-2021.
- Caterpillar I&RC Project, Global Nonlinear Control of Electrified Diesel Engines, PI, £30k, 2013-2014.
- EPSRC Institutional Sponsorship, Digital Engineering Performance Networks, Co-I, £202k, 2017-2018.
- NSFC Standard Grant, Modelling, Control and Scheduling of Networked Cooperation Systems with Multi Agents, Co-I, CNY630k, 2011–2015.
Supervision
I welcome enquiries to PhD opportunities in automatic control, machine intelligence, autonomous vehicles, robotics and future mobility.
Current PhDs
- Mr Zhen Tian (2021-), Trustworthy decision making of autonomous systems
- Mr Zhaoan Ye (2021-), Causal control of autonomous systems
- Mr Qikun Chen (2022-), Causal decision making of autonomous systems
- Mr Yansong Jiang (2022-), Causal perception of autonomous systems
- Mr Xiao Yi (2022-), Autonomous racing cars
- Mr Xidong Yan (2022-), Knowledge-driven autonomous driving
- Mr Xingyu Tao (2023-), Event triggered cameras and decision making
- Mr Qinglin Bi (2023-), Embodied robotic reasoning and manipulation
- Mr Jingzhi Ruan (2024-), Embodied robotic navigation
Future PhDs
I particularly welcome phd students who are interested in the following research areas:
- Embodied AI
- Causal AI
- Safe and trustworthy automated vehicles
- Chen, Qikun
Unravelling the Mystery: A Causal-Based Approach to Task Failure Explanation - Hua, Shuheng
Semantic Communication System Design and Optimization - Jiang, Yansong
Interpretability of Object Recognition in Autonomous Driving - Ruan, Jingzhi
Traffic Optimisation with Efficient Planning - Yan, Xidong
Robot Task and motion Planning in dynamic environments via large language models
Finished PhDs
- Mr Hari Vijayakumar (2019-2024), Uncertainty-aware decision making of automated vehicles
- Dr Weihao Lu (2019-2023), Deep learning for 3D object detection on point clouds for autonomous driving
- Dr Jinsong Yang (2018-2023), Eco-driving for connected and automated vehicles in mixed traffic
- Dr Xiaoyan Hu (2018-2022), Nonlinear control based on structurally optimised neural fuzzy networks
- Dr Wen Gu (2017-2022), Model learning and learning based control of dynamic systems
Finished RAs
- Dr Jianglin Lan (2018-2021), RA in Low Carbon Autonomous Vehicles
- Dr Juan Du (2019-2020), RA in Image Analysis and Machine Learning
- Dr Lu Ge (2020-2021), RA in Communications in Connected Vehicles
- Dr Dan Zhou (2020-2021), RA in Energy Management of Autonomous Vehicles
Teaching
Courvse Conveners
- ENG 4175/5107 (2020-), Autonomous Vehicle Guidance Systems
- ENG 3005/3071 (2021-), Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Team Design Projects 3 for Aerospace and Mechatronic students)
Professional activities & recognition
Prizes, awards & distinctions
- 2015: Young Researcher Award (IEEE Control on Decision and Control)
- 2016: Most Citation Award (International Journal of Automation and Computing)
- 2016: Santander Mobility Award (Santander)
- 2018, 2019: Best Poster Prize (Future Powertrain Conference)
- 2021: Best Paper Award (IEEE International Conference on Unmanned Systems)
- 2021: Excellent Solution Award (Global High-Level Talent Innovation and Application Competition)
- 2022: Top 4% Peer Review College Member (EPSRC)
- 2023: Best Paper Award (IEEE International Conference on Unmanned Systems)
Research fellowships
- 2018 - 2022: EPSRC Innovation Fellowship
- 2020 - 2023: Royal Society-Newton Advanced Fellowship
- 2024 - 2026: Turing Fellow
Grant committees & research advisory boards
- 2018: UKRI Future Leaders Fellow Peer Review College, Member
- 2020: EPSRC Peer Review College, Full member
Editorial boards
- 2022: Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
- 2022: Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles
- 2022: Guest Editor on the special issue 'Deep Reinforcement Learning and IoT in Intelligent System' for Sensors
- 2022: Guest Editor on the special issue 'Underwater-Aerial Integrated Image Processing for Smart Ocean Monitoring' for Journal of Electronic Imaging
Professional & learned societies
- 2017: Senior Member, IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
- 2019: Member, Society of Automotive Engineers
- 2019: Fellow, Higher Education Academy
- 2020: Member, IET (The Institution of Engineering and Technology)
Selected international presentations
- 2021: COTA International Conference of Transportation Professionals (Online)
- 2021: CAA International Conference on Vehicular Control and Intelligence (Online)
Additional information
The 45th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (IEEE ICDCS 2025) will be held during July 20th - 23rd 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. This is the premier international forum in all aspects of distributed computing systems. We are calling for Full Papers (due 11 December 2024), Workshop Proposals (due 27 November 2024) and Sponsorship. You are very welcome to contribute your original work and meet the top-tier investigators from academia and industry worldwide!
Conference TPC member / Session Chair
- 2025 ICDCS Workshop Chair
- 2024 CSTFM Publication Chair
- 2022 CVCI Invited Session Chair
- 2019 IEEE ACC Session Chair
- 2018 PMC TPC
- 2015 IEEE CDC Session Chair
- 2014 IEEE ICIA TPC
- 2014 IEEE ICIST TPC
- 2013 WCICA TPC
- 2013 IEEE ICRB TPC
- 2013 IEEE ICIA TPC
Session/Workshp Organisation
- 2023 IEEE CASE, Session Co-organiser
- 2022 Workshop of Connected Autonomous Systems at University of Glasgow, Co-Chair
Patents
- Tomas Longley, Richard Stobart, Jiamei Deng, and Dezong Zhao, “Control system for an engine assembly” (US 2015/0046067 A1, EP20120160010)
- Tomas Longley, Richard Stobart, Jiamei Deng, and Dezong Zhao, “Optimised real-time control of a highly dynamic engine system” (US 2015/0066337 A1, EP20120160006)
Visiting Positions
- Visiting Research Professor at Tsinghua University, 2020-2021
- Visiting Fellow at The University of Hong Kong, 2022
PhD viva Convener / Examiner
- External Examiner for University of Warwick since 2023
- External Examiner for University of Birmingham since 2021
- External Examiner for Loughborough University since 2023
- Convener at University of Glasgow since 2022
Regular Reviewer
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IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, IEEE Control Systems Letters, IEEE Networking Letters, Asian Journal of Control, SAE International, ACTA AUTOMATICA SINICA, Journal of Control Theory and Applications, IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, American Control Conference, IFAC Symposium on Automotive Control, IEEE Multi-conference on Systems and Control, IFAC Congress.