Huazhen Fang is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kansas, where he joined in 2014 and has led the Information & Smart Systems Laboratory. He received his Ph.D., M.Sc., and B.Eng. from the University of California, San Diego (Mechanical Engineering, 2014), University of Saskatchewan, Canada (Mechanical Engineering, 2009), and Northwestern Polytechnic University, China (Computer Science, 2006), respectively. His research interests lie in modeling, control and estimation theory with application to energy management and cooperative robotics. He has received the 2019 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Award. He currently serve as an Associate Editor for Information Sciences, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Open Journal of Control Systems, IEEE Open Journal of the Industrial Electronics Society, and on the IEEE Control Systems Society Conference Editorial Board.

Dr. Behrad Khamesee is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada. He is the director of MagLev Microrobotics Laboratory and co-PI of the RoboHub state-of-the-art robotics facility at the University of Waterloo.
His research interests and expertise include design, modeling, and control of advanced mechatronics systems, particularly microrobotic magnetic levitation and semi-active electromagnetic dampers for vehicles.

His research has resulted in 90 refereed Journal and conference papers, and his research group is a recipient of several best paper awards. His research group developed the world’s smallest magnetically-levitated microrobot which is equipped with a gripper. Dr. Khamesee is involved in conferences program committees, has organized several sessions at international conferences, and is a technical reviewer for several IEEE Journals.