People

Associate Professor (tenure track), Soft Matter Robotics

Hao Zeng

Associate Professor
Soft matter robotics
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences
Tampere University
+358504359381
hao.zeng@tuni.fi

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9150-214X

About me

I currently hold a tenure-track position as an Associate Professor of Soft Matter Robotics at Tampere University and a title of Academy Research Fellow from Academy of Finland. I lead a research Group Light Robots.

Our group work at the interface between physics, soft mechanics and material engineering. We are interested in developing general research routes for materials robotics that are out of equilibrium, locomotive, interactive, and capable of self-feedback, adaptation, and communication.

Research topics

We seek ideas for imaginative projects.

We're also big fans of scientific jokes. See updates in group gallery.

Research fields

Optics, soft mechanics, stimuli-responsive materials

Research career

Associate Professor (tenure track), Soft Matter Robotics, Tampere University, 11.2023-10.2028

Academy Research Fellow, Academy of Finland, Tampere University, 2021-2026

Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher, Tampere University, 2018-2021

Post-doc, Tampere University of Technology, 2016-2018

PhD, European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS) / University of Florence, Atomic and Molecular Photonics, 3/2015.

M. Sc, Photonics and Technology, Nankai University, China, 7/2011

B. Sc, Physics, Nankai University, China, 7/2008

Project links

Top achievements

Funding

Group members

Hongshuang Guo

Academy Postdoctoral Researcher
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences

Senior research fellow, co-supervised by Professor Arri Priimagi. 2020, PhD in Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University.

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About me

I am a chemist working in a chem-opti-material science laboratory. My interest is to design and fabricate all kind of stimuli-responsive materials, devices or systems.

These responsive materials are based on chemically synthesized materials and then deform under various stimuli. And explore the relationship between the molecular structure of the material and the stimulus response.

I aim to provide novel materials and structural designs through my research, these materials can extend some new phenomenon to existing research fields.

Responsibilities

Successfully complete the tasks arranged by the boss

Find fun in scientific research

Find scientific research inspiration from life

Field of expertise

Good at chemical synthesis and coating preparation, good at designing various functional liquid crystal elastomer materials

Research topics

LCE

Research unit

Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences

Research fields

Soft robot, LCE

Mission statement

Selected publications

1. H., Guo,Y., Han, W., Zhao, et al. Universally autonomous self-healing elastomer with high stretchability. Nat Commun 11, 2037 (2020).

2. H., Guo, T., Xu, J., Zhang, W., Zhao, J., Zhang, C., Lin, L., Zhang*. A multifunctional anti-fog, antibacterial, and self-cleaning surface coating based on poly (NVP-co-MA). Chem. Eng. J., 2018, 351, 409-417.

3. H., Guo#, J., Yang#, T., Xu, W., Zhao, J., Zhang, Y., Zhu, C., Wen, Q., Li, X., Sui, and L., Zhang*. A robust cotton textile based material for high flux oil-water separation. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2019, 11, 13704-13711.

4. H., Guo#, J.,Yang#, W., Zhao, T., Xu, C., Lin, J., Zhang, and L., Zhang*. Direct formation of amphiphilic crosslinked networks based on PVP as a marine anti-biofouling coating. Chem. Eng. J., 2019, doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2019.06.025.

5. C., Wen#, H., Guo#, H., Bai, T., Xu, M., Liu, J., Yang, Y., Zhu, W., Zhao, J., Zhang, M., Cao* and L., Zhang*. Beetle-Inspired Hierarchical Anti-Bacterial Interface for High Efficient Fog Harvesting. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2019, 11, 34330-34337

Own links

Dengfeng Li

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences

Senior Research Scientist, 2019 PhD Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong.

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About me

I currently work as a seninor research fellow in Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Tampere University.

Rich experience in the fields of soft robotics and flexible electronics pointed out the way for my scientific research. For small-sized soft robotics, my research covers those that can run, swim and fly. For flexible electronics, I mainly focus on the wearable haptic interfaces for the applications in robotics and virtual augmented reality (VR/AR). I am interested in the distinctive and applied research projects, in which integrating technologies from multiple fields is an effective strategy to improve the application level of sciencific research.

Research fields

Soft robotics, Flexible electronics, Haptics

Research career

Post-doc, Tampere University, 2024-

Post-doc, Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 2019-2024

PhD, Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, 2016-2019

M.Sc, Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, China, 2010-2013

B.Sc, Materials Physics, B.B.A. Business Administration, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China, 2006-2010

Selected publications

1) Dengfeng Li#, Jingkun Zhou#, Zichen Zhao#, Xingcan Huang#, Hu Li#, Qing’ao Qu, Changfei Zhou, Kuanming Yao, Yanting Liu, Mengge Wu, Jingyou Su, Rui Shi, Ya Huang, Jingjing Wang, Zongwen Zhang, Yiming Liu, Zhan Gao, Wooyoung Park, Huiling Jia, Xu Guo, Jiachen Zhang, Pakpong Chirarattananon, Lingqian Chang*, Zhaoqian Xie*, Xinge Yu*. Battery-free, wireless, and electricity driven soft swimmer for water quality and virus monitoring. Science Advances, 2024, 10, eadk6301.

2) Dengfeng Li#, Jingkun Zhou#, Kuanming Yao#, Sitong Liu#, Jiahui He#, Jingyou Su, Zhen Song, Chuanlu Sha, Zhi Sun, Chunki Yiu, Libei Huang, Qing’ao Qu, Chenyu Xu, Binbin Zhang, Jian Li, Tsz Hung Wong, Xingcan Huang, Jiyu Li, Yuyu Gao, Ruquan Ye, Lei Wei, Zhengyou Zhang, Xu Guo, Yuan Dai*, Zhaoqian Xie*, Xinge Yu*. Touch IoT enabled by wireless self-sensing and haptic-reproducing electronic skin. Science Advances, 2022, 8, eade2450.

3) Kewang Nan#*, Kiwan Wong#, Dengfeng Li#, Binbin Ying#, James C McRae, Vivian R Feig, Shubing Wang, Ningjie Du, Yuelong Liang, Qijiang Mao, Enjie Zhou, Yonglin Chen, Lei Sang, Kuanming Yao, Jingkun Zhou, Jian Li, Joshua Jenkins, Keiko Ishida, Johannes Kuosmanen, Wiam Abdalla Mohammed Madani, Alison Hayward, Khalil Ramadi, Xinge Yu*, Giovanni Traverso*. An ingestible, battery-free, tissue-adhering robotic interface for non-invasive and chronic electrostimulation of the gut. Nature Communications, 2024, 15, 6749.

4) Jian Li#, Shengxin Jia#, Dengfeng Li*, Lung Chow, Qiang Zhang, Yiyuan Yang, Xiao Bai, Qingao Qu, Yuyu Gao, Zhiyuan Li, Zongze Li, Rui Shi, Binbin Zhang, Ya Huang, Xinyu Pan, Yue Hu, Zhan Gao, Jingkun Zhou, WooYoung Park, Xingcan Huang, Hongwei Chu, Zhenlin Chen, Hu Li, Pengcheng Wu, Guangyao Zhao, Kuanming Yao, Muhamed Hadzipasic, Joshua D. Bernstock, Ganesh M. Shankar*, Kewang Nan*, Xinge Yu*, Giovanni Traverso*, Wearable bio-adhesive metal detector array (BioMDA) for spinal implants. Nature Communications, 2024, 15, 7800.

5) Dengfeng Li#, Chao Liu#, Yuanyuan Yang, Lidai Wang*, Yajing Shen*. Micro-rocket robot with all-optic actuating and tracking in blood. Light: Science & Applications, 2020, 9, 84.

Shweta Mishra

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences

Postdoc since 2024. 2023, PhD in Physics, Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS Pilani).

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About me

I am currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Light Robots Group.

My research work mainly focuses on stimuli responsive soft matter, specifically. liquid crystalline materials and their applications.

Research topics

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Liquid Crystals, Display, Thin Films, Anticounterfeiting

Research fields

Condensed Matter Physics, Nanoscience

Research career

2024-present, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Tampere University, Finland

2018-2023 PhD (Physics) , BITS Pilani, India

2016-2017 Research Trainee, CSIR-NCL, India

2014-2016 M.Sc. (Physics; Specialization: Physics of nanoscience and nanostructures), University of Pune, India

2011-2014 B.Sc. (Physics), S.P. College, Pune , India

Top achievements

2020 Best Paper Award - National Conference on Physics and Chemistry of Materials (NCPCM), Govt Holkar Science College, Indore, India, Dec

2019 2nd Prize in short invited talks- International Conference on Liquid Crystals, Liquid Crystalline Polymers and Nanosystems (ICLCPN), MG University, Kottayam, India, Dec

2014 “Late Prog BG Lagoo Memorial Prize” for 2nd rank in S.P. College at 3rd Year B.Sc.

Selected publications

1. Shweta Mishra, Parsoon Pareek, Ishaan Sarma, V. Manjuladevi, Raj Kumar Gupta and Rahul Singhal, Tuning Liquid Crystal Properties with 0D carbon dots: Exploring the Impact of Functionalization of carbon dots, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2025, DOI: 10.1039/D4TC04496G

2. Shweta Mishra, V Manjuladevi, RK Gupta, Tuning Liquid Crystal Properties with ZnO Nanodiscs: A Study on Order Parameter and Conductivity, RSC Adv., 2024, 14, 30452-30459, DOI: 10.1039/D4RA05558F

3. Shweta Mishra, Manjuladevi V, RK Gupta, Effect of shape of zinc oxide nanoparticles on electro-optic and dielectric properties of nematic liquid crystal, Journal of Molecular Liquids, 386, 122482, 2023

4. Shweta Mishra, Manjuladevi V, Raj Kumar Gupta, Zinc Oleate Nanorod Induced Vertical Alignment of Nematic Liquid Crystal, ACS Omega, 7, 50, 46466–46474, 2022

5. Shweta Mishra, V Manjuladevi, RK Gupta, S Kumar, Experimental evidence of continuous isotropic-nematic phase transition in CdS nanowire nanocomposites of a nematic liquid crystal, Liquid Crystals 48 (8), 1151-1161, 1, 2021

Yasaman Nemati

Doctoral Researcher
(Marie Curie)
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences

PhD student, co-supervised by Professor Arri Priimagi. 2018, Master in polymer engineering, University of Tehran.

Zixuan Deng

Doctoral Researcher
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences

PhD student, co-supervised by Professor Arri Priimagi. 2020, Master, South China Normal University.

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Jianfeng Yang

Doctoral Researcher
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences

PhD student. 2021, Master, Southeast University.

Bingnan Zhou

Doctoral Researcher
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences

PhD student. 2023, Master in Mechanics, Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Valtteri Savonen

Research Assistant
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences

Project researcher, ongoing Bacellar student at Tampere University.

VIP.

LeileiSong

Leilei Song

Doctoral Researcher, in-charge of 2pp microfabrication equipment (UpNano, $$$$).

2022 Master in material sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Alumni

Shou-Chung Lu (National Taipei University of Technology, master visitor, 2024); Dr. Qi Yang (Qingdao Uni. Sci. & Tech., CSC visitor, 2024); Nina Qian (Southeast, CSC PhD visitor, 2024); Niklas Vuorenmaa (Tampere, summer student, 2024); Wei-Ting Hsu (National Taipei University of Technology, PhD visitor, 2024); Ming Chen (Southern University of Science and Technology, PhD visitor, 2023); Zhenming Wang (Southern University of Science and Technology, PhD visitor, 2023); Yonglei Lyu (Turku, project researcher, 2023); Zhenyu Xu (Aalto, project researcher, 2022); Xuan Lee (National Taipei University of Technology, master visitor).