Category: News

Dr. Du has been appointed to the Steve and Wendy Blum Endowed Professorship for Industrialized Construction Engineering. This  appointment recognizes Dr. Du’s leadership and contributions in advancing industrialized construction through robotics, automation, and AI. The professorship, established through the generosity of Steve and Wendy Blum, demonstrates the Blum family’s strong commitment to supporting innovation and […]

Download and share flyer here: ICIC lab PhD RA 2026 Spring ONE (1) PhD research assistant position is available in the Informatics, Cobots and Intelligent Construction (ICIC) lab at University of Florida, to investigate AI and autonomous drones. The expected start is Spring 2026. The student’s advisor will be Dr. Eric Jing Du. The student will pursue […]

Du team received a grant to work with the Nvidia AI Technology Center (NVAITC) to develop a foundation model dedicated to enhancing robotic perception, particularly focusing on tactile sensation. This collaboration aims to pioneer new frontiers in robotics by creating more intuitive and responsive robots that can perceive and interpret the physical world with unprecedented […]

  In collaboration with Dr. Ryan Wang from Northeastern University, our team has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of the Smart & Connected Communities (SCC) program. This project represents a pioneering approach to one of the most pressing issues facing urban environments today: mobility for the aging population. […]

ICIC’s research titled “Human-Machine Sensory Sharing for Swift Trust in Autonomy” is awarded by Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). This research aims to test if human-machine sensory sharing establishes swift trust in autonomy in urgent situations. Human-machine sensory sharing in this research refers to converting machine sensor data into human-perceivable sensations. It includes […]

Dr.Du and colleagues from University of Florida, University of Hawaii, Manoa, University of Tennessee, and American Bureau of Shipping are awarded $2M by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Future of Work at Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) program, to explore the next-gen VR-based subsea robot teleoperation and how it will shape the future of subsea engineering. The […]

Dr. Du received another award from the NIST public safety innovation accelerator program (PSIAP) program. This is a $1.4 million project that focuses on designing a cognition-driven Augmented Reality (AR) system for the future search and rescue missions, called “SearchAR”. SearchAR builds on the latest discoveries in neural functional analysis, machine learning, and 5G telecommunication networks, […]

Dr. Du’s proposal, titled “Sensory Manipulation as a Countermeasure to Robot Teleoperation Delays”, has been selected by NASA’s Human Research Program to help answer questions about astronaut performance during future long-duration missions beyond low-Earth orbit. Specifically, this research will investigate an approach based on mixed reality and haptic learning to enable a multimodal sensory manipulation in […]

Partnering with collaborators from Texas A&M University and Virginia Tech, Dr.Du received NSF Convergence Accelerator Phase 2 project titled “B2: Learning Environments with Augmentation and Robotics for Next-gen Emergency Responders (LEARNER)“. The NSF Convergence Accelerator supports use-inspired, team-based, multidisciplinary efforts that address challenges of national importance and will produce deliverables of value to society in […]

Dr. Du just received a new NSF grant to study the use of exoskeleton system in Virtual Reality. The project, titled “NRI: INT: Collaborative Research: ForceBot: Customizable Robotic Platform for Body-Scale Physical Interaction Simulation in Virtual Reality”, aims to develop an adaptive exoskeleton system called “ForceBot”, to simulate physical interactions in VR. This National Robotics Initiative […]