{"id":23,"date":"2015-11-03T16:06:31","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T21:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.eng.ufl.edu\/faculty-site\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2026-04-15T10:51:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T15:51:04","slug":"people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/ericdu\/people\/","title":{"rendered":"People"},"content":{"rendered":"

Faculty<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Photo<\/a><\/td>\nDr. Eric Jing Du<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Steve and Wendy Blum Professor
\n<\/span>UF Research Foundation Professor<\/span>
\nDepartment of Civil and Coastal Engineering<\/span>
\nDepartment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (graduate faculty)
\n<\/span>Department of Industrial and System Engineering (Affiliate)<\/span>
\nHerbert Wertheim College of Engineering<\/span>
\nUniversity of Florida<\/span>
\n460F Weil Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611<\/span>
\nEmail: eric.du@essie.ufl.edu<\/a> | Phone: (352) 294-6619 | Fax: (352) 392-3394<\/span> https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/ericdu\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Du_CV_2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Dr. Eric Jing Du is a full Professor with Steve and Wendy Blum Endowed Professorship and UF Research Foundation Endowed Professorship in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering<\/a>, and affiliate and graduate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering<\/a>, and Department of Industrial and System Engineering<\/a>,\u00a0 Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering<\/a> at University of Florida.\u00a0Before joining University of Florida in January 2019, he was a faculty member at Texas A&M University<\/a> (2015-2018) and University of Texas at San Antonio<\/a> (2013-2015). He has also worked in the industry as a senior data analyst at Zachry Industrial<\/a> for three years. Dr.Du’s primary area of research is human-robot collaboration for complex industrial operations. His ongoing projects involve the use of Mixed Reality and haptic stimulation to enhance physical embodiment in robot teleoperation. With his colleagues, Dr.Du has secured more than $12 million in federal funding from National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), with more than $5 million directly attributed to him. Dr. Du has published more than 180 referred journal and conference papers, including several best paper awards from high impact journals. Dr.Du is the elected Secretary of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Visualization, Information Modeling and Simulation (VIMS) committee, and serves on the editorial board of three journals. Dr.Du received his PhD degree in construction engineering from Michigan State University (2012), master\u2019s degree in Enterprise Management (2007) and bachelor degree in Civil Engineering (2004), both from Tianjin University in China.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Post-Doctoral Research Associates<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tianyu Zhou, PhD <\/span>Tianyu Zhou is a post-doctoral researcher at the ICIC lab. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Florida in 2023, and the Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2019, both from the University of Florida. Before that, he received the Bachelor degree in Process Equipment and Control Engineering from Dalian University of Technology. His research interests include VR training for human-robot collaboration, and VR as a tool for intuitive and natural Human-Robot Interaction in the civil engineering workplace.\u00a0 email: zhoutianyu@ufl.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Fang Xu <\/span>\u00a0Fang Xu received his PhD candidate in Civil Engineering from the\u00a0 University of Florida in 2024. He also received his Master\u2019s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2020 from University of Florida, and Bachelor\u2019s degree in Engineering Mechanics from Taiyuan University of Technology, China. He is an open-minded and passionate learner, trying to blend in the community of researchers. His research is now focusing on augmented reality (AR) systems and robotics. Email: xufang@ufl.edu<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ph.D. Students<\/span><\/p>\n

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Hengxu You<\/strong>. Hengxu is a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his Master of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2021 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Bachelor degree in Electrical and Automation Engineering from Tianjin University. His research interests include deep learning, computer vision, robot planning and LiDAR sensing. Email: you.h@ufl.edu<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Thanakon Uthai <\/span>Thanakon is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. He received both his Bachelor and Master of engineering degrees in Civil Engineering from the Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. His research interests focus on application of Building information modeling and Artificial intelligence for optimizing resources and schedule in linear projects. email: thanakon.uthai@ufl.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jiahao Wu <\/span>Jiahao Wu is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering in 2022 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Zhejiang University. His research now focuses on drone simulation in Virtual Reality and human-machine trust. Email: jiahaowu@ufl.edu<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\nBowen Sun <\/span>Bowen Sun a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his Master of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2022 from the Carnegie Mellon University and Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from Chongqing University.\u00a0 email: bowensun@ufl.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Zhen \u201cJennifer\u201d Zhang<\/strong> is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. She received her BS in Geological Engineering from Central South University, and MS in Computer Science from University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is good at time series data analysis, deep learning and computer vision. Email: zzhang4@ufl.edu<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Xianyao Li. Xianyao<\/strong> is a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. He earned his Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Florida in 2025. Before that, he completed his Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) degree in Automation in 2023. His research interests include embedded systems, robotics, and computer engineering. Email: xianyao.li@ufl.edu<\/a> LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com\/in\/xianyao-li<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ruitong Tian. <\/strong>Ruitong received her M.S. in Civil Engineering in 2025 from National University of Singapore. Before that, she earned B.E. in Civil Engineering from South China University of Technology. Her research interested is robotic in-hand manipulation. Email: ruitongtian@ufl.edu<\/a>
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Rui Min Rui <\/strong>is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida under the supervision of Dr. Du, starting Spring 2026. He received his Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Northeastern University (Seattle) and his Bachelor of Arts (Honors) degree in Economics and Psychology from the University of Melbourne. His research interests include robotics with a focus on embodied AI and intelligent decision-making, deep reinforcement learning (DRL), and large language models (LLMs). Email: rmin@ufl.edu<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Zeyu Wang. <\/strong>Zeyu is a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2022, and dual Bachelor\u2019s degrees in Physics and Optical Engineering from Delaware State University and Changchun University of Science and Technology in 2019. He is currently a Level II Automation Engineer at Nucor Steel Berkeley, focusing on steel mill automation systems, predictive, adaptive process setup modeling. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Yang Lyu. <\/strong> Yang is a ICIC member who is pursuing a PhD in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his Master of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2025 from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and bachelor’s degree in Automation from Central South University. His research interests include robotics, control systems, mobile manipulation, and embodied AI. Email: lyuyang@ufl.edu<\/span><\/p>\n

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Master’s Students<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nLesmar Murray. <\/strong>Lesmar Murray is a master\u2019s student in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. Her research focuses on trust dynamics in human\u2013robot collaboration and on measuring trust in automated systems. Email: ruitongtian@ufl.edu<\/a><\/span>
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\nVandit Shah <\/strong>is a Master of Science student in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) at the University of Florida, currently a RA at ICIC lab. He received his Bachelor’s of Technology degree in Information Technology from the University of Mumbai in 2023. His research interests include deep learning, computer vision, reinforcement learning, and natural language processing (NLP). Email – shahvandit@ufl.edu LinkedIn – https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/shahvanditt\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Undergraduate Students<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tri Nguyen\u00a0Tri is an undergraduate student in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. He is currently studying Civil Engineering with minors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and is looking to pursue a graduate degree in Computer Science. His research interests involve areas of machine learning, articificial intelligence and mixed reality (VR\/AR). email: tri.nguyen@ufl.edu<\/a>.\u00a0 His intern with ICIC is supported by NSF REU funds.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Haohui “Susana” Bao <\/span><\/strong><\/span>Susnana\u00a0is an undergraduate student in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. She is currently studying Computer Science with a minor in Digital Arts and Sciences and a certification in AI. Her research interests involve areas of Artificial Intelligence and Robot Simulation using Virtual Reality. email: haohui.bao@ufl.edu<\/a>. Her intern with ICIC is supported by NSF REU funds.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jhonathan Herrera Jhonathan is an undergraduate student in the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering at the University of Florida. He is currently Studying Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. His research interests involve areas of Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality (AR). email: herrerajhonathan@ufl.edu<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Alumni of ICIC Lab<\/span><\/p>\n