{"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":"2026-05-05T13:02:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:02:31","slug":"people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/ericdu\/people\/","title":{"rendered":"People"},"content":{"rendered":"

Faculty<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Dr. <\/a><\/div>\n
\n

Dr. Eric Jing Du<\/span><\/p>\n

Steve and Wendy Blum Professor<\/strong>
\nUF Research Foundation Professor<\/strong>
\nUniversity of Florida | 460F Weil Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611
\nEmail: eric.du@essie.ufl.edu<\/a> | Curriculum Vitae<\/a><\/div>\n

Dr. Eric Jing Du is a 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>, Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering<\/a> at University of Florida. Before 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\u2019s research centers on embodied AI for human-robot collaboration in complex, real-world operations, with a particular emphasis on unstructured environments. His work integrates multimodal sensing, semantic perception, and human factors to enable intelligent, adaptive interaction between humans and robotic systems. His ongoing projects leverage mixed reality, haptic interfaces, and data-driven models to enhance situational awareness, physical embodiment, and decision-making in teleoperation and collaborative robotics. 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 $6 million directly attributed to him. Dr. Du has published more than 200 referred journal and conference papers, including several best paper awards from high impact journals. Dr.Du is the elected Chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Visualization, Information Modeling and Simulation (VIMS) committee, and serves on the editorial board of several 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Post-Doctoral Associates<\/h2>\n
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\"Photo<\/p>\n

Fang Xu, PhD<\/strong><\/span>
\nPhD in Civil Engineering (2024). M.S. from UF.
\nResearch: Augmented reality (AR) systems, robotics, AI Agents.
\nEmail: xufang@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ph.D. Students<\/h2>\n
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\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanakon Uthai<\/strong><\/span>
\nPh.D. Candidate in Civil Engineering. B.E. and M.E. from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Research: Soft object manipulation and imitation learning in robotics.
\nEmail: thanakon.uthai@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Bowen Sun<\/strong><\/span>
\nPh.D. Candidate in Civil Engineering. M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University; B.E. from Chongqing University. Research: AI Cognition and human-AI alignment.
\nEmail: bowensun@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Zhen \u201cJennifer\u201d Zhang<\/strong><\/span>
\nPh.D. Student in Civil Engineering. M.S. in Computer Science from University of Wisconsin-Madison; B.S. from Central South University. Research: Time series analysis with deep learning for nonlinear optimization.
\nEmail: zzhang4@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Xianyao Li<\/strong><\/span>
\nPh.D. Student in Civil Engineering. M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Florida. Research: Embodied Artificial Intelligence, Robot Navigation.
\nEmail: xianyao.li@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Ruitong Tian<\/strong><\/span>
\nPh.D. Student in Civil Engineering. M.S. from National University of Singapore (2025); B.E. from South China University of Technology. Research: Robotic in-hand manipulation, VLA.
\nEmail: ruitongtian@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Rui Min<\/strong><\/span>
\nPh.D. Student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. M.S. from Northeastern University. Research: Embodied AI, deep reinforcement learning (DRL), and LLMs.
\nEmail: rmin@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Zeyu Wang<\/strong><\/span>
\nPh.D. Student in Civil Engineering. M.S. from University of Southern California; Level II Automation Engineer at Nucor Steel Berkeley. Focus: Steel mill automation systems and adaptive process setup modeling.
\nEmail: zeyu.wang1@uf.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Yang Lyu<\/strong><\/span>
\nPh.D. Student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. M.S. from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Research: Robotics, control systems, mobile manipulation, and embodied AI.
\nEmail: lyuyang@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Jinjia Guo<\/strong><\/span>
\nPh.D. Student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. M.S. from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Research: Robotics, embodied AI, and dexterous manipulation.
\nEmail: jinjiaguo@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Master’s Students<\/h2>\n
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\"Photo<\/p>\n

Lesmar Murray<\/strong><\/span>
\nMaster\u2019s Student (CCE).
\nResearch: Trust dynamics in human\u2013robot collaboration.
\nEmail: lesmarmurray@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Photo<\/p>\n

Vandit Shah<\/strong><\/span>
\nMaster\u2019s Student (CISE).
\nResearch: Deep learning, CV, and RL.
\nEmail: shahvandit@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Undergraduate Students<\/h2>\n
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\"Photo <\/a><\/p>\n

Noah Wilson<\/strong><\/span>
\nUndergraduate (MAE).
\nResearch: Dexterous hands.
\nEmail: noah.wilson@ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"Join <\/a><\/p>\n

Contact Us if you are interested in joining ICIC Lab<\/span> <\/strong>
\nas a undergraduate researcher.<\/span>
\nResearch: TBD.<\/span>
\nSend an Email to: eric.du@essie.ufl.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Alumni of ICIC Lab<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Jiahao<\/a><\/p>\n

Jiahao Wu, PhD (2026)<\/strong><\/span>
\nBosch CHINA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Hengxu<\/a><\/p>\n

Hengxu You, PhD (2025)<\/strong><\/span>
\nEmbodied AI, Huawei<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Yang<\/a><\/p>\n

Yang “Gilbert” Ye<\/a>, PhD (2024)<\/strong><\/span>
\nAsst. Professor, Northeastern, MA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Pengxiang<\/a><\/p>\n

Pengxiang Xia PhD (2024)<\/strong><\/span>
\nEmbodied AI, Huawei<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Tianyu<\/a><\/p>\n

Tianyu Zhou, PhD (2023)<\/strong><\/span>
\nProf, Tianjin University, China<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"William<\/a><\/p>\n

William “Billy” Vann, PhD (2023)<\/strong><\/span>
\nFaculty, College of Central Florida<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Qi<\/a><\/p>\n

Qi “Judy” Zhu<\/a>, PhD (2022)<\/strong><\/span>
\nScientist, NIST, Boulder CO<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Jerry<\/a><\/p>\n

Jerry Yiu PhD@TAMU (2020)<\/strong><\/span>
\nIntel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Jingjie<\/a><\/p>\n

Jingjie Zhang, PhD@TAMU (2020)<\/strong><\/span>
\neBay<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Yangming<\/a><\/p>\n

Yangming Shi<\/a>, PhD (2020)<\/strong><\/span>
\nAsst. Prof, Colorado School of Mines<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Tri<\/a><\/p>\n

Tri Nguyen, BS (2024) REU student<\/strong><\/span>
\nUniversity of Florida<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Haohui<\/a><\/p>\n

Haohui Bao, BS (2024) REU student<\/strong><\/span>
\nOracle<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Paul<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul Wei, BS (2022) REU student<\/strong><\/span>
\nAmazon<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Ying<\/a><\/p>\n

Ying Xu, BS (2022) REU student<\/strong><\/span>
\nPlanet Earth<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Yuezhu<\/a><\/p>\n

Yuezhu Lin, BS (2022) <\/strong><\/span>
\nDanta Technologies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Yubo<\/a><\/p>\n

Yubo Wang, MS (2021)<\/strong><\/span>
\nPhD student, HKUST<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Nhi<\/a><\/p>\n

Nhi Dinh, MS (2021) REU student<\/strong><\/span>
\nMicrosoft<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Zishuo<\/a><\/p>\n

Zishuo Li, MS@TAMU (2019)<\/strong><\/span>
\nMeta<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Yaohua<\/a><\/p>\n

Yaohua Ma, MS@TAMU (2018)<\/strong><\/span>
\nBlizzard Entertainment<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Kun<\/a><\/p>\n

Kun Tan, MS@TAMU (2018)<\/strong><\/span>
\nChina Overseas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Nishith<\/a><\/p>\n

Nishith Singh MS@TAMU (2017)<\/strong><\/span>
\nSanveo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Sachin<\/a><\/p>\n

Sachin Singh MS@TAMU (2017)<\/strong><\/span>
\nSanveo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lab Photos<\/h2>\n
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Unix time (UTC): 1712864220<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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2025:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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2024:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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2023:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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2022:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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2021:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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2020:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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2019:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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2018:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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2017:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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2016:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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2015:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faculty Dr. Eric Jing Du Steve and Wendy Blum Professor UF Research Foundation Professor University of Florida | 460F Weil Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611 Email: eric.du@essie.ufl.edu | Curriculum Vitae Dr. Eric Jing Du is a Professor with Steve and Wendy Blum Endowed Professorship and UF Research Foundation Endowed Professorship in the Department of Civil and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":284,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/page-sidebar-none.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"featured_post":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-23","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/ericdu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/ericdu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/ericdu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/ericdu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/ericdu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/ericdu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2791,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/ericdu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions\/2791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/ericdu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}