Renee Zhao

Renee Zhao, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering; Director, Soft Intelligent Materials (SIM) Laboratory, Stanford University

 Research Description:  Dr. Renee Zhao’s research concerns the development of stimuli-responsive soft composites, especially magnetically responsive and thermal responsive soft composites for soft robotic systems with integrated shape-changing, sensing, and navigation. By combining advanced materials and advanced manufacturing technologies, the functional soft robotic systems enable applications in miniaturized biomedical devices. Dr. Zhao's recent research on magnetically actuated insulin pumps aims to provide a novel pumping mechanism for significantly reduced pump size and insulin delivery accuracy.

Selected relevant publications: (Stanford DRC Members in BOLD):

  1. Ze, Q., Kuang, X., Wu, S., Wong, J., Montgomery, S.M., Zhang, R., Kovitz, J.M., Yang, F., Qi, H.J., Zhao, R., Magnetic Shape Memory Polymers with Integrated Multifunctional Shape Manipulations, Advanced Materials, 32 (4), 1906657 (2020). 

  2. Wu, S., Ze, Q., Dai, J., Udipi, N., Paulino, G.H., Zhao, R., Stretchable origami robotic arm with omnidirectional bending and twisting, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (36), e2110023118 (2021). 

  3. Ze, Q, Wu, S., Dai, J., Leanza, S., Ikeda, G., Yang, P., Iaccarino, G., Zhao, R., Spinning-enabled Wireless Amphibious Origami Millirobot, Nature Communications, 13, 3118 (2022). 

  4. Ze, Q, Wu, S., Nishikawa, J., Dai, J., Sun, Y., Leanza, S., Zemelka, C., Novelino, L., Paulino, G.H., Zhao, R., Soft Robotic Origami Crawler, Science Advances, 8(13), eabm7834. (2022).