Invited Speaker 2026
Invited Speaker Ⅰ
Prof. Huosheng Hu FIET
University of Essex, UK
Biography: Huosheng Hu received his MSc degree in Industrial Automation from Central South University, China, and his PhD degree in Robotics from the University of Oxford, U.K. After conducting robotics research at Oxford for nine years, he joined the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering at the University of Essex, United Kingdom, in 1998, was promoted to Professor in October 2002, and became Emeritus Professor in May 2025. His research interests include artificial intelligence, autonomous robotics, human–robot interaction, embedded systems, mechatronics, learning algorithms, and industrial automation.
Prof. Hu has published more than 600 papers in journals, books, and international conferences, earning several Best Paper Awards. His publications have been cited over 22,251 times, with an H-index of 71 (Google Scholar), and he has been recognized among the world's top 2% most cited scholars (2020–2025). He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering & Technology, a Fellow of the Institute of Measurement & Control, a Life Senior Member of IEEE, and a founding member of the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Technical Committee on Networked Robots. Prof. Hu has served as Program Chair and as a member of Advisory and Organizing Committees for numerous international conferences, including IEEE IROS, ICRA, ICMA, and ROBIO. He is currently Executive Editor of the International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation and has previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Automation and Computing and the MDPI Robotics Journal.
Speech Title: From Cybernetics to Cognition-The Path to Embodied AI Robots
Invited Speaker Ⅱ
Prof. Wen-Hua CHEN FIEEE
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
Biography: Dr Wen-Hua Chen recently joined the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as Chair Professor of Robotics and Autonomous Systems. He also serves as the Director of Research Centre for Low Altitude Economy (RCLAE), and the Director of University of Macau-the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Joint Research Centre of Robotics and Embodied Intelligence (CREI). Before that, he was Professor in Autonomous Vehicles in the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering at Loughborough University, UK, that he currently also holds as an adjunct appointment. Prof. Chen has considerable experience in control, signal processing and artificial intelligence and their applications in aerospace, automotive and agriculture systems. In the last 20 years, he has been working on the development and application of unmanned aircraft and intelligent vehicle technologies, spanning autopilots, situational awareness, decision making, verification, remote sensing for precision agriculture and environment monitoring. He is a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of IEEE, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Engineering and Technology, UK. Prof Chen was awarded 5-years UK EPSRC (the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Established Career Fellowship in developing new control theory for robotics and autonomous systems. His recent research interests are the development of goal oriented control systems, active learning through dual control for exploitation and exploration, control system analysis and design with AI-in-the loop, and their applications in unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous driving and smart robots.
Speech Title: Active Learning and Embodied Intelligence