ZZ.

01

About

Research with mechanics at its core.

My background, research perspective, education, and professional recognition.

Research profile

I build robots that use their own mechanics to move, adapt, and compute.

I am a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at Virginia Tech in the Dynamic and Architected Robot and structurE (DARE) Lab, supervised by Dr. Suyi Li. My research focuses on soft and bio-inspired robotics, origami-inspired mechanisms, multistable structures, deployable systems, and embodied physical computing.

My work asks how geometry, instability, and smart materials can give robotic systems useful behavior before conventional control is added. I develop these ideas across electronics-free locomotion, reconfigurable space manipulators, physical reservoir computers, and entangling origami grippers - combining mechanics-based modeling, simulation, fabrication, and experiments.

Google Scholar LinkedIn Email
7 photographs
Ziyang Zhou and Virginia Tech colleagues sharing hands-on origami activities with visitors
Sharing origami engineering at a research outreach event.
Ziyang Zhou standing with members of the DARE Lab team at a conference exhibit
With DARE Lab colleagues during a research outreach event.
Ziyang Zhou standing with DARE Lab colleagues at a research conference
With DARE Lab colleagues at a research conference.
Ziyang Zhou receiving the Best Poster Award at the Virginia Robotics Symposium
Receiving the Best Poster Award at the Virginia Robotics Symposium.
Ziyang Zhou standing beside his plant-inspired growing robots research poster
Presenting plant-inspired growing-robot research.
Ziyang Zhou presenting Hyper-Yoshimura research at ICRA 2025
Presenting Hyper-Yoshimura research at ICRA 2025.
Ziyang Zhou presenting controller-free locomotion research at SPIE 2024
Presenting controller-free locomotion research at SPIE 2024.
8+Publications & proceedings
5Featured research projects
3Patents

Education

Virginia Tech

Ph.D. Candidate, Mechanical Engineering

2022 - expected 2027

Clemson University

B.S. Mechanical Engineering · Minor in Mathematical Sciences

2018 - 2022

Recognition & service

  • 2025 Best Poster Award, Virginia Robotics Symposium
  • 2025 Outstanding Reviewer, Biomimetic Intelligence and Robotics
  • Service Reviewer for four journals and four conferences
  • Member ASME · IEEE · Sigma Xi