Research Day 2026 Lab Tours & Demos

Learning & Interactive Robotics Lab

Link Lab Faculty Member: Yen-Ling Kuo
Rice Hall 232
Link Lab Students: Xuhui Kang, Yan Zhuang, Pei-Chi Chen, Yufeng Gao
Professor Yen-Ling Kuo’s lab focuses on building intelligent robotic/embodied systems that can interact and assist humans in the physical world (no matter in the homes or on the roads) effectively, safely, and adaptively. They explore the intersection of AI/machine learning, robotics, and cognitive science to build robots that learn and interact with humans. In the lab tour, we will demonstrate these ideas in our robotic manipulation system, low-cost tactile-force-controlled gripper, and language-controlled autonomous driving. Student Research Demonstrators: Xuhui Kang, Yan Zhuang, Pei-Chi Chen, Yufeng Gao

Autonomous Mobile Robots Lab

Link Lab Faculty Member: Nicola Bezzo
Rice Hall 028
Link Lab Students: Lainey Gordon, Patrick Sherman, Jonathan Reasoner, Woosung Kim, Billy Smith

Tour of Dr. Nicola Bezzo's state of the art robotics lab, comprising of over 100+ operational robots of varying kinds. The tour will include 3 demos: 1) a cooperative mission between a ground vehicle and aerial drone. 2) an intuitive drone teleoperation demonstration. 3) the Boston dynamics SPOT robot.

Collaborative Robotics Lab

Link Lab Faculty Member: Tariq Iqbal
Rice Hall 024
Link Lab Students: Sujan Sarker, Shaid Hasan, Xinyu Chen, Young Suh Hong
Professor Tariq Iqbal's Collaborative Robotics Lab is interested in building robotic systems capable of working alongside people in complex human environments, such as factories, hospitals, and classrooms. For a robot to successfully work in these settings, it must have the capabilities to perceive and predict the intentions of people around it and use that knowledge to determine when, where, and how to act. We develop artificial intelligence, computer vision, and machine learning approaches to tackle these complex problems.

ORCL VR/AR Lab

Link Lab Faculty Members: Arsalan Heydarian
Link Lab Students: Arman Hosseini, Zeyang Zheng
Thornton Hall D107

Professor T. Donna Chen and Professor Arsalan Heydarian's lab is a state-of-the-art virtual and augmented reality research lab that explores how people perceive, interact with, and respond to immersive digital environments. ORCL combines advanced computing systems, wireless VR headsets, haptic feedback technologies, physiological sensing devices, and interactive simulation platforms. During the tour, visitors will experience demos exploring a digital twin of downtown Charlottesville while navigating as either a cyclist, or pedestrian, providing a firsthand look at how researchers use immersive technologies to better understand human movement, perception, and interaction within complex environments.

Chandra Robot Autonomy Lab (CRΔL)

Link Lab Faculty Member: Rohan Chandra
Link Lab Students: Aneesh Chavan, Jeffrey Chen, Vignesh Rajagopal
Rice Hall 226

Professor Rohan Chandra’s lab advances research at the intersection of robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-centered autonomy. The lab focuses on mobility and autonomy challenges in multi-robot and human-robot systems, developing human-like autonomy (HLA) that enables robots to operate effectively in complex, open-world environments. This work includes enabling robots to generalize beyond predefined scenarios, understand and reason about human intent, and perform agile, adaptive control in dynamic and underactuated settings. As part of the lab tour, attendees will have the opportunity to experience a live demonstration of a humanoid robot and learn how cutting-edge advances in robotics are shaping the future of human-robot collaboration.

AI for Medical Electronics (AIME)

Link Lab Faculty Member: Xun Zhao
Link Lab Students: Tianyi Wang, Minghao Liu, Xueyi Zhang, Liana Jimenez
Mechanical Engineering Hall 105

Professor Xun Zhao's laboratory integrates mechanical engineering, intelligent sensing, and medical diagnostics to develop smart devices for early disease screening. Using an in-vitro cardiovascular phantom built on a bench-top mock circulatory loop, we reproduce the early signatures of conditions such as hemorrhagic shock and design intelligent implantable sensors to model and detect disease at its onset. We are also developing a robotic-arm system that combines ultrasound imaging with smart sensing patches to automatically locate patients and perform automated ultrasound and skin cancer screening with clinically valid results.

Accelerated Materials Discovery Lab

Link Lab Faculty Member: W. Streit Cunningham
Link Lab Students: Jack Hallett, Nico Fonseca Alva
Wilsdorf Hall A013
Professor W. Streit Cunningham’s lab is focused on applying automated and high-throughput methodologies to discover and develop novel materials for extreme environments (high mechanical stresses, temperatures, and radiation fluxes). They utilize procedures derived from ‘self-driving labs’ to guide a microstructural optimization loop through combinatorial synthesis approaches (typically thin film sputtering), microstructural modification by ion irradiation or annealing, and high-throughput characterization, which includes a number of techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron microscopy, small-scale mechanical testing, and thermal analysis (ultrafast nanocalorimetry). Student Research Demonstrators: Jack Hallett and Nico Fonseca Alv