Principal Investigator
The most important skill for a researcher is not technical ability. It’s taste. The ability to identify interesting and tractable problems, and recognize important ideas when they show up.
This can’t be taught directly. It’s cultivated through curiosity and broad reading.
—— François Chollet
| Shiming Zhang B.Sc., M.Sc. (Jilin); Ph.D. (Montreal); Postdoc (UCLA) |
| Dr. Shiming Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Bioelectronics at HKU Electrical and Electronic Engineering and an affiliated faculty member at HKU SBME, where he leads the Wearable, Intelligent, and Soft Electronics (WISE) research group. He earned his PhD with the highest honor in Canada as a Vanier Canada Scholar from Ecole Polytechnique, Universite de Montreal. He spent three years at UCLA as a postdoctoral scholar and group leader in the Center for Minimally Invasive Therapeutics in bioelectronics and was promoted to an affiliated faculty member at the Terasaki Institute at UCLA before moving to Hong Kong. His research focuses on the scientific understanding of charge transport in emerging mixed ion-electron conducting materials and on designing new mixed-conducting devices for bioelectronics, including soft electronics, biosensors, and biocomputing. His interdisciplinary work spans new material design and discovery, device fabrication and development, advanced characterization methodologies, and theoretical modeling. His research team discovered macroscopic semiconducting behavior in bulky hydrogels, leading to a technological leap from two-dimensional thin film electronics to three-dimensional bulky gel electronics, laying the material foundation for next-generation soft electronics, wearable health and implantable medicine. |
Postdoc Research Fellow
Dr Ka Hing Chu (Albert) studied Materials Science & Engineering and graduated with an MEng at Imperial College London. He subsequently joined the Brain Physics Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, where he received his PhD in Clinical Neurosciences. His research focuses on developing computational models of fluid flow inside the skull, and its mechanical effects on the brain and cerebral implants.
Lab task: Lab coordinator
Heng Zhang received his B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Automation from Taiyuan University of Technology, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Hong Kong. During his Ph.D. studies, he worked as a Visiting Ph.D. student at Imperial College London for six months. His research interests include biomedical sensing technologies, magnetically actuated capsule robotics, wireless power transfer, and bio-integrated electronic devices. He will be working on wireless implantable bioelectronics for healthcare.
PhD Students
Yilin Yang received her B.Eng. and M.Eng, both in Biomedical Engineering from Sun Yat-sen University. She is currently a Ph.D. student at WISE Research Group working on brain-machine interfacing with soft and implantable bioelectronic systems.
Lab task: Innowing representative
Yan Wang received her B.Sc. at Nankai University in Chemistry. She was a research assistant at WISE between Sept 2021 and April 2022. She is currently a Ph.D. student at WISE working on the processing of soft conducting polymers for high-performance soft OECTs.
Lab task: Finance and orders
Xinran Zhang received her B.Eng. and M.Eng, both in Biomedical Engineering from Jilin University. She is currently a Ph.D. student at WISE Research Group working on the synthesis and fabrication of biosensing electrodes for wearable molecular detection.
Lab task: Quartzy record and consumables
Hao Huang received his B.Eng. and M.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from Tianjin University. He is currently a Ph.D. student at the WISE Research Group working on HK WISE-Scope for wearable brain-machine interfacing.
Lab task: Lab manager, general
Wei Huang received his B.Sc. in Computer Science from Beihang University. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the WISE Group, working on data processing and control of wearable systems.
Task: Software and AI platforms
Ivo Pang received B.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Hong Kong. He is currently a Ph.D. student at WISE group working on stretchable wearable devices.
Lab task: Printers and Lasers
Meiru An received her B.Sc. in Chemistry and M.Sc. in Advanced Material Science from University College London. She will join WISE as a Ph.D. student in Sept. 2024 to work on biophysical wearable devices.
Lab task: Assist Ivo Pang
Xiaonan Chen received his M.Eng. in Materials and Chemical Engineering from Sichuan University. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at WISE Research Group working on soft OECTs for wearable bioelectronic applications.
Lab task: Lab manager, chemicals and materials
Xiaolong Li received his B.Eng in Electrical Engineering from Zhejiang University and M.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Hong Kong. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the WISE Research Group, working on brain-computer interfaces and neural modulation for next-generation bioelectronics applications.
Lab task: Hardware and circuits
Yixuan Wang received her B.S. in Statistics and Data Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and M.A. in Statistics from Columbia University. She is currently a Ph.D. student at WISE Research Group working on artificial intelligence and advanced computational methods for soft and implantable bioelectronic systems.
Lab task: Assist Wei Huang
Rui Li received his B.Eng. in Electronic Science and Technology from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He is currently a Ph.D. student at WISE Research Group, working on advancing wearable healthcare through integrated edge computing systems with in-sensor and near-sensor computing.
Lab task: Assist Hao Huang
Haowei Ruan received his M.Eng. in Mechanics from Southern University of Science and Technology. He will join WISE Research Group as a Ph.D. student in Sept. 2026, with a focus on the development of soft OECTs for advanced flexible electronics and wearable bioelectronic applications.
Wei Ren received his B.Eng. in Textile Engineering from Taiyuan University of Technology and his M.Eng. in Materials Processing Engineering from Sichuan University. He will join the WISE Research Group in summer 2026 as a Ph.D. student, focusing on hydrogel semiconductors for wearable bioelectronic applications.
Teaching Assistant
Wensheng Lin received his B.Eng. in Nuclear Engineering and Technology from the University of South China and his M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Guangzhou Medical University. He is currently a teaching assistant in the group, responsible for cell and biological experiments. Wensheng is dedicated to the research and development of Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) systems, focusing on sensors, enzyme immobilization, and hydrogel materials for enhanced biocompatibility and long-term stability.