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Electrical Engineering Seminar

What:      EE Department Seminar

Title:        Human-Robot Collaboration for Smart and Sustainable Manufacturing

Speaker: , Montclair State University

Date & Time: December 09, 2025, 2:00pm

Location:  Exhibit Room

RSVP Link:

Abstract: During the Industry 5.0 revolution, collaborative robots play a pivotal role in advancing manufacturing and remanufacturing automation and intelligence. Different from traditional industrial robots, which are fenced off from human workers on production lines, collaborative robots make a tremendous shift to coexist and collaborate with human workers in open environments for shared tasks. This makes robots capable of democratizing manufacturing industries with dynamic customer demands, high flexibility, and low cost. In human-robot collaborative manufacturing and remanufacturing, humans have unmatched problem-solving skills and develop creative and unique solutions compared to robots, which can provide physical assistance, free human partners from dangerous tasks, and lower the stress of human collaborators. In this talk, Dr. Wang will give a brief introduction to robotics and AI research and education at Montclair State University. Then he will share some of his research projects focusing on human-robot collaboration in smart manufacturing contexts, including current challenges, the needs of HRC, robot learning from human demonstrations, human factors in human-robot collaboration, and new robot system development. Experimental results and discussions in real-world human-robot collaborative contexts will be presented.

Bio: Dr. Weitian Wang (Senior Member of IEEE and ACM) is an associate professor in the School of Computing at Montclair State University and the Director of Montclair Collaborative Robotics and Smart Systems Laboratory (CRoSS Lab) and NSF MRI MCROS Site. His research focuses on collaborative robotics, artificial intelligence, smart systems, and their synergistic CRoSS-disciplinary applications in smart manufacturing and remanufacturing, healthcare, smart ecosystem, intelligent transportation, and smart agriculture. Dr. Wang is the recipient of NSFCAREER, CRII, MRI, and ERI Awards. He received the IEEE R1 Technological Innovation Award for his contributions to collaborative robotics and human-robot interaction. The results of his work have been published in numerous peer-reviewed international journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings. He received multiple IEEE/ASME Best Paper/Presentation/Mentor Awards in his research activities. He serves as an Associate Editor of IEEE TASE and THMS, Treasurer of the IEEE North Jersey Section, and Chair of the IEEE NJ SMC Chapter. Dr. Wang is the recipient of the inaugural Montclair Presidential Excellence Award and the Montclair State University Advising Excellence Faculty Advisor Award.