Founding Director

Junmin Wang, Ph.D.
SAE Fellow – ASME Fellow – IEEE Fellow
Lee Norris & Linda Steen Norris Endowed Professor

Junmin Wang is the Lee Norris & Linda Steen Norris Endowed Professor in Mechanical Engineering at University of Texas at Austin.  In 2008, he started his academic career at Ohio State University, where he founded the Vehicle Systems and Control Laboratory, was early promoted to Associate Professor in September 2013 and then very early promoted to Full Professor in June 2016.  In 2018, he left Ohio State University and joined University of Texas at Austin as the Accenture Endowed Professor in Mechanical Engineering.  Prof. Wang has a wide range of research interests covering control, modeling, estimation, optimization, and diagnosis of dynamical systems, especially for automotive, vehicle, transportation, sustainable mobility, robotic, energy storage, and manufacturing applications.  Prof. Wang’s research contributions include the development of control and estimation methods that advance efficiency, driving safety, and emission performance of conventional, electrified, connected and autonomous/automated vehicles. He has five years of full-time industrial research experience (2003-2008) at Southwest Research Institute (San Antonio, Texas) where he was a Senior Research Engineer and led research projects sponsored by more than 50 industrial companies and governmental agencies worldwide. Prof. Wang’s research programs at UT Austin and Ohio State University have been funded by federal agencies and industrial companies such as National Science Foundation (NSF), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Army Research Lab (ARL), Texas Department of Transportation, GM, Ford, Honda, Tenneco, Eaton, Ftech, Denso, and others.

Dr. Wang is the author or co-author of more than 400 peer-reviewed publications (7 of which received best paper awards from IEEE, ASME, and SAE) including 198 journal articles and 13 U.S. and European patents. Prof. Wang is a recipient of the 2019 IEEE Best Vehicular Electronics Paper Award, 2018 IEEE Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Award, 2017 IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems Outstanding Paper Award, 2018 Ohio State University Lumley Interdisciplinary Research Award, 2015 Ohio State University Harrison Faculty Award for Excellence in Engineering Education, 2012 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, 2012 Ohio State University Lumley Research Award, 2011 SAE International Vincent Bendix Automotive Electronics Engineering Award, and 2009 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program (ONR-YIP) Award. Prof. Wang is an IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Systems Man and Cybernetics Society Distinguished Lecturer, Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, SAE Fellow, ASME Fellow, and IEEE Fellow.

Dr. Wang serves as a Senior Editor, Editor, Technical Editor, or Associate Editor for the IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, IFAC Control Engineering Practice, IFAC Mechatronics, ASME Transactions Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, Journal of the Franklin Institute, and SAE International Journal of Engines. He has served as Chair of the ASME Automotive and Transportation Systems Technical Committee, Chair of the SAE International Control and Calibration Committee, member (Liaison for IEEE Control Systems Society) of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Steering Committee, and Vice Chair of the IFAC Technical Committee on Mechatronic Systems.

Prof. Wang has a multi-disciplinary education background in mechanical, electrical, and automotive engineering. He received the B.E. degree (with honors) in Automotive Engineering and his first M.S. degree in Power Machinery and Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing China in 1997 and 2000, respectively; his second and third M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2003, and the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Texas at Austin in 2007.

Graduate Students

Hyunho Jung
-M.S., University of Texas at Austin
-B.S., Republic of Korea Air Force Academy
Hyunjin Ahn
-B.S., University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Xingyu Zhou
-M.S., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
-B.S., Purdue University
Heran Shen
-M.S., Columbia University
-B.S., Beihang University
Dylan Stephens
-B.S., Louisiana State University
Yung-Chi Kung
-B.S., University of Texas at Austin
John Maweu
-M.S., University of Texas at Austin
Ricardo Bowers
-B.S., University of Texas at Austin
Andrew Young
-B.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sude Demir
-B.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Yu Chul Lee
-B.S., Yonsei University
Umesh Malepati
-B.S., Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Talal Al-Otaibi
-B.S., University of Texas at Austin
Zhiyun Deng
-M.S., Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Ji Hwan Park
-B.S., University of Texas at Austin

B.S. Students

-Jordan Jee
-Gloria Huan
-Ammaar Khatlani
-Hyosup Shin

Lab Alumni (44: 18 Ph.D., 18 M.S., and 6 B.S. graduates, 2 post-doc researchers)

–Ph.D. Graduates

1. Dr. Zejiang Wang, Ph.D. Spring 2022, R&D Associate Staff at Oak Ridge National Lab.
2. Dr. Siyang Song, Ph.D. Summer 2020, Principal R&D Mechanical Engineer at Halliburton Inc.
3. Dr. Yao Ma, Ph.D. Spring 2019, Senior Control System Engineer at Bose Corporation.
4. Prof. Yimin Chen, Ph.D. Spring 2019, Associate Professor at Northwestern Polytechnical University.
5. Dr. SeHwan Kim, Ph.D. Spring 2019, Technical Specialist at Magna Inc.
6. Dr. Zitian Yu, Ph.D. Summer 2018, Senior R&D Engineer at Aptiv.
7. Dr. Guoguang Zhang, Ph.D. Summer 2017, Staff Research Engineer at PlusAI, Inc.
8. Dr. Scott Schnelle, Ph.D. Autumn 2016, Safety Best Practices Specialist at Waymo.
9. Prof. Xiangrui Zeng, Ph.D. Summer 2016, Professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
10. Prof. Umar Ibrahim, Ph.D. Autumn 2015, Assistant Professor at University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar.
11. Prof. Junfeng Zhao, Ph.D. Spring 2015, Assistant Professor at Arizona State University.
12. Prof. Pingen Chen, Ph.D. Autumn 2014, Associate Professor at Tennessee Technological University.
13. Dr. Xiaoyu Huang, Ph.D. Summer 2014, Engineering Manager at PlusAI, Inc.
14. Prof. Rongrong Wang, Ph.D. Spring 2013, Associate Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
15. Prof. Yan Chen, Ph.D. Spring 2013, Assistant Professor at Arizona State University.
16. Prof. Fengjun Yan, Ph.D. Spring 2012, Associate Professor at McMaster University.
17. Prof. Kerem Bayar, (co-advisor), Ph.D. Spring 2011, Assistant Professor at Middle East Technical University.
18. Dr. Ming-Feng Hsieh, Ph.D. Summer 2010, Technical Advisor at Cummins Inc.

–M.S. Graduates

1. Ms. CeCe Kyler, M.S. Spring 2023, joined Southwest Research Institute.
2. Mr. Perry Scott, M.S. Spring 2022, joined Think Circuits LLC.
3. Mr. Saideep Vollala, M.S. Fall 2022, joined Ample Inc.
4. Mr. Yujing Zhou, M.S. Spring 2022, joined Princeton University.
5. Mr. Adrian Cosio, M.S. Spring 2021, joined Sandia National Laboratories.
6. Mr. Juan Sebastian Rincon, M.S. Summer 2020, joined Tamosi.
7. Mr. Vibhav Gaur, M.S. Spring 2020, joined MathWorks Inc.
8. Mr. Zhiyi Chen, M.S. Spring 2018, joined KLA.
9. Mr. Jiachen Liu, M.S. Spring 2016, joined Bosch.
10. Ms. Yimiao Wu, M.S. Spring 2017, joined SFTC.
11. Mr. Qi Liu, M.S. Spring 2016, joined ZF Group.
12. Mr. Zihao Zhu, M.S. Spring 2016, joined Motional.
13. Mr. Yuhao Shui, M.S. Summer 2015, joined XPENG Motors.
14. Mr. Christopher Wiet, M.S. Spring 2014, joined SpaceX.
15. Mr. Adit Joshi, M.S. Spring 2014, joined Ford Motor Company.
16. Mr. Michael Gallagher, M.S. Spring 2014, joined Seakeeper, Inc.
17. Mr. Madhu Soodhanan Govindarajan, M.S. Summer 2013, joined MathWorks, Inc.
18. Mr. Benjamin Haber, M.S. Spring 2010, joined C3.AI.

–Post-doc Researchers

1. Prof. Chuan Hu, Post-doc Researcher, 2018 – 2020, Assistant Professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks.
2. Prof. Hui Zhang, Post-doc Researcher, 2012 – 2015, Professor at Beihang University.

–B.S. Graduates

1. Mr. Brent Milligan, B.S. Spring 2020, joined U.S. Naval Reactors after graduation.
2. Mr. Daniel Estadt, B.S. Honor’s, joined General Motors as an Engineer after graduation, Spring 2016.
3. Mr. Cong Ding, B.S., joined University of California at Berkeley as a graduate student after graduation, Spring 2016.
4. Mr. Allen Sun, B.S. Spring 2013, joined Ohio State University as graduate student after graduation
5. Ms. Jillian Rushnock, B.S. Autumn 2012.
6. Mr. Zili Chen, B.S. Spring 2011, joined Stanford University as a graduate student after graduation