Dr. Debao Zhou joined the faculty of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) in January 2009. Prior to this, he was a McKnight professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMD. From January 2005 to January 2008, he was with Georgia Tech Research Institute at Georgia Institute of Technology as a Postdoctoral fellow. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Production Engineering in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2004.  He also earned his Master of Engineering degree and Bachelor of Engineering degree in Tsinghua University, P. R. China both in Mechanical Engineering. His research interests include robotics, bio-system modeling, system dynamics and control. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED). He is the Co-chair of the Manufacturing and Automation committee of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.