Engineering

Education:

  • PhD in Control Engineering, Staffordshire University, UK, 2006 - 2010
  • MSc in Control Systems, University of Sheffield, UK, 2004 - 2005
  • BEng in Automation, Hunan University, China, 1999 - 2003

 

Employment History:

  • Personal Chair in Dynamics and Control, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK, 2024 - now
  • Honorary Lecturer, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, UK, 2018 - now
  • Associate Professor in Dynamics and Control, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK, 2022 - 2024
  • Senior Lecturer in Engineering, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK, 2019 - 2022
  • Lecturer in Engineering, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK, 2016 - 2019
  • Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK, 2013 - 2016
  • Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK, 2010 - 2013

 

Awards & Achievements:

  • Stanford & Elsevier's Global Top 2% Scientists list since 2019
  • Ali H. Hayfeh Prize, Int. Nonlinear Dynamics Conference 2021
  • 1st place, poster competition at the 4th Annual IEEE UK and Ireland RAS Chapter Conf.
  • Lab Science Bursary Award, British Society of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting 2019
  • IMechE Group Project Award
  • Young Delegates Award, the 14th IFToMM World Congress
  • Best Student Paper Award, the 15th Int. Conf. Automation & Computing

 

Media Coverage:

 

Live Projects:

  • EXONS: Exploring and exploiting nonlinearity in small-scale robots, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (101204440), PI, €276,188, Secondment supervisor: Prof. Matthieu Fruchard (University of Orléans), 08/2025-07/2027
  • Monitoring physiological signals via an ingestible pill sensor for early detection and diagnosis of mental disorders, EPSRC IAA, PI, £58,712, 05/2025-04/2026
  • Development of a smart minimally invasive tool for early diagnosis of bowel cancer, EPSRC DTP (2918445), PI, £90,000, 09/2024-03/2028
  • Development of the initial prototype of a pill sensor to detect colonic polyps and early bowel cancer, MRC (MR/Y503411/1), PI, £247,147, 02/2024-10/2025

 

Finished Projects:

  • WORMS: When micro-robots encounter metastatic cancer in the adjacent capillaries, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (EP/Y016017/1), PI, €236,748, Secondment supervisor: Prof. Antoine Ferreira (INSA Centre Val de Loire), 10/2023-09/2025
  • AGENT: Targeting high efficient energy harvesting via controlling multistability, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (EP/Y016130/1), PI, €236,748, Secondment supervisor: Prof. Przemyslaw Perlikowski (Lodz University of Technology), 10/2023-09/2025
  • On the piecewise-smooth dynamics of robot-cancer interaction at microscale, EPSRC Mathematical Sciences DTP (2581433), PI, £88,503, 10/2021-09/2025
  • Preclinical assessment of a vibrational device for early bowel cancer diagnosis, MRC IAA, PI, £44,857, 07/2023-09/2024
  • On the dynamics of two contacting bodies under frictional sliding, Royal Society, PI, £11,685, 03/2021-09/2024 (ranked in Top 7th of 56 funded projects, see News)
  • Late proof-of-concept demonstration of a clinician-controlled capsule device for lower gastrointestinal endoscopy, EPSRC IAA, PI, £53,180, 11/2023-03/2024
  • OMEGA: On the modelling of micro-robots in the gut: a non-smooth dynamics approach, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship (101018793), PI, €212,933, Secondment supervisor: Prof. Bradley J. Nelson (ETH Zurich), 10/2021-09/2023 (marked 97 out of 100, ranked in Top 2.95% in Engineering Panel, and about 1,630 funded projects out of 11,300 applications)
  • When a micro-robot encounters a bowel lesion, EPSRC New Horizons (EP/V047868/1), PI, £202,450, 05/2021-06/2023 (about 100 funded projects out of over 1,200 applications, see EPSRC News)
  • Developing AI enabled low-cost microcontrollers, EPSRC SMM CDT, PI, £80,000, 11/2019-10/2023
  • Development of a mathematical tool for piecewise-smooth delay differential equations: a micro-robot’s perspective, EPSRC (EP/W52265X/1), PI, £TBC, 10/2021-02/2022
  • EPSRC Capital award for core equipment (EP/T023635/1), Co-I, £269,363, 11/2019-07/2021
  • Controlling multistability in vibro-impact systems: theory and experiment, EPSRC (EP/P023983/1), PI, £101,147, 10/2017-06/2019
  • Utilising the vibro-impact self-propulsion technique for gastrointestinal endoscopy, EPSRC (EP/R043698/1), PI, £31,674, 08/2018-02/2019
  • Control of multistable dynamical systems with applications in oil and gas industry, the Carnegie PhD scholarship, PI, £54,159, 10/2015-03/2019
  • Mathematical modelling and optimisation of a downhole anti stick-slip tool for reduction of torsional vibrations, ETP PhD Studentship collaborated with Tomax Ltd., Co-PI, £82,423, 10/2014-03/2018
  • Agri-Tech in China: Newton Network+, Pathfinder Awards (PF002), PI, £4,914, 07/2017
  • Design, modelling and implementation of a capsule system for pipeline pigging inspection, IMechE Group Project Award, £2,500, 10/2015-03/2016 (News 1, News 2)
  • Development of an experimental test rig for a vibro-impact capsule system, the Carnegie Trust Small Research Grant (No 31841), PI, £2,140, 08/2014-07/2015

 

Team Members:
Postdoctoral Research Fellows/Associates:

  • Mr Andrew Bickerdike, Postdoctoral research fellow, since September 2021
  • Dr Haihong Li, Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellow, since August 2025

 

PhD Students (Primary Supervisor):

  • Mr Joel Way, Development of a smart minimally invasive tool for early diagnosis of bowel cancer, since Sep 2024
  • Mr Jichao Ran, since Sep 2024
  • Mr Xizheng Fang, since Sep 2023
  • Mr Siyuan Wang, since Sep 2023
  • Mr Andrew Bickerdike, On the piecewise-smooth dynamics of robot-cancer interaction at microscale, since Sep 2021
  • Mr Zepeng Wang, Design of a proof-of-concept vibro-impact capsule system for medical diagnosis and therapy, since Nov 2020

 

Consultant Clinicians:

  • Dr Shyam Prasad, Lead Clinician for Gastroenterology at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
  • Prof. Anastasios Koulaouzidis, Clinical Professor, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
  • Mr James Clark, Consultant Upper GI Surgeon, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

 

Laboratory:

  • Prof. Liu's lab facilities can be found here, and his lab's Youtube channel can be viewed from here.

 

Visiting Scholars:

  • Positions are open.

 

PhD Graduates:

  • Dr Zhi Zhang, Postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London, Thesis title: Control of coexisting attractors in nonsmooth dynamical systems, August 2021
  • Dr Kenneth Omokhagbo Afebu, MRC knowledge exchange fellow at the University of Exeter, Thesis title: Intelligent models for optimisation of the vibro-impact drilling system, August 2021
  • Dr Jiajia Zhang, Electrical engineer, Hunter Stoves (UK), Thesis title: Prototype design and testing of a self-propelled vibro-impact capsule system for lower gastrointestinal endoscopies, May 2023
  • Dr Jiyuan Tian, German Cancer Research Center (Germany), Thesis title: Biomechanics of a vibro-impact capsule robot self-propelling in the lower gastrointestinal tract, October 2023
  • Dr Ahmed Al Shekaili, Thesis title: Numerical and experimental investigation of drill-string dynamics for oil and gas drilling, November 2024
  • Dr Bo Tian, Brunel University, Thesis title: Dynamic stiffness identification via vibro-impact oscillators for bowel cancer detection and staging, July 2025

 

Former Postdocs:

  • Prof. Bingyong Guo, Professor at Northwestern Polytechnical University (China)
  • Dr Zhi Zhang, Postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London
  • Dr Shan Yin, Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellow, since October 2021
  • Dr Yahui Sun, Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellow, since October 2023
  • Dr Gengxiang Wang, Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellow, since October 2023

 

Former Visiting Scholars:

  • Mr Wei Lin (CSC Visiting Scholar), School of Mechatronic Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
  • Dr Xiaojun Dai (CSC Visiting Scholar), School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
  • Dr Kuilin Huang, School of Mechatronic Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
  • Dr Shiwei Niu, School of Mechatronic Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
  • Mr Yiwei Han (CSC Visiting Scholar), School of Mechatronic Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
  • Prof. Yundong Li (CSC Visiting Scholar), School of Mathematics and Statistics, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, China
  • Dr Feng Zhou (CSC Visiting Scholar), School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
  • Miss Shuning Deng (CSC Visiting PhD Student), State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, China
  • Mr Haohao Bi (CSC Visiting PhD Student), Department of Applied Mathematics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, China
  • Mr Zhao Tan (CSC Visiting PhD Student), State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, China

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