Liyu Wang

Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Risk Mitigation — Proactive

• Electric utility overhead transmission line wildfire risk assessment with development, testing, and documentation of data analytics software in Python hosted in AWS and Palantir Foundry. Data analytics uses a combination of first-principle, statistical, and machine learning based models.
• Natural gas pipeline leak versus rupture failure mode prediction with development of a classification algorithm using machine learning models in Python.
• Natural gas pipeline asset integrity management, failure pressure and fatigue life estimation with development, testing, and documentation of a fracture mechanics software in R based on industry standards including API 579 / ASME FFS-1.

Product Safety — Proactive and Reactive

• Level 4 autonomous driving system (ADS) post-collision forensic analysis of subsystems including perception, localization and mapping, motion planning, and control, in response to requests from a US federal regulator (NHSTA) and a state regulator (CPUC).
• Consumer recreational product mechanical design evaluation with tolerance stack-up analysis according to the ASME Y14.5 GD&T standard.
• Review of American, Canadian, European Union (EU), Chinese, and South Korean safety standards (e.g. UL 3100, IEC 62368-1, ISO 13482) on information service robots or humanoid robots. 

Regulatory and Compliance - Proactive

• Diesel engine products Auxiliary Emissions Control Device (AECD) and Auxiliary Emission Strategy (AES) disclosure regulatory compliance support with draft disclosure document review and revision, engine aftertreatment system control source code review in Matlab Simulink in compliance with U.S. 40 CFR Part 86, Subpart A and EU regulations EU 2017/1151, EU 2018/858, and EU 2023/443.
• Technical support for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of an in-vivo medical device, by providing test fixture design and fabrication, test setup and control (PLC controller), and fatigue testing with data acquisition systems (DAQ).
• 3D model generation using Conditional Variational Auto-Encoder (VAE) neural network development and evaluation.

Predictive Analytics - Proactive

• Electric utility undergrounding distribution line construction cost forecast ML model development and deployment in Palantir Foundry, explanation and interpretation, continuous evaluation and monitoring, reaching AACE Class 2 Expected Accuracy Range for early stage projects.
• Soil moisture 1-3 days prediction long-short-term-memory (LSTM) neural network development and evaluation in Palantir Foundry.
• Gas turbine engine maintenance event prediction LSTM neural network development and evaluation.
• Physical impact prediction for passenger car advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) automatic emergency braking (AEB) feature high-speed testing termination with ML model development in Python, explanation and interpretation.

New Product Introduction - Proactive

• Mechanical design consulting for a semiconductor manufacturing equipment component using customized thermal testing setup, including test fixture mechanical design (Solidworks) and test setup control (PID control based on temperature sensors and PLC controllers).
• Simulated space launch acceleration testing for a consumer electronics product using customized setup, including test fixture mechanical design (Solidworks), 3D printing, and test setup control (Arduino microcontroller in C++).
• Quantitative user experience UX research and collection of high-fidelity human biometric, human behavior and environment data in the US and in Europe for a virtual reality (VR) / augmented reality (AR) consumer electronics product.

Failure Analysis - Proactive and Reactive

• Aircraft engine failure analysis with dimensional analysis according to the ASME Y14.5 GD&T standard using PolyWorks.
• Robot vacuum cleaner debris ingress failure analysis with kinematics and dimensional analysis using Solidworks.
• Offshore oil pipeline leak incident root cause analysis with sensor time series analytics and visualization in Python.
• Fault tree analysis for failures from bearings to autoparking systems.

Claim Disputes - Reactive

• Review of software architecture documentations and source code files for an automative engine control unit (ECU) defeat device dispute case.
• Review of patents related to automatic control systems for an intellectual property dispute case.
• Automotive insurance claim dispute support with image meta data analysis in Python.

Books and Book Chapters

M. L. Kuykendal, M. L. Mendias, S. Scally, and L. Wang, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Sensor Technology, in Computer Engineering Applications in Electronic, Biomedical, and Automotive Systems (B. D'Andrade Ed.), Nova Science Publishers, 2024. ISBN: 979-8-89-113488-1.

L. Wang, S. G. Nurzaman, and F. Iida, Soft-Material Robotics, Boston, MA, USA: Now Publishers, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-68083-264-8.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Papers

L. Wang, J. Hodges, D. Yu, and R. S. Fearing, "Automatic modeling and fault diagnosis of car production lines based on first-principle qualitative mechanics and semantic web technology," Advanced Engineering Informatics vol. 49, 2021, Art no. 101248.

L. Wang, Y. Yang, Y. Chen, C. Majidi, F. Iida, E. Askounis, and Q. Pei, "Controllable and reversible tuning of material rigidity for robot applications," Materials Today, vol. 21, pp. 563 — 576, 2018.

L. Wang and F. Iida, "Deformation in soft-matter robotics: A categorization and quantitative characterization," IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 125-139, 2015.

L. Wang, L. Brodbeck, and F. Iida, "Mechanics and energetics in tool manufacture and use: a synthetic approach," Journal of the Royal Society Interface vol. 11, 2014, Art no. 20140827.

L. Wang, U. Culha, and F. Iida, "A dragline-forming mobile robot inspired by spiders," Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, vol. 9, no. 1, 2014, Art no. 016006.

D. Leach, L. Wang, D. Reusser, and F. Iida, "Automatic building of a web-like structure based on thermoplastic adhesive," Bioinspiration & Biomimetics vol. 9, no. 3, 2014, Art no. 036014.

S. G. Nurzaman, U. Culha, L. Brodbeck, L. Wang, and F. Iida, "Active sensing system with in situ adjustable sensor morphology," PLoS One, vol. 8, no. 12, 2013, Art no. e84090.

L. Wang, L. Graber, and F. Iida, "Large-payload climbing in complex vertical environments using thermoplastic adhesive bonds," IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 864-874, 2013

L. Wang and F. Iida, "Physical connection and disconnection control based on hot melt adhesives," IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 1397-1409, 2012.

Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings Papers (Selected)

S. Selamet, S. Chau, S. C. Ramirez, L. Wang, "Predicting structural fire response by AI", 2025 Engineering Mechanics Institute 2025 Conference, accepted.

B. Davis, B. Patrick, L. Wang, H. Watson, T. Zirkle, A. Hudgins, and Y. Bhargava, "Identification of factors to determine statistically appropriate and conservative CVN toughness values for transmission pipelines", in Proc. the 37th International Pipeline Pigging & Integrity Management Conference (PPIM), 2025, paper ID 261.

L. Wang, Y. Yang, G. Correa, K. Karydis, and R. S. Fearing, "OpenRoACH: a durable open-source hexapedal platform with onboard robot operating system (ROS)," in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2019, pp. 9466-9472.

L. Wang, M. M. Plecnik, and R. S. Fearing, "Robotic folding of 2D and 3D structures from a ribbon," in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2016, pp. 3655-3660.

A. Nagabandi, L. Wang, and R. S. Fearing, "A path planning algorithm for single-ended continuous planar robotic ribbon folding," in Proc. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2016, pp. 3239-3246.

L. Wang, C. Peruzzi, U. Culha, M. Jovic, and F. Iida, "Modelling of continuous dragline formation in a mobile robot," in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2014, pp. 4229-4234.

L. Wang, F. Neuschaefer, R. Bernet, and F. Iida, "Design considerations for attachment and detachment in robot climbing with hot melt adhesives," in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2012, pp. 1181-1186.

L. Wang, L. Graber, and F. Iida, "Climbing vertical terrains with a self-contained robot," in Proc. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2012, pp. 305-310.

X. Yang, J. Fu, Z. Lou, L. Wang, G. Li, and W. J. Freeman, "Tea classification based on artificial olfaction using bionic olfactory neural network," in Proc. International Symposium on Neural Networks, 2006, 343-348.

IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics

IEEE Transactions on Robotics

IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters

Bioinspiration & Biomimetics

Advanced Robotics

Applied Bionics and Biomechanics

Artificial Life

Computer

Extreme Mechanics Letters

Robotics & Autonomous Systems

Soft Robotics

IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation

Guest Editor, Special Issue on Design Optimization of Soft Robots, IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine

Guest Editor, Special issue on Morphological Computation in Soft Robotics, Journal of Advanced Robotics

Investment Data Analyst and Innovation Consultant, Runway Innovation, 2020-2021

Data Science Researcher, Siemens, 2017-2018

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California Berkeley, 2015-2019