About Me
Hi! I’m Chen Sun, an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong, with appointments in the Department of Data and Systems Engineering (DASE). Prior to joining HKU, I worked as a postdoc researcher in Mechatronic Vehicle Systems Lab at University of Waterloo, where I work with Prof. Amir Khajepour.
My research interests include field robotics, autonomous driving (safe planning) and in general human-CPS autonomies. My research endeavors have been focused on addressing “How to improve the safety for the robotics and human-centered autonomies considering uncertainty and interactions?”. My current research highlights the following perspectives:
- Social Navigation and Proactive Human-Robot Interaction for safety-critical Embodied AI.
- Game-Theoretic Planning for Mixed-Autonomy Traffic with provable safety and performance guarantees.
- Social Contract for AI to calibrate, understand, mitigate and trust autonomous systems.
I led efforts on the WATonoBus project at MVS Lab working on software and algorithmic development of decision-making and safety monitoring modules required for Canada’s first autonomous shuttle bus approved via the ministry’s autonomous vehicle pilot. Additionally, I have expanded my research into agriculture and warehouse robotics.
Affliations
Assistant Professor, Department of Data and Systems Engineering (DASE), The University of Hong Kong.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo.
Fellow, Institute of Transport Studies, The University of Hong Kong.
Committee Member, Cooperative & Connected Vehicles, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society
副秘书长, CAA-YAC, 中国自动化学会青年工作委员会
Recent News
2026.06 We will be hosting 1st Workshop on Socially Compliant and Strategic Autonomous Driving at The IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2026, Naples, Italy!
2026.05 We have successfully host the 1st research workshop on Safety of AI-Driven Autonomous Systems (From Intelligent Connected Vehicles to the Low-Altitude Economy). Many thanks to colleagues and the Beijing-Hong Kong Universities Alliance (BHUA) Fund!
2026.05 I have given out an invited talk on “Closing the Loop on Trust: From Quantified Uncertainty to Guaranteed Safe Action”, at 2nd Research Centre for Unmanned Autonomous Systems (RCUAS) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University! Many thanks!
2026.04 I have given out an invited talk on “Towards Trustworthy Driving Agents: Generalizability, Safety, and Practice”, at CAAI (中国人工智能学会)!
2025.11 Our paper on practical solution for attenuating industrial heavy vehicle vibration has been selected as the winner of the Control Engineering Practice 2025 Early Career Advisory Board (ECAB) Best Paper Award!
2025.11 Our project “Development of Safety-Critical Hypervisor for Mixed-Criticality Systems in Automotive Zonal Controllers” is funded by The Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF), thanks to the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) of Hong Kong.
2025.09 Our project “Real-time Safeguard for Autonomous Systems under Uncertain and Interactive Environment” is funded by Early Career Scheme (ECS), thanks to Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong.
2025.06 Happy to annouce I will take the Associate Editor role for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.
2025.05 Happy to annouce I will take the Associate Editor role for IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine.
2025.01 Happy to annouce I am appointed as Adjunct Assistant Professor at Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo.
2025.01 Check out our recent book on Active and Semi-active Suspension Systems here.
2025.01 Happy to annouce I am appointed as IEEE Future Networks-Intelligent Transportation Systems Society Representative in Year 2025-2027!
2024.09 Happy to annouce I am joining Department of Data and Systems Engineering (DASE), The University of Hong Kong.
2024.05 Session Chair @ IEEE-ITSC 2024: We are going to host two special sessions for IEEE-ITSC 2024, “Trustworthy Diagnosis and Prognosis in Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility” and “Data-driven and Learning-based Control Techniques for Intelligent Vehicles”
2024.01, WATonoBus Project gets reported in MathWorks - Our work in safe testing and open road deployment gets reported by MathWorks, thanks to all the team members @ MVSL
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Working Experiences
 2024.09-Current |
Assistant Professor Department of Data and Systems Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China Direction: Human-centered Safe Autonomy, Logistic Optimization |
 2022.12-2024.09 |
Postdoctoral Researcher Mechatronics Vehicle Systems Lab (MVSL), University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada Direction: Uncertainty Quantification, Safe Autonomy, Safe Planning for Connected Autonomous Driving |
 2017.03-2018.09 |
R&D Robotics System Engineer Pure Technologies, Xylem, Mississauga, Canada Developing nondestructive testing/assesment robotics solution for infrastructure such as pipelines and bridges |
Education
2018.09-2022.12 |
PH.D. Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada Advisor: Prof. Amir Khajepour Direction: Safety Monitoring, Decision Making and Planning for Autonomous Vehicles |
 2014.09-2017.03 |
M.A.Sc Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Advisor: Prof. Piero Triverio Direction: Model Order Reduction, Computational Modelling |
 2010.06-2014.06 |
B.ENG Automation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China Advisor: Prof. Wei He Direction: Robotics, Robust Control, Distributed Parameter Systems |