Hai Wang

About me

I received the B.E. degree from Hebei Polytechnic University, China, in 2007, the M. E. degree from Guizhou University, China, in 2010, and the PhD degree from Swinburne University of Technology (SUT), Australia, in 2014, respectively, all in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. From 2014 to 2015, I was the Postdoc Research Fellow in the Faculty of Science, Engineering, and Technology, at SUT, Australia. From 2015 to 2019, I was with the School of Electrical and Automation Engineering at Hefei University of Technology, China, where I served as the full Professor (Huangshan Young Scholar) and the Deputy Discipline Head of Automation. In early 2019, I joined Murdoch University as a Senior Lecturer of Electrical Engineering (tenured) and served as Academic Chair of Instrumentation and Control Engineering (ICE), Industrial Computing Systems Engineering (ICSE) in 2020-2022, Academic Chair of Intelligent Industrial Control & Autonomous Systems Engineering (IICASE) up to 2024. I am currently an Associate Professor and Research Group Lead of the School's Robotics and Control research group, in the School of Engineering and Energy, College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

As the Director, I am leading the Advanced Robotics and Autonomous Systems (ARAS) Research Laboratory at Murdoch University, located in Bld 807 and 340.1.006. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to visit the lab and discuss about potential research and project opportunities. 

My research interests are in nonlinear and robust control, robotics & mechatronics, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles and systems (drones, ground robots, and underwater vehicles), sensors and actuators, Industry 4.0 and smart agriculture, etc. I contribute to academia through national, international, and translational industry focussed research and publications. I have been securing many grants and a total external income exceeding $9 million, including AEA Ignite, GRDC, CSIRO and industry research fundings. I am the author of over 180 refereed journal papers including (60+ IEEE Transactions papers, 150+ Q1 journal papers, 9 ESI top 1% highly cited papers).

As of November 2026, for 2016–2025, my SciVal Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) is 2.00, twice the world average; 27% of my outputs are among the top 10% most cited worldwide, 59% in the top 10% of journals; and 42 papers have an FWCI over 3. Nine of my papers are Clarivate ESI Highly Cited Papers, in the top 1% of their field and year. I have 8,580 Google citations (h-index 50) and 7,796 Scopus citations (h-index 48), with 24 papers cited over 100 times, and annual citations rising from 77 in 2016 to 1,579 in 2026 to date. Twelve years after my PhD, my m-index of 3.2 is high for my career stage.

I am a member of Murdoch University Academic Council, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a senior member of IEEE, Chair of IEEE-VTS WA Chapter (2026), and also serving as Section Editor-in-Chief of Actuators, Editor of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing, and IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica, Robotica, etc.

I have served in organising roles for international conferences in robotics, control and intelligent systems for more than a decade, including:

• General Chair: The 9th IEEE International Conference on Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems (ICPS 2026); The 3rd International Conference on Advanced Robotics, Control, and Artificial Intelligence (ARCAI 2026); The 2nd International Conference on Advanced Robotics, Control, and Artificial Intelligence (ARCAI 2025); The 1st International Conference on Advanced Robotics, Control, and Artificial Intelligence (ARCAI 2024)
• Technical Program Chair: The 10th IEEE International Conference on Sustainable Technology and Engineering (i-COSTE 2024)
• Finance Chair and Local Organizing Committee Member: IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN 2022); International Conference on Smart Grids and Energy Systems (SGES 2020); The 9th International Conference on Power and Energy Systems (ICPES 2019)
• Local Organizing Chair: The 13th International Conference on Advanced Mechatronic Systems (ICAMechS 2023)

I have received the following awards in the past few years:

(i) IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) Distinguished Lecturer (2026-2028), one of only 13 researchers worldwide, and the sole representative from the Australasian region.

(ii) Stanford University/Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientists list (single year, 2022–2026)

(iii) Murdoch University 2023 Vice Chancellor's Excellence Award in Research

(iv) Best Paper Award for 2024 International Conference on Advanced Robotics, Control, and Artificial Intelligence (ARCAI 2024)

(v) Best Paper Award for 2021 International Conference on Advanced Mechatronic Systems (ICAMechS)

(vi) 2013 Engineering Excellence Award for Postgraduate Research from the Society of Automotive Engineering-Australasia (SAE-A).

I am constantly looking for highly potential HDR students. If you are interested in my research areas, please check through above links to apply for scholarships and email me at any time.