The development of small-scale robots (or microrobots), powered by magnetic, optical, electrical, and acoustic fields, has opened numerous possibilities in biomedicine. Various configurations of magnetic field generation systems have been devised to control single magnetic beads for mechanical force application in cellular structures, form robotic swarms for drug delivery, navigate magnetic bacteria for tumor penetration, and create microscale swimmers for biological barrier penetration, delivery, and detoxification. Electrical fields, which drive small-scale robots in unique modes of motion, have also been utilized to navigate bacterial-powered electrical sensing robots and drive DNA nanomotors. Optical field generation has facilitated cellular biophysical measurement and material patterning. Light has been employed as an actuator for small-scale robots in both hard and soft stimuli-response polymers. The small-scale robots have become a crucial platform technology in biophysical characterizations, drug delivery, and diagnosis.

Expertise: Microrobotics, Medical Robotics, Microtechnology, Cell Mechanics, Tumor Biophysics, Swarm Microrobot

Lab News

2025.08.12 Ruicheng, Cun, and Annabel gave poster presentations on their work at the Sinclair Cancer Research Institute Retreat. Dr. Xian Wang gave an invited talk on using microrobots to treat brain tumors. Congratulations on the amazing presentations, Ruicheng, Cun, and Annabel!

2025.07.19 Dr. Xian Wang gave an invited talk at The International Conference on Mechanobiology in Shanghai, China, and was nominated for "Young Scientist Award". 

2025.07.17 Dr. Xian Wang gave an invited talk at NVIDIA, sharing our scientific applications of NVIDIA hardware. 

2025.06.09. Invited by the Canadian Cancer Society and the Lundin Cancer Fund, Dr. Wang joined the discussion in Vancouver to explore the next priorities of glioblastoma treatment. Thanks, Mr. Lundin and the Lundin Family, for your investment in Glioblastoma treatment. 

2025.05.29 Celebrating the 100th year of the Banting Discovery Award in memory of Dr. Banting for winning the Nobel Prize for their discovery of Insulin (one of the greatest gifts from Canada to the world), Dr. Xian Wang and all other 99th cohort of Banting Discovery Awardees joined the celebration in Toronto, where the insulin was discovered. 

2025.05.28 Will gave a fantastic talk on computer vision at the Congress of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering, Montreal, Canada. Great to see Will again after he graduated and moved to UBC. 

2025.05.22 Ruicheng gave an oral presentation (for the first time) at the Canadian Biomaterials Society Conference. Well done, Ruicheng, great seeing you shine. The whole lab showed up to support him. 

2025.04.01 Congratulations to our thesis student and the Queen's Women's Lacrosse star Jaedyn Smail for winning the Marion Ross Trophy!

2025.03.08 Will's paper has been accepted by the 2025 Congress of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering!

2025.02.25 Ruicheng's paper has been accepted by the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Biomaterials Society as an Oral Presentation!

2025.01.03 We welcome Dozie Ubosi to join us as a MASc. student! Dozie will be co-supervised by Prof. Yongjun Lai. We welcome Jaedyn Smail, Eric Sass, and Avery Thomsen to start their undergraduate thesis with us, and Hao Xue to start his M.Eng thesis with us. 

2024.12.06 Two capstone teams working with Dr. Wang and Dr. Surgenor have successfully presented their work at the showcase. Well done! 

2024.10.11 We disclosured the first patent with technology coming from our lab!

2024.08.01 We welcome Avery Thomsen to join us as an undergraduate research assistant. 

2024.07.09 Annabel's paper "A Needle Biopsy Inspired Microcatheter for Rapic Tissue Mechanical Measurement" was accepted by the 28th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (MicroTAS) to be held in October at Montreal, Canada. 

2024.07.01 Dr. Wang gave two invited talks "Ferrofluid Microrobot for Material Delivery", and "Micro/Nano Materials for Tissue Mechanical Measurement", at the International Conference on Manipulation, Automation and Robotics at Small Scale (MARSS) in Delft, Netherland. 

2024.06.21 We continued to enjoy the summer of Kingston and had a "Multi-verse" Potluck with Prof. Amy Wu's and Prof. Matthew Robertson's Groups. 

2024.05.13 We presented our collaborative work with Shanghai University on a Capsule Robot for Gastrointestinal Sampling, at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Yokohama, Japan. 

2024.05.08 Dr. Xian Wang was awarded the prestigious Banting Discovery Award from Banting Discovery Foundation for his work in microrobotics. 

2024.05.01 We welcome Michael De Miglio and William Ronan to join our group this summer. Michael will work with Dr. Wang to prepare measurement labs, and Will will work with Dr. Wang on the development of a new mechatronics course. 

2024.04.22 Our lab was awarded an NSERC Discovery Grant and NSERC Discovery Grant Launch Supplement!

2024.04.04 Our lab was awarded a Research Opportunity Seed Fund by the Ingenuity Labs, together with Prof. Amy Wu, Prof. Keyvan Hashtrudi-Zaad, and Prof. Matthew Robert groups. We hope it will further foster our collaborations in medical robotics. 

2024.02.28 Amina Najib was awarded an NSERC undergraduate research award. Congratulations, Amina!

2024.01.03 We welcome Cun Wang and Ruicheng Li to join our group as a master's student and an undergrad thesis student. 

2023.12.07 Congratulations to Aiden, Ethan (M), Ethan (R), and Alex for successfully presenting their Capstone design project. 

2023.11.11 Dr. Wang joined the CIHR-ICR Early Career Researcher workshop, sponsored by CIHR.

2023.11.10 Dr. Wang gave a talk at Dalhousie University. Thank you Prof. Jason Gu for hosting. 

2023.10.09 Dr. Wang presented our research at the International Conference on Manipulation, Automation, and Robotics at Small Scales (MARSS) held in Abu Dhabi, UAE. 

2023.09.01 We welcome Zhaokai Wang to join our group as our first Ph.D. student! 

2023.08.22 We co-hosted the "Ontario Symposium on Micro and Nanotechnology" with Prof. Yongjun Lai, and Prof. Carlos Escobedo. Our colleagues across the province have joined the event. Dr. Wang gave a talk during the symposium. Aiden and Josh won the best poster award. 

2023.08.02 Our lab officially joined the Ingenuity Labs research institute. We look forward to collaborations at the Ingenuity Labs.

2023.07.11 Dr. Wang gave an invited talk at the "Southern Ontario Microscale Medical Robotics Symposium".

2023.05.01 We welcome our summer students Aiden and Josh to join our group. Congratulations to Aiden for being awarded an undergraduate student summer research fellowship. 

2023.03.01 Dr. Xian Wang was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.