CV

Contact Information

Name Zhipeng (Zack) Jiang
Professional Title PhD Candidate · Wearable Biosignal Systems · AI-Driven Human-Machine Interfaces
Email zj28@njit.edu
Phone
Location Newark, NJ 07102

Professional Summary

PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at NJIT, also pursuing an OMSCS degree at Georgia Tech. My research builds wearable systems that bridge the human body and computational intelligence — engineering flexible piezoelectric, triboelectric, and strain sensors at the material level, processing biosignals (EMG/ECG/SCG), and designing AI-driven human-machine interfaces. Recent work appears in Nano Energy, Advanced Sensor Research, Advanced Robotics Research, and ACS Materials Letters.

Experience

  • 2022 - present

    PhD Research Engineer — Wearable Devices & Human-Machine Interfaces
    New Jersey Institute of Technology
    • Built and deployed an end-to-end wearable biosignal system (EMG/ECG/SCG) integrating custom analog frontend, ESP32-based DAQ, and a real-time sensing pipeline for health monitoring.
    • Fabricated P(VDF-TrFE) piezoelectric nanofiber and triboelectric (TENG) flexible sensors from scratch; characterized sensitivity > 60 mV/kPa with 10,000-cycle durability via SEM, AFM, and impedance analysis.
    • Implemented a piezoelectric-sensing real-time muscle classification pipeline enabling low-latency control of robotic prosthetics.
    • Deployed a full sensor-to-VR system integrating flexible EMG sensors with a Unity-based virtual prosthetic hand for neuromotor rehabilitation; validated with amputees.
    • Collaborated across hardware, software, and clinical teams on 4 published systems; mentored 3 junior researchers.
  • 2020 - 2023

    Graduate Research Engineer — Structural Sensing & Fault Diagnosis
    Mississippi State University
    • Developed a multichannel ultrasonic sensing system for composite-material defect detection using ultrasonic C-Scan, achieving < 200 µm defect sensitivity through guided-wave signal processing.
    • Built a real-time bearing fault diagnosis pipeline fusing 6-channel vibration data via frequency-domain analysis, achieving > 98% accuracy.
  • 2018 - 2018

    International Peer Academic Coach
    University of Dayton
  • 2017 - 2017

    Mechanical Engineering Co-op
    Exsplendid Inc.

Education

  • 2025 - present

    M.S.
    Georgia Institute of Technology
    Computer Science (OMSCS)
  • 2022 - 2026 (expected)

    Ph.D.
    New Jersey Institute of Technology
    Mechanical Engineering
  • 2020 - 2023

    M.S.
    Mississippi State University
    Aerospace Engineering
  • 2014 - 2020

    B.S.
    University of Dayton
    Mechanical Engineering

Awards

  • 2025
    2nd Place — NJ New Business Model Competition (selected for 2026 Hult Prize National Round)
    Drexel University

    LimbVR — VR-based rehabilitation platform combining wearable resistive strain and flexible EMG sensing with a Unity-controlled virtual hand for real-time prosthetic training.

  • 2025
    Honorable Mention & Women's Health Accelerator Selection
    Rutgers Health Hackathon 2025

    WeTropia — AI-agent OB/GYN triage assistant using RAG to gather symptoms, evaluate urgency, route patients, and produce reference-backed appointment summaries.

  • 2025
    Best AI & AR for Maternal Wellness
    HopHacks 2025, Johns Hopkins University

    ReBloom — AI-powered AR wellness coach using wearable EMG sensors and Python real-time signal analysis for personalized postpartum recovery.

  • 2025
    Best Agentic AI Design
    Hacking Agents Hackathon NYC 2025

    RPG Craft — Agentic AI-powered, generatively scripted game built on a LangFlow-based multi-agent system.

  • 2025
    1st Place — Medical Track
    Drexel Dragon Hackathon 2025

    Cybathlon VR — Interactive VR rehabilitation system fusing wearable resistive strain and flexible EMG sensing into a Unity-controlled virtual hand.

  • 2024
    4th Place & Honorable Mention
    Rutgers Health Hackathon 2024

    Heartup — AI-powered cardiac VR digital twin combining Bi-LSTM with attention and MLP models to analyze ECG data for long-term risk prediction.

  • 2024
    1st Place
    NJIT Dana Knox Research Showcase 2024

    Smart Human-Machine Interface — Self-powered, breathable piezoelectric HMI translating bicep muscle signals into Morse code for gesture recognition and robotic prosthetic control.

Skills

Systems: End-to-end wearable sensing pipelines, Real-time data acquisition (DAQ), Embedded system integration
Hardware: Flexible / piezoelectric / triboelectric / strain sensors, EMG / ECG / SCG sensing, Analog front-end, circuit & PCB design, MCU programming, SEM / AFM characterization
Software & AI: Python, C#, MATLAB, LabVIEW, Real-time DSP and machine learning, LLM / RAG / multi-agent systems
Tools: SolidWorks, COMSOL, Unity (VR / AR integration)

Languages

English : Fluent
Mandarin : Native

Publications

  • 2026
    Advanced Robotics Research

    Wang, Y., Jiang, Z., Kwon, S. H., Ibrahim, M., Dang, A., Dong, L.

  • 2025
    ACS Materials Letters

    Zhang, C., Kwon, S. H., Huerta, A., Jiang, Z., Sun, M., Dong, L.

  • 2025
    Nano Energy

    Zhang, C., Jiang, Z., Sun, M., Augustin-Lawson, R., Kwon, S. H., Dong, L.

  • 2024
    Advanced Sensor Research

    Jiang, Z., Zhang, C., Kwon, S. H., Dong, L.

  • 2024
    Nano Energy

    Kwon, S. H., Zhang, C., Jiang, Z., Dong, L.

  • 2024
    International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC)

    Zhang, X., Li, L., Pu, L., Yang, J., Wang, Z., Fu, R., Jiang, Z.

  • 2023
    Advanced Materials Interfaces

    Lu, Z., Zhang, C., Kwon, S. H., Jiang, Z., Dong, L.

  • 2023
    Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering

    Zamiela, C., Jiang, Z., Stokes, R., Tian, Z., Netchaev, A., Dickerson, C., Tian, W., Bian, L.

  • 2023
    International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology

    Al Mamun, A., Bappy, M. M., Mudiyanselage, A. S., Li, J., Jiang, Z., Tian, W.

  • 2022
    IFAC-PapersOnLine

    Righi, H., Li, T., Jiang, Z., Li, J., Tian, Z.

  • 2021
    IISE Annual Conference Proceedings

    Zamiela, C., Tian, W., Bian, L., Jiang, Z., Tian, Z.