Special Interview with Prof. Hongliang Ren

In this special interview, the Editorial Office of Intelligence & Robotics (IR) was delighted to feature its new Associate Editor, Professor Hongliang Ren from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. Conducted on April 7, 2025, the conversation highlighted Prof. Ren’s distinguished expertise in medical robotics, intelligent systems, and biomedical engineering. He shared insights into his latest research, interdisciplinary innovations, and perspectives on the future of healthcare technology.

Q1: Congratulations on your appointment as Associate Editor of Intelligence & Robotics! Could you share your thoughts on taking on this new role?

Prof. Ren: Thank you! This role is both an honor and a responsibility. As Associate Editor, I aim to foster interdisciplinary dialogue between AI, robotics, and medical technology. My priority is to ensure rigorous peer review while encouraging innovative research that bridges theoretical advancements with real-world clinical applications. I’m particularly excited to spotlight work that addresses unmet needs in healthcare, such as accessibility and precision medicine.

Q2: As we know, you have made significant contributions to medical robotics, intelligent control systems, and AI-assisted medical treatment and image processing. Would you like to share some insights into your current research?

Prof. Ren: My team is currently focused on three frontiers:
1.Surgical Robotics: Developing systems with adaptive robots, haptic feedback and real-time decision-making for minimally invasive procedures.
2.Robot & AI-driven Medical Imaging: Creating lightweight algorithms for early diagnosis, optimized for low-resource settings.
3.Human-Robot Collaboration: Designing control frameworks where clinicians and robots jointly optimize surgical workflows, reducing cognitive load and improving outcomes.

Q3: AI and robotics are transforming the medical field. What are the most promising applications and breakthroughs we can expect in the near future?

Prof. Ren: Key applications include but are not limited to:
• Micro-scale robots guided by AI for targeted drug delivery or tissue repair.
• Wearable robotics integrated with AI learning systems to predict complications.
• Neuromorphic engineering enabling prosthetics to “learn” and adapt to user behavior in real time.
• Explainable AI for clinical decision support, where models provide actionable insights clinicians can trust, not just predictions.

Q4: Ethical considerations are becoming increasingly important in AI and robotics research. How should researchers balance innovation with responsibility?

Prof. Ren: Ethics must be embedded in the design phase, e.g.:
• Transparency by robotic systems has audit trails for critical decisions.
• Using synthetic data and adversarial training to reduce disparities in AI diagnostics.
• Regulatory collaboration with policymakers to define safety thresholds for autonomous medical devices.

Q5: Finally, what kind of message do you have for the readers, authors, and researchers in the Intelligence & Robotics community as they continue their work and contribute to the field?

Prof. Ren: Three guiding principles:
• Embrace Failure - Many medical robotics milestones emerged from “failed” experiments.
• Think Clinically - Partner early with healthcare providers—accuracy gain in labs might mean little if it complicates clinical workflows.
• Open Science - Share datasets and protocols; progress accelerates when we build on each other’s work.

About Professor Hongliang Ren

Professor Hongliang Ren has navigated his academic journey through The Chinese University of Hong Kong, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Children’s National Medical Center, United States, and The National University of Singapore. He has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Automation Science & Engineering (T-ASE) and Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing (MBEC). Prof. Ren has been an active organizer and contributor on the committees of numerous robotics conferences, including key roles in flagship events such as IEEE Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), and other domain conferences such as MICCAI/ROBIO/BIOROB/ICIA/CVPR. He has delivered numerous invited keynotes/talks at flagship conferences/workshops at ICRA/IROS/ROBIO/MICCAI/CVPR/ICIA. He frequently serves as an expert reviewer and judge for international funding agencies, with over 60 proposal reviews across 10+ countries/regions (including Switzerland, Belgium, UK, Kazakhstan, Poland, Hong Kong, Macau, Chilean, China, Singapore, etc.) and has performed more than 317 peer reviews for top-tier journals, including Science Robotics, Nature Biomedical Engineering, and Nature Communications, among many others.

Editor: Amber Ren
Language Editor: Emma Chen
Production Editor: Ting Xu
Respectfully Submitted by the Editorial Office of Intelligence & Robotics (IR)