User:Justin Jinchuan Zheng

Justin J. Zheng is a senior undergraduate student pursuing a B.S.E. in Robotics at the University of Michigan. He is currently an undergraduate researcher in the Soft Machines Lab at Carnegie Mellon University and Gong’s Lab at the University of Michigan. He is also an alumnus of the Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) Research Group in Canada and currently works with the group as a collaborative researcher.

His research interests focus on wearable robotics and electronics, as well as soft functional materials. He is particularly interested in how material design and electronic integration can improve sensing and actuation in wearable devices. By combining these areas with AI, he aims to create robotic systems that sense, actuate, and interact safely with the physical world.

• Wearable Electronics
• Artificial Intelligence
• Soft Robotics

University of Michigan
B.S.E in Robotics (2026)

Justin helped with the construction, planting, maintenance, and day-to-day operation of the agrivoltaic agrotunnel through his work with the FAST Research Group in summer 2024.

He also authored the agrotunnel's Appropedia documentation, including the cleaning, planting, harvesting, and maintenance procedures, the backup checklist, and the strawberry wall page.

His current collaboration with Professor Joshua M. Pearce focuses on developing computer vision, machine learning, and AI methods using data collected from the agrotunnel. This work combines plant images and physical measurements to develop methods for monitoring plant growth and predicting crop yields.

The photographs below show the agrotunnel's vertical growing systems, crops, lighting, and strawberry pollination.

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  Vertical crop walls and supplemental lighting.
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  Growing aisle with suspended lights.
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  Strawberries growing in the vertical planting system.
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  Leafy greens in the planting wall.
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  Hand pollination of strawberry flowers.

Related project pages

• Agrivoltaic agrotunnel

Justin helped construct the outdoor solar-panel installation that forms part of the agrivoltaic agrotunnel. The photographs below show the construction work and panel structures.

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  Construction of the agrotunnel's outdoor solar-panel installation.
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  Construction work on the elevated panel array.
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  Low and elevated arrays on timber supports.
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  Rear view of the panel supports.
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  Overview of the outdoor panel installation.

• Justin Zheng's website and research portfolio
• Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) Research Group