The Grainger College of Engineering

Alireza Ramezani

Alireza Ramezani
Alireza Ramezani he/him/his
  • Associate Professor
  • Adjunct Associate Professor

For More Information

Education

  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering Dept., University of Michigan, 2014 
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering Dept., Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), 2010
  • B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering Dept., Iran University of Science and Technology, 2007 

Biography

Alireza Ramezani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering (MechSE) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Previously, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University (NU) in Boston. He earned his Ph.D. (`14) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, specializing in robotic locomotion under the mentorship of Professor Jessy Grizzle. He received his M.Sc. (`10) in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and his B.Sc. (`07) from the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran. For his designs in robot locomotion, Alireza’s contributions have earned him esteemed accolades, including NSF CAREER Award, ASME Rising Star Award, NASA JPL SFRP, and the NU Impact Award. In a leadership capacity, he led NU teams in NASA’s Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge organized by the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) in 2020 and 2022. In 2022, NU team received NASA’s top honor—the ARTEMIS Award—at the BIG Idea Challenge competition in California forum. He has secured over $8 million in competitive research funding from agencies such as NSF, NASA, and ARL during his tenure at NU. His work has garnered significant recognition, with his robotic designs featured prominently in leading scientific journals, including two cover articles in Science Robotics Magazine and a research article in Nature Communications. His works have also attracted extensive global media attention, covered by more than 200 news outlets since 2018, including IEEE Spectrum, Space Magazine, The Independent, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, National Geographic, CNN, NBC, and Euronews.

Academic Positions

  • Associate Professor, Mechanical Science & Engineering Dept.,UIUC, 2026
  • Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept., Northeastern University, 2024-2026
  • Assistant Professor (tenure track), Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept., Northeastern University, 2018-2024
  • Sabbatical, Aerospace Engineering Dept., Caltech, 2024-2025
  • Summer Faculty Research Program, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2022
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Aerospace Engineering Dept., Caltech, 2017-2018
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Aerospace Engineering Dept. , UIUC, 2014-2017 

Research Statement

For decades, we have strived to replicate biology. Now, it is time to move from studying biological locomotion to extending it—building machines that evolve their own ways of moving through the world. These robots should not merely navigate their environments but should rapidly and dexterously reshape themselves the moment they sense that their environment is not traversable. They should quickly morph into new forms and devise new means of movement to make traversal of any obstacles possible, conforming to the constraints imposed by their surroundings. These machines will unify hardware plasticity with software plasticity—embodying new paradigms of resilient dynamic locomotion. Over the past decade, I have devoted my research to the design and control of morphing robots inspired by bats. The research evolved to the vision of creating “unstoppable” dynamic morphing robots that can navigate in environments where standard systems face the risk of complete immobilization.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Our Silicon Synapse Lab (SSL) is made up of passionate and driven students who love exploring new ideas and pushing the boundaries of robot locomotion through creative, hands-on research. We welcome all curious students who share our excitement for building the next generation of locomotion robots.

Research Interests

  • Mobility in contested environments where existing systems face the risk of complete immobilization
  • Robot design, modeling, and closed-loop feedback control
  • Bio-inspired robot locomotion

Selected Articles in Journals

  • H.-W. Park, A. Ramezani, and *J. W. Grizzle, “A finite-state machine for accommodating unexpected large ground height variations in bipedal robot walking,” IEEE Trans. on Robotics, volume 29, issue 2, pp. 331-345, April 2013.
  • A. Ramezani, J. Hurst, K. A. Hamed and *J. W. Grizzle, “Performance analysis and feed-back control of atrias, a 3D bipedal robot,” ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control, volume 136, issue 2, start page: 21012, March 2014.
  • A. Ramezani, S.-J. Chung, and *S. Hutchinson, “A biomimetic robotic platform to study flight specializations of bats,” Science (Robotics-AAAS), volume 2, issue 3, pages: eaal2505, February 2017 (cover article; in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Science Magazine Altmetric; [also featured in Nature 542,140 (09 February 2017) doi:10.1038/542140a]).
  • J. E. Hoff, A. Ramezani, S.-J. Chung, and *S. Hutchinson, “Optimizing the structure and movement of a robotic bat with biological kinematic synergies,” International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), volume 37, issue 10, pp. 1233-1252, November 2018.
  • E. Sihite, P. Kelly, *A. Ramezani, “Computational Structure Design of a Bio-inspired Armwing Mechanism,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), volume 5, issue 4, pp. 5929-5936, July 2020 [Also accepted in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Las Vegas, NV, October 25-29, 2020].
  • K. Kim, P. Spieler, E. Lupu, A. Ramezani, and *S.-J. Chung, “A bipedal walking robot that can fly, slackline, and skateboard,” Science (Robotics-AAAS), volume 6, issue 59, pages: eabf8136, October 2021 (cover article; in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Science Magazine Altmetric).
  • P. Dangol, E. Sihite and *A. Ramezani, “Control of Thruster-Assisted, Bipedal Legged Locomotion of the Harpy Robot,” Frontiers in Robotics and AI, volume 8, pages: 770514, 23 December 2021, doi:10.3389/frobt.
  • E. Sihite, A. Kalantari, R. Nemovi, *A. Ramezani, M. Gharib, “Multi-Modal Mobility Morphobot (M4) with appendage repurposing for locomotion plasticity enhancement,” Nature Communications, volume 14, article number 3323, August 2023 (in the 99th percentile [ranked 842nd] of the 192,311 tracked articles of a similar age in all journals and the 98th percentile [ranked 23rd] of the 1,142 tracked articles of a similar age in Nature).
  • E. Sihite, *A. Ramezani, “A Morphology-Centered View Towards Describing Bats Dynamically Versatile Wing Conformations,” International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), volume 44, issue 3, pp. 431-464, September 2024.
  • I. Mandralis, R. Nemovi, A. Ramezani, R. Murray, *M. Gharib, “ATMO: an aerially transforming morphobot for dynamic ground-aerial transition,” Communications Engineering (Springer Nature), 4, 74 (2025).
  • V. Gherold, I. Mandralis, E. Sihite, A. Salagame, *A. Ramezani and M. Gharib, “Self-Supervised Cost of Transport Estimation for Multimodal Path Planning,” in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 10, no. 7, pp. 6872-6879, July 2025.
  • A. Salagame, H. Noyes, E. Sihite, A. Kalantari, *A. Ramezani, “Crater Observing Bio-inspired Rolling Articulator (COBRA),” Advanced Intelligent Systems, p.2500352.
  • A. Salagame, S. Pandya, E. Sihite, *A. Ramezani and M. Gharib, “NMPC-Based Unified Posture Manipulation and Thrust Vectoring for Fault Recovery,” in IEEE Control Systems Letters, vol. 9, pp. 2012-2017, 2025, doi: 10.1109/LCSYS.2025.3589412.

Articles in Conference Proceedings

  • E. Sihite, A. Salagame, P. Ghanem, and *A. Ramezani, “Actuation and Flight Control of High-DOF Dynamic Morphing Wing Flight by Shifting Structure Response,” Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Singapore, Dec. 13-15, 2023.
  • E. Sihite, *A. Ramezani, M. Gharib, “Modeling and simulation of a wing-assisted inclined running with a morphing multi-modal robot,” International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Yukohama, Japan, May 13-17, 2024 [finalist for best paper award].
  • S. Jiang, A. Salagame, *A. Ramezani, L. Wong, “Snake Robot with Tactile Perception Navigates on Large-scale Challenging Terrain,” International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Yukohama, Japan, May 13-17, 2024.
  • A. Salagame, M. Gianello, C. Wang, K. Venkatesh, S. Pitroda, R. Rajput, E. Sihite, M. Leeser, *A. Ramezani, “Quadrupedal Locomotion Control On Inclined Surfaces Using Collocation Method,” American Control Conference (ACC), Toronto, Canada, July 8-12, 2024.
  • A. Salagame, K. Gangaraju, H. K. Nallaguntla, E. Sihite, G. Schirner, *A. Ramezani, “Loco-Manipulation with Non-impulsive Contact-Implicit Planning in a Slithering Robot,” 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Abu Dhabi, UAE, October 14-18, 2024.
  • A. Salagame, K. Gangaraju, E. Sihite, G. Schirner, *A. Ramezani, “Heading Control for Obstacle Avoidance using Dynamic Posture Manipulation during Tumbling Locomotion,” 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Abu Dhabi, UAE, October 14-18, 2024.
  • E. Sihite, S. Pitroda, T. Liu, C. Wang, K. V. Krishnamurthy, A. Salagame, *A. Ramezani, G. Morteza, “Posture manipulation of thruster-enhanced bipedal robot performing dynamic wall-jumping using model predictive control,” IEEE-RAS 22nd International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), Nancy, France, November 22-24, 2024.
  • P. Ghanem, A. Demirkaya, T. Imbiriba, A. Ramezani, Z. Danziger, *D. Erdogmus, “Learning Physics Informed Neural ODEs With Partial Measurements,” The 39th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Philadelphia, PA, February 25, 2025.
  • A. Salagame, E. Sihite, M. Ramezani , *A. Ramezani, “Reduced-Order Model-Based Gait Generation for Snake Robot Locomotion using NMPC,” 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Atlanta, United States of America, May 19 - 23, 2025.
  • K. V. Krishnamurthy, C. Wang, S. Pitroda, A. Salagame, E. Sihite, R. Nemovi, *A. Ramezani, M. Gharib, “Thruster-Assisted Incline Walking of a Legged-Aerial Robot Using Reduced Order Model and Collocation Method,” 2025 American Control Conference (ACC), Denver, CO, USA, July 9-10, 2025.
  • C. Wang, E. Sihite, K. V. Krishnamurthy, S. Pitroda, A. Salagame, *A. Ramezani, M. Gharib, “Quadratic Programming-Based Posture Manipulation and Thrust-vectoring for Agile Dynamic Walking on Narrow Pathways,” 2025 American Control Conference (ACC), Denver, CO, USA, July 9-10, 2025.
  • S. Pitroda, E. Sihite, K. V. Krishnamurthy, C. Wang, A. Salagame, *A. Ramezani, M. Gharib, “Conjugate momentum-based thruster force estimate in dynamic multimodal robot,” 2025 American Control Conference (ACC), Denver, CO, USA, July 9-10, 2025.
  • A. Salagame, S. Potluri, K. B. Vaidyanathan, K. Gangaraju, E. Sihite, M. Ramezani, *A. Ramezani, “Vision-Guided Loco-Manipulation with a Snake Robot,” International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hangzhou, China, Oct. 19-25, 2025.
  • A. Salagame, E. Sihite, *A. Ramezani, “Optimal Trajectory Planning in a Vertically Undulating Snake Locomotion using Contact-implicit Optimization,” International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hangzhou, China, Oct. 19-25, 2025.
  • C. Wang, K. V. Krishnamurthy, S. Pitroda, A. Salagame, I. Mandralis, E. Sihite, *A. Ramezani, and M. Gharib, “Dynamic Quadrupedal Legged and Aerial Locomotion via Structure Repurposing,” International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hangzhou, China, Oct. 19-25, 2025.
  • C. Wang, A. Ramezani, “Thruster-Enhanced Locomotion: A Decoupled Model Predictive Control with Learned Contact Residuals,” International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hangzhou, China, Oct. 19-25, 2025.
  • B. Gupta, M. Kim, A. Park, E. Sihite, K. Sreenath, and *A. Ramezani, “Estimation of Aerodynamics Forces in Dynamic Morphing Wing Flight,” International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hangzhou, China, Oct. 19-25, 2025.
  • B. Gupta, E. Sihite, A Ramezani, “Modeling and Controls of Fluid-Structure Interactions (FSI) in Dynamic Morphing Flight,” Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dec. 09-12, 2025.
  • K. V. Krishnamurthy, E. Sihite, C. Wang, S. Pitroda, A. Salagame, *A. Ramezani, and M. Gharib, “Enabling steep slope walking on Husky using reduced order modeling and quadratic programming,” 2026 American Control Conference (ACC), New Orleans, Louisiana, May 26-29, 2026.
  • K. V. Krishnamurthy, A. Salagame, E. Sihite, *A. Ramezani, “Contact-implicit MPC for multimodal locomotion,” 2026 American Control Conference (ACC), New Orleans, Louisiana, May 26-29, 2026.

Other Publications

  • Ramezani, A., “Morpho-functional Robots with Legged and Aerial modes of Locomotion,” U.S. Patent 12,128,721, Oct. 2024.
  • Chung, S., et al., “Synchronized Multi-modal Robot,” U.S. Patent 12,330,722, June 2025.
  • Ramezani, A., et al., “Multi-modal Mobility Unmanned Vehicle,” U.S. Patent 12,344,407, July 2025.
  • Ramezani, A., “Armwing Structures for Aerial Robots,” U.S. Patent 12,404,021, Sept. 2025.

Honors

  • ASME Rising Star Award (2024)
  • NSF CAREER (FRR program) (2024)
  • Northeastern College of Engineering Impact Award (2024)
  • Winner of NASA top honer, ARTEMIS Award, with Northeastern Team in BIG IDEA Competitions (2022)
  • Two cover articles for Science (Robotics) Magazine (2017, 2021)
  • Research highlights at Nature (2023)
  • Winner of NASA's Game Changing Program Award with NU Team (2019, 2022)
  • NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) SFRP (2022)

Recent Courses Taught

  • ME 340 - Dynamics of Mechanical Systems

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