Rate My Professor Wei Xue

Wei Xue, Ph.D., is Professor and Department Head of Mechanical Engineering in the Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering at Rowan University. He earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2007, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Shandong University in 2000, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Shandong University in 1997. His career includes serving as Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Washington State University Vancouver from 2007 to 2014. At Rowan University, he joined as Assistant Professor in 2014, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018, served as Interim Department Head from September 2023 to August 2024, and assumed the role of full Professor and permanent Department Head in September 2024. He also holds an Affiliate Faculty position in Chemical Engineering since January 2025 and was Program Coordinator and Co-Chair of Materials Science and Engineering from 2020 to 2023. Previously, he worked as Senior Product Engineer at WaferTech LLC and Research Engineer at Huawei Technologies. He served as Rowan University Faculty Senator from 2017 to 2019.

Dr. Xue's research interests encompass functional materials, nanomaterials, composites, nanotechnology, sensors, actuators, and wearable electronics, with emphasis on micro- and nano-scale materials, devices, and systems for flexible electronics, soft robotics, and insulators for high-power energy systems. He leads the microsensors and microelectronics lab at Rowan and co-develops soft robotics courses for undergraduates. His projects have been funded by the U.S. Navy with nearly $1 million since 2017 for advanced insulators in naval power systems and by the National Science Foundation for soft robotics research. Major awards include Best Paper Awards from the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition MEMS Division in 2023 and 2022, Finalist for Best Paper Award at the ASEE Annual Conference in 2015, 2011-2012 Students’ Award for Teaching Excellence at Washington State University Vancouver, multiple NSF Summer Institute Fellowships (2010, 2011), Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad in 2006, and Graduate Student Travel Award from the University of Minnesota in 2006. Key publications include “TendrilBot: modular soft robot with versatile radial grasping and locomotion capabilities” (Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 2024), “Reconfigurable modular soft robots with modulating stiffness and versatile task capabilities” (Smart Materials and Structures, 2024), “Simple graphene chemiresistors as pH sensors: fabrication and characterization” (Measurement Science and Technology, 2011), “Protein-based bioelectronics” (ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 2016), and the book chapter “Carbon nanotube sensing in food safety and quality analysis” (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017). A Senior Member of the IEEE and member of the ASME, his contributions advance sustainable materials, sensors, robotics, and connectivity.