top of page
Search

A new Doctor in the house - Dr. Zixuan Deng

  • ekaterinalisitsyna
  • Sep 4
  • 1 min read

Left to right: Prof. Hao Zeng, Prof. Andreas Walther, Dr. Zihuan Deng, Prof. Arri Priimägi having fun outside after the successful defense.
Left to right: Prof. Hao Zeng, Prof. Andreas Walther, Dr. Zihuan Deng, Prof. Arri Priimägi having fun outside after the successful defense.

Zixuan successfully defended his doctoral dissertation Light-Fueled Self-Sustained Soft Robotics on September 4, 2025, at Tampere University. His research, inspired by the autonomy of living organisms, explores how light-responsive soft materials can move and adapt without electronics—bringing synthetic matter closer to life-like behavior.

The public defense took place at the Hervanta campus, with Professor Andreas Walther from the University of Mainz as Opponent and Professor Arri Priimägi as Custos.


His work opens new directions for designing responsive materials that sense, actuate, and interact with their environment—without external control.

Zixuan's thesis is available here.

bottom of page