Hoang-Vu Phan

Assistant Professor
Head shot of Hoang-Vu Phan.

Summary

Dr. Phan joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, USA as an assistant professor of aerospace engineering in October 2025. From 2021 to 2025, he was a senior postdoctoral scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Prior to joining EPFL, he was a non-tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Smart Vehicle Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea (2017–2021). His research interests include bio-inspired aerial robotics, bio-inspired multimodal locomotion, flapping-wing flight, and biomechanics of animal flight. Dr. Phan currently serves on the editorial boards of NPJ Robotics (Nature Portfolio), International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles, and Aerospace.

Education

  • Ph.D., Biomimetics & Intelligent Microsystems, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea, 2017
  • M.S., Biomimetics & Intelligent Microsystems, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea, 2012
  • B.S., Aerospace Engineering, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology, Vietnam, 2010

Prospective Research Students

We have two funded PhD positions available each year. Applicants with a background in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or robotics, and hand-on experience in mechanism design, low-speed aerodynamics, and/or drone flight control hardware are preferred. 

If you are interested, please send your CV, academic transcripts, and a statement of research interest and motivation to Dr. Hoang-Vu Phan. Highly motivated undergraduate and master’s students are also encouraged to contact for research opportunities. For more details about the UNR Graduate Program, admission requirements, and formal application procedures, please visit the aerospace graduate program page.

Research Interests

At AIRmotion Lab, we take inspiration from birds and insects to design the next generation of flying robots. Our research spans:

  • Bio-inspired micro air vehicles
  • Flapping and morphing flight
  • Multimodal and multifunctional flapping robots
  • Bio-inspired design & control
  • Aerodynamics and biomechanics of insect and bird flight

Books

  • Park HC, and Phan HV, “Insect-inspired flapping-wing robots: Design, analysis, and flight.” CRC Press (Taylor & Francis Group), 2025

Selected Publications

  • Phan HV, Park HC, and Floreano D. "Passive wing deployment and retraction in beetles and flapping microrobots." Nature, 632 (8023), 1067–1072, 2024.
  • Phan HV, and Floreano D. "A twist of the tail in turning maneuvers of bird-inspired drones." Science Robotics, 9, eado3890, 2024. 
  • Shin WD, Phan HV, Daley M, Ijspeert A, and Floreano D. "Fast ground-to-air transition with avian-inspired multifunctional legs." Nature, 636, 86–91, 2024.
  • Phan HV, and Park HC. "Mechanisms of collision recovery in flying beetles and flapping-wing robots." Science, 370(6521), 1214–1219, 2020.
  • Phan HV, Aurecianus S, Au TKL, Kang T, and Park HC. "Towards the long-endurance flight of an insect-inspired, tailless, two-winged, flapping-wing flying robot." IEEE Robotics & Automation Letters, 5, 5059–5066, 2020.
  • Phan HV, and Park HC. "Insect-inspired, tailless, hover-capable flapping-wing robots: Recent progress, challenges and future directions." Progress in Aerospace Sciences, 111, 100573, 2019.
  • Phan HV, and Park HC. "Wing inertia as a cause of aerodynamically uneconomical flight with high angle-of-attack in hovering insect." Journal of Experimental Biology, 221(19), jeb187369, 2018.
  • Phan HV, Kang T, and Park HC. "Design and stable flight of a 21-gram insect-like tailless flapping-wing micro air vehicle with angular rates feedback control." Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 12(3), 036006, 2017.