About

Zhenghan Wang is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests focus on Quantum Topology and Algebra as well as Quantum Computation. He is actively involved in academic activities including seminars and conferences, and has organized conferences such as those held at Microsoft Research Station Q. Professor Wang contributes to the mathematical foundations of topological quantum computation and maintains a professional presence through his website and curriculum vitae. His work bridges the areas of geometry, topology, physics, and quantum computation, reflecting a deep engagement with both theoretical and applied aspects of these fields.

Research topics

• Mathematics
• Physics
• Pure mathematics
• Theoretical physics
• Computer science

Selected publications

• Human-Robot Collaborative Tele-Grasping in Clutter With Five-Fingered Robotic Hands

  IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters · 2025-01-08 · 2 citations

  article

  Teleoperation offers the possibility of enabling robots to replace humans in operating within hazardous environments. While it provides greater adaptability to unstructured settings than full autonomy, it also imposes significant burdens on human operators, leading to operational errors. To address this challenge, shared control, a key aspect of human-robot collaboration methods, has emerged as a promising alternative. By integrating direct teleoperation with autonomous control, shared control ensures both efficiency and stability. In this letter, we introduce a shared control framework for human-robot collaborative tele-grasping in clutter with five-fingered robotic hands. During teleoperation, the operator's intent to reach the target object is detected in real-time. Upon successful detection, continuous and smooth grasping plans are generated, allowing the robot to seamlessly take over control and achieve natural, collision-free grasping. We validate the proposed framework through fundamental component analysis and experiments on real-world platforms, demonstrating the superior performance of this framework in reducing operator workload and enabling effective grasping in clutter.

  PublisherDOI

• Towards reconstruction of finite tensor categories

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2025-01-07

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  We take a first step towards a reconstruction of finite tensor categories using finitely many $F$-matrices. The goal is to reconstruct a finite tensor category from its projective ideal. Here we set up the framework for an important concrete example--the $8$-dimensional Nicholas Hopf algebra $K_2$. Of particular importance is to determine its Green ring and tensor ideals. The Hopf algebra $K_2$ allows the recovery of $(2+1)$-dimensional Seiberg-Witten TQFT from Hennings TQFT based on $K_2$. This powerful result convinced us that it is interesting to study the Green ring of $K_2$ and its tensor ideals in more detail. Our results clearly illustrate the difficulties arisen from the proliferation of non-projective reducible indecomposable objects in finite tensor categories.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Topologically Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer with Four Dimensional Geometric Codes

  ArXiv.org · 2025-06-18

  preprintOpen access

  Topological quantum codes are intrinsically fault-tolerant to local noise, and underlie the theory of topological phases of matter. We explore geometry to enhance the performance of topological quantum codes by rotating the four dimensional self-correcting quantum memory, and present codes targeted to both near-term and utility-scale quantum computers. We identify a full set of logical Clifford operations and with it design a universal fault-tolerant quantum architecture. Our design achieves single-shot error correction, significant reductions in required qubits, and low-depth logical operations. In turn, our proposed architecture relaxes the requirements for achieving fault tolerance and offers an efficient path for realization in several near-term quantum hardware implementations. Our [[96,6,8]] 4D Hadamard lattice code has low weight-6 stabilizers and depth-8 syndrome extraction circuits, a high pseudo-threshold of $\sim 0.01$, and a logical error rate of $\sim 10^{-6}$ per logical qubit per round of error correction at $10^{-3}$ physical error rate under a standard circuit-level noise model. A Clifford-complete logical gate set is presented, including a constructive and efficient method for Clifford gate synthesis.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• CasiaHand: Design and Evaluation of a 15-DoF Tendon-Driven Anthropomorphic Robotic Hand

  IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters · 2025-03-27 · 2 citations

  article

  Anthropomorphic dexterous hands significantly enhance the manipulation capabilities of robots; however, balancing structural complexity with functional dexterity remains a major challenge. In this work, we propose the CasiaHand, a 15-DoF tendon-driven anthropomorphic dexterous hand featuring human-like dimensions and dexterity. CasiaHand features tendon-driven actuation, enabling force transmission with low structural weight. By integrating the actuation system within the palm and adopting an under-actuated architecture, CasiaHand balances structural complexity with dexterity. To verify our design, we propose a task-based hand dexterity evaluation benchmark for under-actuated hands, introducing a realistic hand-object interaction evaluation scenario. The evaluation results of CasiaHand on the proposed benchmark demonstrate that our design achieves anthropomorphic dexterity at a humanoid scale.

  PublisherDOI

• Mechanoimmunological Control of Metastatic Site Selection

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-05-13

  preprintOpen access

  Cancer cells alter their mechanical properties in response to the rigidity of their environment. Here, we explored the implications of this environmental mechanosensing for anti-tumor immunosurveillance using single cell biophysical profiling and metastasis models. Cancer cells stiffened in more rigid environments, a biophysical change that sensitized them to cytotoxic lymphocytes. In immunodeficient mice, this behavior manifested in the outgrowth of stiffer metastatic cells in the rigid bone than in the soft lung, while in immunocompetent hosts, it led to preferential elimination of stiffer cancer cells and suppression of bone metastasis. Environmentally-induced cell stiffening and immune sensitization both required Osteopontin, a secreted glycoprotein that is upregulated during bone colonization. Analysis of patient metastases spanning mechanically distinct tissues revealed associations between environmental rigidity, immune infiltration, and cancer cell stiffness consistent with mechanically driven immunosurveillance. These results demonstrate how environmental mechanosensing modulates anti-tumor immunity and suggest a mechanoimmunological basis for metastatic site selection.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multi-Strategy Fusion RRT-Based Algorithm for Optimizing Path Planning in Continuous Cherry Picking

  Agriculture · 2025-08-06 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Automated cherry harvesting presents a significant opportunity to overcome the high costs and inefficiencies of manual labor in modern agriculture. However, robotic harvesting in dense canopies requires sophisticated path planning to navigate cluttered branches and selectively pick target fruits. This paper introduces a complete robotic harvesting solution centered on a novel path-planning algorithm: the Multi-Strategy Integrated RRT for Continuous Harvesting Path (MSI-RRTCHP) algorithm. Our system first employs a machine vision system to identify and locate mature cherries, distinguishing them from unripe fruits, leaves, and branches, which are treated as obstacles. Based on this visual data, the MSI-RRTCHP algorithm generates an optimal picking trajectory. Its core innovation is a synergistic strategy that enables intelligent navigation by combining probability-guided exploration, goal-oriented sampling, and adaptive step size adjustments based on the obstacle’s density. To optimize the picking sequence for multiple targets, we introduce an enhanced traversal algorithm (σ-TSP) that accounts for obstacle interference. Field experiments demonstrate that our integrated system achieved a 90% picking success rate. Compared with established algorithms, the MSI-RRTCHP algorithm reduced the path length by up to 25.47% and the planning time by up to 39.06%. This work provides a practical and efficient framework for robotic cherry harvesting, showcasing a significant step toward intelligent agricultural automation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Lie Group Intrinsic Mean Feature Detectors for Real-Time Industrial Surface Defect Detection

  Symmetry · 2025-04-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  In the actual industrial production environment, the surface defects of products are subtle, and the number of different types of defect data samples is also quite small. Most deep learning models rely on a large number of training samples and parameters to achieve high-precision defect detection. At the same time, the edge computing layer in the actual industrial environment may also encounter transmission delays and insufficient resources. Training a proper model for a specific type of surface defect while simultaneously satisfying the real-time accuracy of defect detection is still a challenging task. To effectively deal with the above challenges, we propose an edge-cloud computing defect detection model based on the intrinsic mean feature detector in the Lie Group space. The modules in the model adopt a symmetrical structure, which can extract related features more effectively. Different from existing models, this model utilizes the Lie Group space intrinsic mean feature as a metric to characterize the essential attributes of different types of surface defects. In addition, we propose an intrinsic mean attention mechanism in the Lie Group manifold space that is easy to implement at the edge service layer without increasing the number of model parameters, thereby enhancing the detection performance of tiny surface defects. Extensive experiments on three publicly available and challenging datasets reveal the superiority of our model in terms of detection accuracy, real-time detection, number of parameters, and computational performance. In addition, our proposed model also shows competitiveness and advantages compared with state-of-the-art models.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Geometrically Enhanced Topological Quantum Codes

  ArXiv.org · 2025-05-15

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  We consider geometric methods of ``rotating" the toric code in higher dimensions to reduce the qubit count. These geometric methods can be used to prepare higher dimensional toric code states using single shot techniques, and in turn these may be used to prepare entangled logical states such as Bell pairs or GHZ states. This bears some relation to measurement-based quantum computing in a twisted spacetime. We also propose a generalization to more general stabilizer codes, and we present computer analysis of optimal rotations in low dimensions. We present methods to do logical Clifford operations on these codes using crystalline symmetries and surgery, and we present a method for state injection at low noise into stabilizer quantum codes generalizing previous ideas for the two-dimensional toric code.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Effectiveness of school-based interventions on fundamental movement skills in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis

  BMC Public Health · 2025-04-24 · 10 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are essential prerequisites for children’s active participation in physical activities (PA), which plays a crucial role in promoting both physical and mental health, ultimately contributing to their overall well-being. Children spend a significant portion of their time in school, making it a critical setting for the development of their FMS. However, systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the effects of school-based interventions on FMS have not been summarized. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of school-based interventions on FMS in children. This study employed a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published between 2014 and 2024. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. A total of 15,930 publications were searched in the Web of Science (WOS), PubMed, and EBSCOhost databases. Two rounds of literature screening were conducted, including duplicate removal and title and abstract screening. Data analysis was conducted using Review Manager version 5.4, with meta-analysis performed using a random effects model. Publication bias was assessed using Stata version 18. The quality of the included studies was evaluated using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale. A total of thirty-three studies from 14 countries were included in the analysis. Among them, thirty (90.91%) studies demonstrated that their interventions were effective. Thirty-one (93.94%) studies were implemented within classroom settings. Twenty-one (63.64%) studies had an intervention duration of less than 60 min. Twelve (36.36%) studies were conducted twice a week. Sixteen (48.48%) studies lasted less than 10 weeks. Meta-analysis of nine interventions indicated significant effects on overall FMS proficiency (SMD = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.21–1.16, I2 = 94%). Meta-analysis indicated that interventions with a duration of 60 min or more, a frequency of 3 times or more a week, and a period of 10 to 20 weeks were efficacious at enhancing FMS in children. School-based interventions are effective in promoting children’s FMS. Long-duration, high-frequency, medium- and long-period interventions may be optimal for enhancing FMS. 42,024,509,106.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Fault-tolerant quantum computation with a neutral atom processor

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-11-18 · 5 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Quantum computing experiments are transitioning from running on physical qubits to using encoded, logical qubits. Fault-tolerant computation can identify and correct errors, and has the potential to enable the dramatically reduced logical error rates required for valuable algorithms. However, it requires flexible control of high-fidelity operations performed on large numbers of qubits. We demonstrate fault-tolerant quantum computation on a quantum processor with 256 qubits, each an individual neutral Ytterbium atom. The operations are designed so that key error sources convert to atom loss, which can be detected by imaging. Full connectivity is enabled by atom movement. We demonstrate the entanglement of 24 logical qubits encoded into 48 atoms, at once catching errors and correcting for, on average 1.8, lost atoms. We also implement the Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm with up to 28 logical qubits encoded into 112 atoms, showing better-than-physical error rates. In both cases, "erasure conversion," changing errors into a form that can be detected independently from qubit state, improves circuit performance. These results begin to clear a path for achieving scientific quantum advantage with a programmable neutral atom quantum processor.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: FET: Small: Topological quantum computing beyond anyons

  NSF · $135k · 2020–2024

• FRG: cQIS: Collaborative Research: Mathematical Foundations of Topological Quantum Computation and Its Applications

  NSF · $368k · 2017–2023

• Collaborative Research: Topological Phases of Matter and Their Application to Quantum Computing

  NSF · $100k · 2011–2016

• Collaborative Research: Mathematical Foundations of Topological Quantum Computation

  NSF · $60k · 2015–2019

Frequent coauthors

• Eric C. Rowell

  61 shared

• Michael Freedman

  51 shared

• Paul Bruillard

  Bellevue Hospital Center

  37 shared

• Xiao-Gang Wen

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  30 shared

• Shawn X. Cui

  29 shared

• Meng Cheng

  Yale University

  27 shared

• Chetan Nayak

  27 shared

• Alexei Kitaev

  26 shared