September 4, 2025
By Ashley Ritchie

Jun Ueda, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The honor recognizes ASME members who have made significant engineering achievements and contributions to the profession. He is one of only 3,403 Fellows out of 67,833 ASME members (as of July 2025).

“I am deeply honored to be named an ASME Fellow,” Ueda said. “ASME has been a central organization in my career, advancing mechanical engineering research and providing a platform for collaboration across disciplines. It is inspiring to be recognized among such a distinguished group of engineers.”

Ueda joined Georgia Tech in May 2008 as an assistant professor. His research focuses on robotics, bio-inspired actuators and sensors, robust control, and human–robot physical interaction, with the goal of expanding actuation technology for fast, precise, and reliable motion control that can enhance human motor functions. His work spans both fundamental research—such as developing and modeling hierarchical cellular actuation principles inspired by biological muscles—and applied research, including integration of new actuators into medical devices, physical therapy, MRI-compatible robots, and secure telerobotic systems.

His work has received multiple prestigious recognitions, including the Fanuc FA Robot Foundation Best Paper Award (2005), the IEEE RAS Early Academic Career Award (2009), the Advanced Robotics Best Paper Award (2015), Woodruff Faculty Fellow (2015), and the Nagamori Award (2021).

Before arriving at Georgia Tech, Ueda was a visiting scholar and lecturer at MIT, where he helped develop compliant, large-strain piezoelectric actuators and a control method known as stochastic broadcast feedback. From 2002 to 2008, he was an assistant professor at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, leading a robotics research group on dynamics, control, tactile sensing, and robot hand manipulation. Earlier in his career, he worked at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation’s Advanced Technology R&D Center, contributing to projects ranging from machine tools to satellite tracking antennas.

Ueda earned his B.S. in 1994, M.S. in 1996, and Ph.D. in 2002 in mechanical engineering from Kyoto University in Japan.

ASME, founded in 1880, is a global professional organization supporting the engineering community. Through codes and standards, conferences, publications, and professional development opportunities, ASME fosters knowledge exchange and advances the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering worldwide.