Kunzhao Ren ☕️

Kunzhao Ren

(he/him)

PhD Student

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Professional Summary

Hi, I am Kunzhao Ren, a first-year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with interests in legged robotics.

Education

PhD in Mechanical Engineering

Aug 2025
Present

University of Wisconsin–Madison

MS in Electronic Information

Sep 2022
Jun 2025

Zhejiang University

BS in Electrical Engineering and Automation

Aug 2017
Jul 2022

Xi'an Jiaotong University

Preparatory Program (Honors Youth Program)

Aug 2016
Jun 2017

Tianjin Nankai High School

Interests

Legged Robots Model Predictive Control Reinforcement Learning Whole Body Control Robotic World Model
📚 My Research

I have a strong passion for legged robotics, especially humanoid robots.

During my master’s studies, I primarily worked on model-based approaches (including convex MPC and nonlinear MPC) for humanoid locomotion.

In my first year of PhD, I used Hankel matrices to model compliant terrain, enabling a quadruped robot to hop on it. Meanwhile, I also gained a solid understanding of existing reinforcement-learning-based methods and their applications to locomotion and motion tracking tasks.

Publications
Patents
(2025). A Closed-Form Method for Solving the Inverse Kinematics of a Six-DOF Multi-Link Mechanism. China Patent Application CN120386962A, under substantive examination since Aug. 15, 2025.