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Yunyi Jia

Yunyi Jia

McQueen Quattlebaum Professor of Automotive Engineering

yunyij@clemson.edu
(864) 283-7226
4 Research Drive
Greenville, SC 29607

Director, Collaborative Robotics and Automation (CRA) Lab

Dr. Yunyi Jia is the McQueen Quattlebaum Professor of Automotive Engineering in the School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering at Clemson University. He joined Clemson in 2016 and was promoted to associate professor in 2022 and full professor in 2025. He directs the Collaborative Robotics and Automation (CRA) Lab, where the vehicle research lab is located at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) campus and the robotics research lab is located at the Center for Manufacturing Innovation (CMI) campus.

Dr. Jia's research focuses on collaborative robotics for smart manufacturing and collaborative vehicles for intelligent transportation. His work covers both fundamental research and applied deployment in robotic manufacturing plants and on-road/off-road driving grounds. Dr. Jia received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University in 2014 and he is a senior member of IEEE and a member of ASME and SAE

Selected Honors and Awards:

  • Filipi Research Excellence Award (2025)
  • TRB Committee Best Paper Award (2024)
  • IEEE Automated Vehicle Validation Conference Best Paper Award 2nd, (2023)
  • Most Accessed ASME Papers (2022)
  • SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award (2020)
  • CECAS Faculty Collaboration Award (2020)
  • NSF CAREER Award (2019)
  • SAE Trevor O. Jones Outstanding Paper Award (2018)
  • NSF CRII Award (2018)
  • Ford Motor Company University Research Program (URP) Award (2018-2021)
  • Bosch Community Fund Award (2017-2020)

Selected Student Honors and Awards:

  • CECAS College Outstanding Graduate Researcher Award (H. Su, 2025)
  • Outstanding Automotive Engineering Teaching Assistant Award (Y. Yan, 2025)
  • Outstanding Automotive Engineering PhD Student Award (H. Su, 2025)
  • Automotive Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award (Y. Zhang, 2025)
  • Best Research Presentation Award in USDOT C2M2 Conference (P. Gupta, 2021)
  • CECAS College Outstanding Graduate Researcher Award (L. Guo, 2020)