Junliang Tao

Associate Professor,

School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment

julian.tao@asu.edu

Mail code: 3005

Campus: Tempe
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Long Bio

Junliang (Julian) Tao is an associate professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University. His research focuses on Bio-inspired Geotechnics (BiG). His current research topics include include bio-inspired burrowing mechanisms and robots, bio-inspired geosystems, smart and sustainable geosystems and soil behavior.

Tao has been researching the effective and highly efficient self-burrowing mechanisms of animals — looking at their varied subterranean locomotive abilities. His idea wins him an NSF CAREER Award titled "CAREER: Integrated Research and Education on Bio-Inspired Burrowing".

Now he is also extending this research to a new collaborative project to design and develop below-ground sensing networks using robots that mimic burrowing animals and plants. In 2018, Tao earned support from a National Science Foundation Early-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research Signals in the Soil award to develop “paradigm-shifting platform technology” for “self-boring robots” from which the next generation of underground wireless sensing networks can be launched (with Daniel Aukes and Hamidreza Marvi).

Education

Ph.D. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
M.S. Tongji University, Shanghai, China
B.S. China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

Research Website URL

https://sites.google.com/asu.edu/big

Google Scholar URL

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Dq4lhi4AAAAJ&hl=en&authuser=1

Experts.asu.edu URL

https://asu.pure.elsevier.com/en/persons/junliang-tao

Research Interests

We are a research group focusing on Bio-inspired Geotechnics (B.i.G). Our mission is to discover the fundamental mechanisms of various interactions between living things and geological materials, to abstract these mechanisms to engineering design principles, and to translate the design principles to autonomous, efficient, sustainable and intelligent geotechnics. Our current research topics include: bio-inspired self-burrowing robots, bio-inspired underground sensing and communication, bio-inspired sustainable countermeasures to natural hazards. We seek our answers at the boundaries of biology (and other natural sciences), mechanics and engineering. We achieve BiG from research, teaching, outreach and entrepreneurship and through collaboration. To learn more, visit the BiG research group website.

Courses

2025 Spring

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 792	Research
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 599	Thesis
CEE 598	Special Topics
EEE 592	Research
CEE 799	Dissertation
CEE 592	Research
CEE 452	Foundations
EEE 599	Thesis
CEE 593	Applied Project
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 792	Research
CEE 593	Applied Project
CEE 593	Applied Project
CEE 494	Special Topics
CEE 598	Special Topics

2024 Fall

Course Number	Course Title
EEE 592	Research
CEE 792	Research
CEE 550	Soil Behavior
CEE 599	Thesis

2024 Summer

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 792	Research
CEE 799	Dissertation
CEE 795	Continuing Registration
EEE 592	Research
CEE 795	Continuing Registration
CEE 595	Continuing Registration

2024 Spring

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 599	Thesis
CEE 598	Special Topics
EEE 592	Research
CEE 592	Research
CEE 792	Research
CEE 452	Foundations
EEE 599	Thesis
CEE 593	Applied Project
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 792	Research
CEE 593	Applied Project
CEE 593	Applied Project

2023 Fall

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 599	Thesis
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 792	Research
CEE 795	Continuing Registration
CEE 799	Dissertation
EEE 592	Research
CEE 792	Research
CEE 550	Soil Behavior
CEE 799	Dissertation
CEE 599	Thesis

2023 Summer

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 792	Research
CEE 799	Dissertation
CEE 795	Continuing Registration
EEE 592	Research
CEE 795	Continuing Registration
CEE 595	Continuing Registration

2023 Spring

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 599	Thesis
CEE 598	Special Topics
EEE 592	Research
CEE 799	Dissertation
CEE 592	Research
CEE 792	Research
CEE 452	Foundations
EEE 599	Thesis
CEE 593	Applied Project
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 792	Research
CEE 593	Applied Project
CEE 593	Applied Project
CEE 494	Special Topics
CEE 598	Special Topics

2022 Fall

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 599	Thesis
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 792	Research
CEE 795	Continuing Registration
CEE 799	Dissertation
EEE 592	Research
CEE 792	Research
CEE 550	Soil Behavior
CEE 799	Dissertation
CEE 599	Thesis

2022 Summer

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 792	Research
CEE 799	Dissertation
EEE 592	Research

2022 Spring

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 599	Thesis
CEE 598	Special Topics
EEE 592	Research
CEE 799	Dissertation
CEE 592	Research
CEE 792	Research
CEE 452	Foundations
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 792	Research

2021 Fall

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 792	Research
CEE 799	Dissertation
EEE 592	Research
CEE 792	Research
CEE 550	Soil Behavior
CEE 799	Dissertation

2021 Summer

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 792	Research
CEE 799	Dissertation

2021 Spring

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 598	Special Topics
CEE 792	Research
CEE 452	Foundations
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 792	Research
CEE 598	Special Topics
CEE 494	Special Topics

2020 Fall

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 792	Research
CEE 799	Dissertation
CEE 792	Research
CEE 799	Dissertation

2020 Summer

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 792	Research
CEE 799	Dissertation

2020 Spring

Course Number	Course Title
CEE 790	Reading and Conference
CEE 598	Special Topics
CEE 792	Research
CEE 452	Foundations
CEE 792	Research