Hu joined the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Physical Intelligence Department in 2014. His work has significantly advanced the understanding and application of smart materials and bioinspired soft machine designs. His research breakthroughs were published in Nature, Nature Communications, Science Advances, and Science Robotics and have also been widely cited and featured in the popular press, such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Galileo TV, Der Spiegel, Nature News, and IEEE Spectrum Magazine, to name a few. In 2022 he was appointed as the Leader of the Cyber Valley Research Group “Bioinspired Autonomous Miniature Robots". He has since moved on to be an assistant professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
