Above: Shelly Zhang, center, received the award from Georgia Tech at an awards ceremony in December 2018.
New faculty member Assistant Professor X. Shelly Zhang recently received the Best Ph.D. Thesis Award from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech for her thesis titled "Topology Optimization with Multiple Materials, Multiple Constraints, and Multiple Load Cases." The award was presented at an awards ceremony for students, faculty and staff on December 5, 2018.
Zhang's research focuses on exploring topology optimization, stochastic programming, machine learning, and additive manufacturing to develop resilient, smart, sustainable, and innovative engineering infrastructure and materials for applications at different scales, from as large as high-rise buildings to as small as material microstructure. She received her doctoral degree from Georgia Tech in 2018 and her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in structural engineering from the Illinois in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Zhang joined the CEE at Illinois faculty in January 2019.