News

Our paper is published in Science Advances (Z. Zhao†, R. D. Kundu†, O. Sigmund, and X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (Rahul Dev Kundu, Xiaojia Shelly Zhang).

Our paper is published in Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (Yingqi Jia, Weichen Li, Xiaojia Shelly Zhang).

Prof. Zhang, along with Z. Zhao and C. Wang, received the ASME Henry Hess Award for their work “Tuning Buckling Behaviors in Magnetically Active Structures: Topology Optimization and Experimental Validation” published in Journal of Applied Mechanics.

Our paper is published in Additive Manufacturing (C. Wang, Z. Zhao, Z. Li, Y. Jia, A. A. Sharma, and X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (Y. Jia, R. D. Kundu, and X. S. Zhang).

Prof. Zhang received the 2025 ASME Thomas J. R. Hughes Young Investigator Award for achievements in applied mechanics.

Our paper is published in Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (Y. Jia, K. Liu, and X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (Y. Jia, C. Wang, and X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Nature Communications (W. Li, O. Sigmund, and X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Mechanics of Materials (Z. Zhao, C. Wang, and X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Advanced Science (C. Wang, Z. Zhao, J. Han, A. A. Sharma, H. Wang, and X. S. Zhang).

Group members organized a session on Design and Fabrication of Smart Structures for High School Students, July 21-27, 2024.

Prof. Zhang receives the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Award in the program of Mechanics of Materials and Structures to investigate topology of shapes, topology of waves and their interplay in metamaterials optimization.

Our paper is published in npj Computational Materials (W. Li and X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Nature Communications (Y. Jia, K. Liu, and X. S. Zhang).

Prof. Zhang received the prestigious EMI Leonardo Da Vinci Award from the Engineering Mechanics Institute of ASCE. The award recognizes outstanding young investigators for promising ground-breaking developments in Engineering Mechanics and Mechanical Sciences.

PhD student Zhi Zhao won the 3rd place in Best Student Poster award in the EMI conference 2024. Congratulations!

Prof. Zhang received the prestigious Director’s Fellowship Award from DARPA, given to exceptional researchers in the program.

Prof. Zhang received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research from the Grainger College of Engineering.

Prof. Zhang delivered an invited seminar at Princeton University in the CEE seminar series.

Prof. Zhang delivered an invited seminar at Columbia University on programmable metamaterials and structures.

Our paper is published in Science Advances (W. Li, Y. Wang, T. Chen, X. S. Zhang).

Prof. Zhang delivered a seminar in Aerospace at Georgia Tech.

Prof. Zhang receives NSF award for carbon-negative civil structures with bio-based materials.

Our paper is published in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (W. Li and X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Additive Manufacturing (R. D. Kundu, X. S. Zhang).

Recognized for contributions to education and independent research program.

Prof. Zhang elected into the Executive Committee of ISSMO.

Prof. Zhang delivered a State-Of-The-Art talk at the 15th World Congress on Structural Optimization.

Our paper is published in Journal of Applied Mechanics (Z. Zhao, C. Wang, X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Engineering Science (W. Li, Y. Jia, O. Sigmund, X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Composite Structures (R. D. Kundu, X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (C. Wang, Z. Zhao, X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in npj Computational Materials (Z. Zhao, X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (Y. Jia, O. Lopez-Pamies, X. S. Zhang).

Prof. Zhang received 2023 YIP award from AFOSR for research on composite flight structures.

Prof. Zhang delivered a lecture at the Danish Center for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (DCAMM), Lyngby, Denmark.

PhD student Yingqi Jia won 2nd place at ASME CONCAM Student Poster Competition (IMECE 2022). Congratulations!

PhD student Zhi Zhao won 2nd place at NSF Poster Competition at ASME IMECE 2022. Congratulations!

Prof. Zhang received DARPA Young Faculty Award for research on programmable biomaterials and robots.

Prof. Zhang named faculty scholar at UIUC for academic leadership on risk management.

Prof. Zhang was selected to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent at UIUC.

PhD student Joshua won the prestigious SURGE Fellowship (2022–2026). Congratulations!

Prof. Zhang served as editor of special issue on Additively Manufactured Structures in Engineering Structures.

Prof. Zhang gave a talk at “Emerging Topics in Mechanics” for Prof. Huang’s 60th birthday in Houston, TX.

Zhi Zhao received the Loh Kwan Chen Fellowship (2022–2023). Congratulations!

Our paper is published in Extreme Mechanics Letters (R. Kundu, W. Li, X. S. Zhang).

Published in PNAS (W. Li, F. Wang, O. Sigmund, X. S. Zhang).

Prof. Zhang delivered a seminar at Stanford CEE department.

Prof. Zhang was recognized in Fall 2021 teaching evaluations at UIUC.

Prof. Zhang won the 2022 Journal of Applied Mechanics Award. The award honors the best paper published in the journal during the two prior years.

Prof. Zhang was selected as an Honor Member of Chi Epsilon – National Civil Engineering Honor Society.

Prof. Zhang delivered a distinguished lecture at ASME IMECE on programmable soft metastructures.

Prof. Zhang served as editor of ISSMO newsletter.

Prof. Zhang received the NSF EAGER award on fracture optimization.

Co-created with William Baker, SOM.

Our paper on hard-magnetic soft materials was published.

Comprehensive review article in SMO.

PhD student Zhi Zhao won the best student poster at USNCCM16.

Prof. Zhang was appointed review editor of SMO, official journal of ISSMO.

Prof. Zhang was elected vice-chair for USACM’s TTA on large-scale design.

Prof. Zhang organized virtual female networking events.

Paper on topology-optimized graded porous structures.

Our paper is published in Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids.

Prof. Zhang was selected to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent.

Prof. Zhang was selected as a fellow of NSF CMMI Game Changer Academies.

Thematic webinar hosted by Prof. Wei Chen and Shelly Zhang.

NSF CAREER project on multi-functional civil structures.

Our paper is published in Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (Z. Zhao and X. S. Zhang).

Our paper is published in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (X. S. Zhang, H. Chi, and Z. Zhao).

Prof. Zhang serves as the editor of the inaugural newsletter of ISSMO.

Prof. Zhang was selected to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent in Summer 2020.

Our paper is published in Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (X. S. Zhang, W. Li, and Y. Ouyang).

Prof. Zhang serves on the Early Career Special Committee of ISSMO.

Prof. Zhang serves as the Event Officer in FRG of USACM.

Prof. Zhang was selected to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent in Spring 2020.

Prof. Zhang serves on the organizing committee of the 16th USNCCM (2021).

UIUC-Carle Health Covid PPE design team for N95 mask and face shield.

Guideway optimization for pedestrian traffic.

With SOM for UIUC Campus Instructional Facility.

Invited talk at TMS 2020.

Our paper is published in Journal of Applied Mechanics (X. S. Zhang, E. de Sturler, and A. Shapiro).

Our paper is published in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (X. S. Zhang, H. Chi, and G. H. Paulino).

Our paper is published in Mechanics Research Communications (X. S. Zhang and H. Chi).

Prof. Zhang delivered an invited lecture atDepartment of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering at University of Minnesota.

Prof. Zhang delivered a keynote lecture at 15th U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics.

Prof. Zhang delivered an invited lecture at School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Prof. Zhang has been named Faculty Fellow by NCSA with fellowship funding. This project explores patient-specific scaffold optimization at scale.

Prof. Zhang was invited to attend roundtable at the Sandia National Lab.

Prof. Zhang won the institutional-wide Best Ph.D. Thesis award at Georgia Tech from the Sigma Xi science and engineering honor society.

Prof. Zhang received the ASCE ExCEEd Faculty Fellowship. She attended the teaching workshop hosted by ASCE.

Prof. Zhang has started at the CEE Department at the University of Illinois as an Assistant Professor, pursuing research on design optimization and additive manufacturing.

Dr. Zhang was selected for the 2018 Best PhD Thesis Award by the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Dr. Zhang joins the CEE Department at the University of Illinois as an Adjunct Assistant Professor. She will be teaching Structural Analysis (CEE 470) in Spring 2019.

Shelly will join the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign as an Assistant Professor in January 2019.

The paper Material nonlinear topology optimization using the ground structure method with a discrete filtering scheme was the most downloaded paper of all mechanics journals from Springer in 2017. See Springer Highlights in Mechanics 2017.