Dr. Jie Zhang is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Affiliated) at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D. (2012) in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY, USA. His research expertise and interests are sustainable energy systems, machine learning, complex engineered systems, and multidisciplinary design optimization. His research has been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, and energy industry. His major awards include: ONR’s Young Investigator Award (2020), ASME Design Automation Young Investigator Award (2020), Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award (2022-2023), Invited Participant of US-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2024), 13 best paper awards from multiple journals and IEEE, ASME, AIAA, JSM conferences.