About
Zhao Chen, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bridge Engineering in the School of Transportation of Southeast University. As an interdisciplinary researcher, he has cultivated a keen interest in integrating civil engineering knowledge with data analytics, working on various topics related to system identification and modeling under the umbrella of AI for science and scientific machine learning (SciML), ever since his doctoral study at Northeastern University (USA) and post-doctoral experience at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). As a budding scholar, he participated in five research projects, including a National Science Foundation grant and the Data Model Convergence Initiative of PNNL. In the last five years, he has co-authored 11 top-tiered journal publications, including a first-authored work on Nature Communications, one US patent, and one open-source SciML software. He received the 5th Annual Thornton Tomasetti Student Innovation Fellowship (2020) and the College of Engineering Outstanding Graduate Research Award from Northeastern University (2021). He actively reviews for broad disciplines such as Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, GIScience & Remote Sensing, AIMS Mathematics, etc.
Education
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, USA. 2021. (Supervised by Dr. Hao Sun)
M.Eng. in Structural Engineering, Southeast University, China. 2017. (Supervised by Dr. Jian Zhang)
B.Eng. in Civil Engineering, Southeast University, China. 2014.
Work Experience
Associate Professor, Southeast University, China. 2023-present.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA. 2021-2022. (Mentored by Dr. Draguna Vrabie and Dr. Jan Drgona)
Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant, Northeastern University, USA. 2018-2021.
Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant, University of Pittsburgh, USA. 2017-2018.
Research Interests
Physics-informed Machine Learning for Simulation and Identification of Complex Systems
Equation Discovery
Uncertainty Quantification
Scour Simulation
Structural Health Monitoring
Teaching
Bridge Analysis and Deep Learning (Graduate)
Bridge Design and Artificial Intelligence (Graduate)
Research Projects
Southeast University start-up grant (RMB 400k). PI.
National Science Foundation grant CMMI-2013067 (USD 600k). Participant.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Data Model Converge initiative. Participant.
MathWorks Micro-grant (USD 25k). Participant.
Northeastern University Tier-1 Project (USD 50k). Participant.
The 5th Annual Thornton Tomasetti Student Innovation Fellowship (USD 5k). PI.
Publications (last five years)
Chen, Qin*, Nan Wang*, and Zhao Chen. Simultaneous mapping of nearshore bathymetry and waves based on physics-informed deep learning. Coastal Engineering 183 (2023): 104337.
Chen, Zhao*, and Nan Wang. Learning dynamics from coarse/noisy data with scalable symbolic regression. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 190 (2023): 110147.
Koch, James*, et al. Structural inference of networked dynamical systems with universal differential equations. Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science 33.2 (2023): 023103.
Wang, Nan, Qin Chen*, and Zhao Chen. Reconstruction of nearshore wave fields based on physics-informed neural networks. Coastal Engineering 176 (2022): 104167.
Chen, Zhao, Yang Liu*, and Hao Sun. Symbolic Deep Learning for Structural System Identification. Journal of Structural Engineering 148.9 (2022): 04022116.
Chen, Zhao, Yang Liu, and Hao Sun*. Forecasting of nonlinear dynamics based on symbolic invariance. Computer Physics Communications 277 (2022): 108382.
Chen, Zhao, Yang Liu*, and Hao Sun*. Physics-informed learning of governing equations from scarce data. Nature communications 12.1 (2021): 6136.
Chen, Zhao, and Hao Sun*. Sparse representation for damage identification of structural systems. Structural Health Monitoring 20.4 (2021): 1644-1656.
Chen, Zhao, et al. Sparse Bayesian learning for structural damage identification. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020): 106689.
Zhang, Ruiyang, et al. Deep long short-term memory networks for nonlinear structural seismic response prediction. Computers & Structures 220 (2019): 55-68.
Sun, Hao*, et al. Computational modeling of a unique tower in Kuwait for structural health monitoring: Numerical investigations. Structural Control and Health Monitoring 26.3 (2019): e2317.
Students
Chunwei Li, Ph.D. student, 2023-present. (co-advised with Dr. Steve C. S. Cai and Dr. Wen Xiong)
Han Lin, master student, 2023-present. (co-advised with Dr. Wen Xiong)
Qilin Yang, undergraduate, 2023-present. (co-advised with Dr. Wen Xiong)
Contact
Email: zhaochenseu@seu.edu.cn
Office: Unit 510, School of Transportation, Jiulonghu Campus, Southeast University.