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. Since 2019, he has co-authored 13 top-tiered journal publications (cited 885 times by September 2024), 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 various disciplines such as Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, PLOS One, Scientific Reports, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, GIScience & Remote Sensing, AIMS Mathematics, etc.
Research Interests
Scientific Machine Learning; Bridge Scour; Engineering Dynamics; Equation Discovery; Structural Health Monitoring
Education
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, USA. 2021.
· Advised by Dr. Hao Sun and Dr. Yang Liu
M.Eng. in Structural Engineering, Southeast University, China. 2017.
· Advised by Dr. Jian Zhang
B.Eng. in Civil Engineering, Southeast University, China. 2014.
· Capstone project advised by Dr. Youliang Ding
Work Experience
Associate Professor, Department of Bridge Engineering, Southeast University, China. 2023-present.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Data Sciences and Machine Intelligence Group, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA. 2021-2022.
· Mentored by Dr. Draguna Vrabie and Dr. Jan Drgona
Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, USA. 2018-2021.
Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, USA. 2017-2018.
Funded Projects
Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20241342; 2024-2027). PI
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (RF1028623277; 2023-2027). PI.
The 5th Annual Thornton Tomasetti Student Innovation Fellowship (2020-2022). PI.
National Science Foundation (CMMI-2013067; 2020-2024). Participant.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Data Model Converge initiative. Participant.
MathWorks Micro-grant. Participant.
Northeastern University Tier-1 Project. Participant.
Publications (since 2019; *Corresponding author)
Chen, Zhao, Hao Sun, and Wen Xiong*. Forecasting dynamics by an incomplete equation of motion and an auto-encoder Koopman operator. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 220 (2024): 111599.
Chen, Zhao*, Nan Wang, and Hao Sun. Graph oscillators: Physics-guided graph modeling of mass–spring–damper systems for trajectory prediction and damage localization. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 212 (2024): 111297.
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.
Lectures
Principles of Structural Design (Undergrad)
Digital Bridges 3: Artificial Intelligence (Undergrad)
Bridge Analysis and Deep Learning (Grad)
Bridge Design and Artificial Intelligence (Grad)
Students
Qilin Yang, Ph.D. student, 2023-present. (co-advised with Dr. Wen Xiong)
Han Lin, master student, 2023-present. (co-advised with Dr. Wen Xiong)
Dingzhu Zhashi, master student, 2024-present
Contact
Email: zhaochenseu@seu.edu.cn
Office: Unit 510, School of Transportation, Jiulonghu Campus, Southeast University.