Faculty
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Wei Zhang Associate Professor, Ph.D., P.E Office: Castleman 321 Phone: (860)486-5642 Fax: (860)486-2298 Email: wzhang@uconn.edu |
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Dr. Wei Zhang, Director of DM²L, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Connecticut. His recent research over the past decade has focused on advancing physics-based and data-enhanced modeling frameworks for multi-hazard infrastructure resilience. His work integrates structural mechanics, fluid–structure interaction, uncertainty quantification, and system-level risk assessment to improve the performance and recovery of civil infrastructure under extreme events.
At DM²L, Dr. Zhang has led the development of multi-hazard damage modeling methodologies for buildings, bridges, power infrastructure, and coastal systems subjected to hurricane wind, storm surge, waves, and flooding. His group has pioneered damage-conditioned progressive failure modeling, hybrid physics–AI surrogate frameworks, life-cycle fatigue and deterioration modeling, and infrastructure interdependency analysis. These efforts bridge component-scale mechanics and network-scale resilience to support decision-making for coastal and community-scale risk mitigation.
Dr. Zhang’s research also extends to offshore and renewable energy systems, where he investigates structural reliability and long-term performance of wind and wave energy infrastructure under coupled environmental loading. His work has been supported by federal agencies including NSF and has contributed to advancing next-generation resilience modeling tools that integrate mechanics-based simulation with scalable computational strategies.
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Professional affiliations:
- Associated Editor: ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering; ASCE Journal of Aerospace Engineering
- Associated Editor: Frontiers in Built Environment: Wind Engineering and Science
- Editorial Board: Engineering Application of Computational Fluid Mechanics
Linked Webpages:
- Link to Webpage at CEE Link to Webpage at IMS Link to Webpage at UTC-IASE Link to Webpage at Eversource Energy Center
- LinkedIn ResearchGate
- Google Scholar
Graduate Students
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Alok Sharma
Ph.D. Student B.S. Tribhuvan University |
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Lucy Li Ph.D. Student Structural EngineeringB.S., University of Connecticut |
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Yuanlong Dai Ph.D. Student Structural EngineeringB.S., University of Connecticut |
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Group Photo
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Fall 2020
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Spring 2018
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Fall 2016
Alumni
Graduate Students:
Ph.D.
William Hughes (2019-2023), Ph.D., Postdoc researcher
Zhixia Ding (2019-2023), Ph.D., Software Engineer
Jintao Zhang (2018-2022), Ph.D., Data Scientist
Dongping Zhu (2018-2022), Ph.D., Software Engineer
Qin Lu (2018-2021), Ph.D. Data Scientist
Xiaolong Ma (2017-2021), Ph.D. Civil engineer
Xuan Li (2016-2020), Ph.D. Software Engineer
Hao Yuan (2014-2018), Ph.D. Structural Engineer
Jin Zhu (2014-2018), Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Southwest Jiaotong University, Sichuan, China
M.S.
Yiannis Bagtzoglou (2021-2022), M.Sc., Structural Engineer, ConnDOT
Di Wu (2016-2018), M.Sc., Structural Engineer, AECOM
Jeffery Weston (2015-2017), M.Sc., Engineer, Pratt & Whitney.
Visiting Scholars/Postdoc Researchers:
Guodong Li (Associate Professor, Inner Mongolia University, 2018-2019)
Huawei Niu (Associate Professor, Hunan University, 2016-2017)
Mengxue Wu (Assistant Professor, Southwest Petroleum University, 2015-2016)
Zhonglong Li (Associate Professor, Harbin Institute of Technology, 2015-2016)
Huijuan Liu (Associate Professor, Guangxi University, 2014-2015)
Huaiguang Li (Assitant Professor, Southwest Jiaotong University, 2014)
Undergraduate Students:
Samantha Paglia (2021-2022, University of Connecticut)
Fernando Diaz (2021 Summer, University of Connecticut)
Matthew Wendland (2020-2022, University of Connecticut)
Liam Hanley (2020-2021, University of Connecticut –> for M.S. at University of Maine)
Yannis Bagtzoglou (2019-2020, University of Connecticut)
Louis (Tony) Lopez (2018-2019, University of Connecticut)
Maeve Manfredi (2018, University of Connecticut)
Matthew Yang (2018, University of Connecticut)
Yijie Wu (2017, University of Connecticut)
Xuesong Li (2017, University of Connecticut -> for M.S. at Georgia Institute of Technology)
Donato Piroscafo (Summer 2017, Gateway Community College, NSF E-REU Project on Energy Harvesting)
Zixi Wang (2016-2017, University of Connecticut -> for M.S. at University of California, Irvine)
Nicholas Dellabianca (2016, University of Connecticut)
Courtney Llinares (2015-2016, University of Connecticut)
Lucas Coasta (2015, University of Connecticut/Faculdade de engenharia de Sorocaba, Sorocaba-SP, Brazil)
Steven Conte (2014, University of Connecticut)
K-12 Student Researchers:
Brodey Lu (2020-2021, Amity Regional High School –> Northwestern University, Class of 2026)
Jason Gong (2015-2016, Glastonbury High School -> CMU, class of 2020)