Dr. Xian Zhang

Biography

Xian Zhang is a lecturer in the Department of Statistics at the University of Michigan, specializing in Computational Mechanics. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and went on to earn a Master's degree in Computational Mechanics from Columbia University. He completed his Ph.D. in Computational Mechanics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with a minor in Statistics and a focus on stochastic dynamics. Zhang has served as the social chair and academic vice president of the graduate student advisory committee while being a student advisor. His research interests include optimization, stochastic dynamics, and autonomous mobility, alongside general software management. Currently, he is a full-time software engineer in the self-driving industry, working on ML-driven planning solutions. Zhang is passionate about introducing effective computational tools commonly used in the industry to his students, encouraging them to pursue their ambitions. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his cat Fay, reading, visiting museums, and practicing pilates.

Research Interests