Zhonghua Zheng Ph.D. Candidate Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

SHORT BIO | (Academic Curriculum Vitae) | (One-Page Résumé)

I am currently a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Illinois studying Environmental Engineering, supervised by Prof. Nicole Riemer. I closely work with Prof. Lei Zhao and Prof. Matthew West. I am also a Data Scientist Intern at Crop Science - Bayer, and a Graduate Assistant at the Department of Computer Science (CS) @ Illinois.
I was an ORISE Ph.D. Intern/Researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) during 2018 Summer, working with National Center for Computational Sciences - Advanced Data and Workflows Group; and a Data Scientist Intern during 2018 Spring at Monsanto Innovation Center where I mainly worked for The Climate Corporation.

CURRENT APPOINTMENTS

• 01/2019 - Present: Graduate Research Assistant at University of Illinois
• Affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Mentor: Prof. Lei Zhao
• 08/2018 - Present: Graduate Assistant at University of Illinois
• Affiliation: Department of Computer Science (CS)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• 09/2018 - 05/2019: Data Scientist Intern at Bayer (Crop Science Division)
• Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science - Measurements Team
• 05/2018 - 08/2018: Researcher at Oak Ridge National Labratory (ORNL)
• Affiliation: National Center for Computational Sciences - Advanced Data and Workflows Group
• Media: ORNL
• 01/2018 - 05/2018: Data Scientist-UIUC Innovation Center- at Monsanto Company
• Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science - Measurements Team
• Affiliation (Monsanto Company): GLB Breeding - Analytics & Pipeline Design
• Got summer intern (05/2018 - 08/2018) return offer

RESEARCH THEMES

Agriculture, Atmospheric Science, Computational Science and Engineering, Data Science, Environment

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My work focuses on computer simulation, modeling, and spatial analysis of atmospheric aerosols, and complex agriculture-environment nexus system. I am passionate about learning and solving practical problems using Data Science (big data) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially Machine Learning (ML).

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020 (Expected) (U.S. News Program Rankings: #3)
• Advisor: Prof. Nicole Riemer
• Concentration: Computational Science and Engineering
• M.S., Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016 (U.S. News Program Rankings: #5)
• Advisor: Prof. Xinlei Wang
• Thesis Committee Members: Prof. Richard S Gates and Prof. Liangcheng Yang
• M.S. Thesis: Impedance-based moisture content sensor assessment for gas-phase biofilters
• B.Eng., Biosystems Engineering, Zhejiang University, 2015 (Top 2 "A+" Agricultural Engineering Program in China)
• Advisor: Prof. Zhangying Ye
• Student, English Language Courses, The University of Manchester, 2013
• Introduction to University Life and British Cultural Studies, Univeristy Language Centre (28 January 2013 - 21 February 2013)

SELECTED AWARDS AND LEADERSHIP

• Finalist, SMOKY MOUNTAIN Computational Sciences and Engineering Conference (SMC) Data Challenge, 2018
• First Place, Student Paper Award, Association of Overseas Chinese Agricultural, Biological, and Food Engineers (AOCABFE), 2016
• Tau Beta Pi (The Engineering Honor Society), inducted 2016
• Alpha Epsilon (The Honor Society of Agricultural, Biological & Food Engineering), inducted 2015

SELECTED CERTIFICATES

• Machine Learning, issued by Stanford University on Coursera, 2018 (Verifiable Link)
• Deep Learning, a 5-course specialization by deeplearning.ai on Coursera. Specialization Certificate earned on June 8, 2018 (Verifiable Link)
• Neural Networks and Deep Learning, issued by deeplearning.ai on Coursera, 2018 (Verifiable Link)
• Improving Deep Neural Networks: Hyperparameter tuning, Regularization and Optimization, issued by deeplearning.ai on Coursera, 2018 (Verifiable Link)
• Structuring Machine Learning Projects, issued by deeplearning.ai on Coursera, 2018 (Verifiable Link)
• Convolutional Neural Networks, issued by deeplearning.ai on Coursera, 2018 (Verifiable Link)
• Sequence Models, issued by deeplearning.ai on Coursera, 2018 (Verifiable Link)
• Data Science (DATAQUEST)
• Path: Data Scientist in Python | Data Analyst in Python | Data Analyst in R
• Courses: Python | R | Natural Language Processing | SQL | Spark and Map-Reduce | Bash Command Line | Git
• Subjects: Data Structure and Algorithms | Data Cleaning | Data Visualization | Data Analysis | Data Science Topics | Data Storage for Analytics | Big Data Tools | APIs and Web Scraping | The Command Line
• Fundamental Engineer (FE) in Environmental Engineering, issued by NCEES, 2017 (Verifiable Link)

SELECTED GRADUATE COURSEWORK

• Machine Learning and Data Analytics
• STAT 542 / CSE 542, Statistical Learning (A+)
• STAT 420, Methods of Applied Statistics (A+)
• GEOG 480, Principles of GIS (Geographic Information System) (A)
• Atmospheric Science and Air Quality
• ATMS 420, Atmospheric Chemistry (A+)
• CEE 545, Aerosol Sampling and Analysis (A+)

RESEARCH PRODUCTS

• Peer-reviewed Journals
1. Zheng, Z., Yang, L., Gates, R. S., Wu, J., & Wang, X. (2017). Impedance-based moisture content sensor assessment for gas-phase biofilter media. Transactions of the ASABE, 60(5), 2163-2173. doi: 10.13031/trans.12335. (View)(Download)
2. Zheng, Z., Lin, X., Zhu, S., He, J., Cao, Y., & Ye, Z. (2016). Investigation on the bactericidal efficacy of atomized slightly acidic electrolyzed water. Chinese Journal of Disinfection, 33(4), 312-317. doi: 10.11726/j.issn.1001-7658.2016.04.004 (Peer-viewed, In Chinese). (View)
• Thesis
1. Zheng, Z.(2016). Impedance-based moisture content sensor assessment for gas-phase biofilters. Master thesis, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (View)
• Conference Proceedings
1. Zheng, Z., Yang, L., & Wang, X. (2016). Monitoring moisture content of gas-phase biofilter based on impedance under different conditions. In 2016 ASABE Annual International Meeting, No. 162461021 (pp. 14). American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. doi:10.13031/aim.20162461021. (View)(Download)
• Oral Presentations
1. Zheng, Z. (2017). Impedance-based moisture content sensor assessment for gas-phase biofilters. Oral Presentation in CEE 595 AG Seminar, Environmental Engineering and Science Program Seminar at UIUC, Urbana, IL., April 20.
2. Zheng, Z. (2016). Monitoring moisture content of gas-phase biofilter based on impedance under different conditions. Oral Presentation in M.S. Thesis Final Defense, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at UIUC, Urbana, IL., August 26.
3. Zheng, Z., Yang, L., & Wang, X. (2016). Monitoring moisture content of gas-phase biofilter based on impedance under different conditions. Oral Presentation in 2016 ASABE Annual International Meeting, American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, Orlando, FL., July 20.
• Poster Presentations
1. Zheng, Z., Anantharaj, V. G., Gasparik, J., Curtis, J. H., Yao, Y., Hughes, M. P., Schmidt, D., West, M., & Riemer, N. (2019). Machine Learning to Predict Multi-Aerosol Mixing State Metrics. Poster Presentation in AMS 99th Annual Meeting, American Meteorological Society, Phoenix, AZ., January 7. (View)
2. Zheng, Z., Dash, S., Schmidt, D., Yin, Y., Riemer, N., West, M., & Anantharaj, V. G. (2018). A Machine Learning Approach to Estimate Multi-Aerosol Mixing State Metrics at a Global Scale in Earth System Models. Poster Presentation in 2018 AGU Fall Meeting, American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C., December 10. (View)
3. Zheng, Z. & Riemer, N. (2018). Global Aerosol Mixing State Metrics Distribution Assessment: Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Approaches. Poster Presentation in 24th Annual Environmental Engineering & Science Symposium at UIUC, Champaign, IL., April 13. (View)
4. Zheng, Z., Fu, K., Balasubramanian, S., Koloutsou-Vakakis, S., McFarland, D. M., & Rood, M. J. (2017). Evaluation of WRF Parameterizations for Air Quality Applications over the Midwest USA. Poster Presentation in 2017 AGU Fall Meeting, American Geophysical Union, New Orleans, LA., December 14. (View)

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email: zzheng25@illinois.edu
4144 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory
205 North Mathews Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801-2352

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