National Academy of Engineering Honors Xin Zhang
Xin Zhang, a College of Engineering associate professor of manufacturing engineering, was one of 83 engineers between the ages of 30 and 45 selected by the National Academy of Engineering to participate in the 13th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in September. Nominated by engineers or organizations and chosen from among more than 260 applicants from across the country, they include representatives from industry, academia, and government, with research interests spanning a broad range of engineering and technical disciplines.
The purpose of the symposium is to give innovative, emerging leaders in engineering the opportunity to foster collaborations across disciplines by discussing several large-scale engineering challenges. The 2007 meeting was held at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., campus from September 24 to 26 and addressed trustworthy computer systems, safe water technologies, modeling and simulating human behavior, biotechnology for fuels and chemicals, and the control of protein conformations.
“It’s interesting to go there. It’s important,” says Zhang. “You have a chance to interact and participate in discussions of important issues in science and engineering, and it’s very open.” She was able to speak with people from a wide variety of backgrounds — government labs, industry, and academics.
Zhang came to ENG in 2002 from MIT, where she was a research scientist in the Microsystems Technologies Laboratory and Gas Turbine Laboratory. Her BU research encompasses work on biological, photonic, and power applications of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), as well as development of new manufacturing technologies and materials for MEMS and nanoelectomechanical systems (NEMS).
This article originally appeared in the fall issue of the BU College of Engineering magazine. Click here to read past issues.