Dr. Jie Zhang is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Affiliated) at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D. (2012) in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY, USA. His research expertise and interests are power & energy systems, electric cars and ships, renewable integration, big data analytics, machine learning, complex engineered systems, and multidisciplinary design optimization. His research has been funded by U.S. Department of Energy, Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, and energy industry. His major awards include: ONR's Young Investigator Award, ASME Design Automation Young Investigator Award, SAS/IIF (International Institute of Forecasters) award, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award, 9 best paper awards from Renewable Energy journal and multiple IEEE/ASME/AIAA conferences. ;