Two School of Engineering professors have gained top national recognition for breakthrough research that is set to have significant impact on the fields of energy efficiency and wireless communications.

 

Prof Tianshou Zhao, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Prof Qian Zhang, Computer Science and Engineering, received State Natural Science Awards (Second Class) for their outstanding contributions to their respective fields. State Science and Technology Awards are conferred by the State Council on outstanding individuals and institutions who make significant contributions to the development of science and technology. They are awarded under various categories and regarded as China's most prestigious honor in these fields. 

 

Prof Zhao and his research collaborators from Xi'an Jiaotong University were cited for investigations into multi-scale and multi-physics field coupled fluid flow and heat/mass transfer in complex systems. The team has collaborated on the research over the past decade. Through using a unique research methodology and strategy involving the integration of experimental observation, theoretical investigation, and computational modeling, the team has been able to make important contributions to the field. The main breakthrough is the construction of a framework to describe such flow and transfer processes by creating and using microscopic, mesoscopic and macroscopic theoretical and numerical approaches. This will be important in improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in energy conversion systems.

 

Prof Zhang and her partners from Tsinghua University conducted research for 10 years on fundamental issues related to wireless multimedia communication. Their work on models for joint wireless multimedia communication and performance optimization revealed the interaction between the structured nature of multimedia information and dynamic characters of error distribution in wireless networks, among other significant contributions. Researchers also made a major breakthrough in efficient video communications under discontinuous transmission conditions and effectively increasing bandwidth efficiency. This should assist design of future wireless video, mobile multimedia systems as well as next-generation wireless networks. 

 

In addition, Prof Zhang received a Natural Science Award (First Class) from Hubei Province. The award recognized Prof Zhang and her collaborators from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Peking University for their low-energy consuming broadband wireless communication research and technology.