Richard Y. Zhang

Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Coordinated Science Laboratory
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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My research is in optimization and machine learning, and applications in power and energy systems. I'm particularly interested in theoretical foundations and practical algorithms for nonconvex low-rank matrix optimization and convex semidefinite programming. Advances here can bring about radical, game-changing improvements to our ability to solve power and energy problems, with provable guarantees on cost, performance, efficiency, reliability, robustness, and safety.

I am advising PhD students Gavin (Jialun) Zhang, Hong-Ming Chiu, Iven Guzel, and June Hou; and undergraduate student Nathan Wang. I'm always looking for outstanding people to join my team -- please send me an email with your specific research interests.

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2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2011-2013

Trivia

My last name 张/張 (Zhāng) is pronounced "Dj-uh-ng", but I usually go by the anglicized "Z-ang". People often confuse me with Dr. Richard Zhang, or Dr. Richard Zhang, or Prof. Richard Zhang, which is why I usually give my middle initial when stating my name. But even then, my name still collides with Dr. Richard Y. Zhang and Dr. Richard Y. Zhang.

I am originally from New Zealand. I was in a post-rock band in college, see Two Weeks and Life without Light.

© 2018-2022 Richard Y. Zhang.