Research Interests
Design Science; AI for Design; Design Decision-making; Swarm Manufacturing; Hybrid Manufacturing; Cooperative 3D Printing; Complex Systems Engineering; Systems Science
Bio
Dr. Zhenghui Sha is an Associate Professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and the holder of the June and Gene Gillis Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Manufacturing Systems Engineering at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin. Dr. Sha received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. Dr. Sha’s research focuses on design science and system science as well as the intersection between these two areas. In particular, his research projects span across design theory, artificial intelligence (AI) for design, human-machine interaction, swarm manufacturing, and complex sociotechnical systems, such as transportation systems and electric vehicle (EV) charging networks. He is a core faculty member in the Advanced Manufacturing and Design Area, a faculty member of the Center for Additive Manufacturing and Design Innovation (CAMDI), and an affiliated faculty member of the Oden Institute of Computational Engineering and Sciences.
Dr. Sha was named the Walker Scholar by the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at UT in 2024 and was the recipient of the SAE International Education Award Honoring Ralph R. Teetor. He received the 2022 Young Engineering Award (YEA) and the Best Dissertation of the Year Award in 2017 from the Computers & Information in Engineering (CIE) Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He was the recipient of the 2023 ASME Journal of Mechanical Design (JMD) Editor’s Choice (Best Paper) Honorable Mention and the Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering (JCISE) Editor’s Pick Award (Best Paper) twice in 2025 and 2026. He received the ASME Robert E. Fulton Best Paper Award twice from the Systems Engineering Information & Knowledge Management (SEIKM) Technical Committee in 2013 and 2017, as well as a Best Paper Award from the ASME AI/ML Technical Committee in 2025.
Dr. Sha received the Best Faculty Advisor Award (Honorable Mention) from UT ME, the 2021 Outstanding Faculty Members of the Year Award, the 2020 Outstanding Teaching Award, and the Open Education Resources Initiative Award from the University of Arkansas. He was the Reviewer with the Distinction Award for JMD and received the Technical Committee Leadership Awards from the ASME CIE Division in 2020 and 2025. Dr. Sha is the inaugural Chair of the ASME CIE Hackathon and has been a member of the ASME CIE Hackathon Committee since 2019. He served as Chair of the ASME SEIKM Technical Committee from 2018 to 2019 and Chair of the ASME AI/ML Technical Committee from 2024 to 2025. He has been serving on the Executive Committee of the ASME Design Automation Conference (DAC) since 2024. His collaborative research on swarm manufacturing was featured by 3DPrintingIndustry.com, General Electric, and Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca of CBS. He teaches courses on machine elements, design methodology, and data-driven design and decision-making in complex systems.
Educational Qualifications
- Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 2015
- M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 2010
- B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, 2006
Select Awards & Honors
- SAE International Education Award Honoring Ralph R. Teetor, Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) (2026)
- Editor's Pick Award, Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, ASME (2025, 2026)
- AI/ML Best Paper Award, Computers and Information in Engineering (CIE) Division, ASME (2025)
- Associate Editor of the Year Award, Journal of Mechanical Design, ASME (2025)
- Editor’s Choice Award with Honorable Mention, Journal of Mechanical Design, ASME (2024)
- Walker Scholar, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (2024)
- Best Faculty Advisor Award with Honorable Mention, Mechanical Engineering Graduate Students Board, The University of Texas at Austin (2023)
- Young Engineer Award (YEA), Computers and Information in Engineering (CIE) Division, ASME (2022)
- Outstanding Teaching Award, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Arkansas (2020)
- Best Dissertation of the Year Award, Computers and Information in Engineering (CIE) Division, ASME (2017)
Related Websites
Select Publications
