Zhenghui Sha Selected as Inaugural Chief of Naval Research Fellow
Associate professor has been selected to the inaugural class of Chief of Naval Research Fellows by Office of Naval Research.
Launched earlier this year, the fellowship is designed to foster a constant infusion of state-of-the-art knowledge, while simultaneously creating a growing network of researchers who can translate the Navy and Marine Corps’ most pressing challenges into science and technology (S&T) research that will provide critical benefits to Sailors and Marines.
The CNR Fellows program brings the dozen academic research professors to ONR for a one-year fellowship in support of critical naval focus areas, with a stipend of $150,000 per Fellow.
The one-year fellowship timeframe promotes a sense of urgency for participants to learn and contribute quickly — while also expanding the program’s reach to a larger number of researchers over time and ultimately creating ONR and Department of the Navy (DoN) advocates on campus.
All 12 winners were chosen from more than 180 nominations from approximately 70 academic institutions across the United States. A formal welcoming ceremony will take place in October at ONR headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
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.