I am a PhD student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at UC San Diego. My work moves between mathematical biology, control and systems theory, deep learning, network theory, documentary filmmaking, and essay writing.
See Research, Film, Photography, Writing, and Life.
Before joining UC San Diego, I received my BSc in mathematics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) and an MSc with Distinction in mathematics from University of Oxford.
I am interested in building a practice that lets formal analysis, complex systems, and field-based creative work inform each other.
| sh299999zhang@gmail.com | |
| GitHub | github.com/Z299999 |
| Medium | @sh299999zhang |
My research sits at the intersection of analysis, dynamical systems, and complex adaptive behaviour. Areas of interest: mathematical biology, control and systems theory, deep learning, and network theory.
A current research direction focused on continuum and network-based models of collective behaviour. This line studies control and analysis questions in opinion dynamics, information diffusion, and their connections to ensemble systems.
An ongoing project on designing neural systems whose structure itself supports memory across multiple timescales. Current work explores how architectural organization can improve sequential learning, function approximation, and control without relying solely on external memory mechanisms.
A completed paper project on stabilization of nonlinear age-structured population dynamics with delayed actuation. The work combines PDE reduction, delay compensation, and predictor feedback design to establish exponential closed-loop stability.
A computational framework for studying the emergence of complex behaviours through the co-evolution of neural agents and their environment. Interactive demo →
A dissertation project on probabilistic numerical methods for fluid dynamics, using random vortex particles to approximate vorticity and study incompressible flows.
A project on generating synthetic brain networks based on the Drosophila connectome, combining flow-based community detection, Hodge decomposition, centrality measures, and probabilistic modelling.
I create documentary and creative films exploring themes of nature, identity, and human experience.
An ethnomusicographic film set in the mountainous regions of Yunnan Province, funded by the University of Oxford. Through fieldwork, it explores how sound is intertwined with the land, while reflecting on how economic development, cultural change, and tourism shape these musical traditions.
A short documentary developed on behalf of the University of Southern California, following the journey of an Uber driver in Los Angeles and mirroring the filmmaker's own experiences.
A 17-minute award-winning documentary focusing on the lives of construction workers building a university campus and drawing attention to the shared space between students and workers, experienced at different times.
Selected photographs. More coming soon.
Essays, reflections, and small thought experiments published on Medium.
A Medium essay on the relationship between language, knowledge, and the kinds of empty confidence that language can sometimes produce.
A piece that starts from age-structured equations and moves toward a broader question: why living systems seem to learn so effectively without ever being explicitly trained.
A daydream about education that began during fieldwork in the mountains of China, when a child's game suddenly echoed the language of graph theory.
A playful essay about defining what a dumpling is, and about the strange kind of imagination that can emerge from living and thinking with mathematicians.
I am drawn to ways of living that are simple, intentional, and close to the road, the landscape, and the rhythms of everyday work.
This part of the site holds van life, travel, and personal reflections on community, friendship, and home.
Van life — building out a Chevy Express →
