Zhen Peng

For More Information

• Prof. Peng's Group Website

Biography

Zhen Peng (M’09–SM’18) received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering and information science from the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China, in 2003 and the Ph.D. degree in electromagnetics and microwave engineering from the Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China, in 2008. From 2008 to 2013, He was with the ElectroScience Laboratory, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, first as a Post-Doctoral Fellow (2008-2009) and then as a Senior Research Associate (2010-2013). From 2013 to 2019, He was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of New Mexico (UNM), Albuquerque, NM, USA. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE ILLINOIS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA.

Academic Positions

• Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2019-Present)
• Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico (2013-2019)

Short Courses

• 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting (with Thomas E. Roth, Weng C. Chew, Purdue University; Dong-Yeop Na, Pohang University of Science and Technology; Paolo Rocca, University of Trento, Italy) Short Course Title: Quantum Electromagnetics and Its Applications
• 2024 IEEE International Microwave Symposium (with Michael Haider, TUM; Thomas Roth, Purdue; Vladimir Okhmatovski, University of Manitoba, Canada) Workshop Title: Quantum Circuits, Methods, and Algorithms in Electromagnetics and Microwave Engineering
• 2023 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting (with Thomas E. Roth, Weng C. Chew, Purdue University; Dong-Yeop Na, Pohang University of Science and Technology; Paolo Rocca, Nicola Anselmi, University of Trento, Italy) Short Course Title: Quantum Electromagnetics and Its Applications
• 2023 IEEE International Microwave Symposium (with Johannes Russer, TUM; Vladimir Okhmatovski, University of Manitoba, Canada) Workshop Title: Quantum Circuits, Methods, and Algorithms in Electromagnetics and Microwave Applications
• 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting (with Thomas E. Roth, Dong-Yeop NA, Weng C. Chew, Purdue University, U.S.A.; Paolo Rocca, Giacomo Olivieri, Andre Massa, University of Trento, Italy) Short Course Title: Quantum Electromagnetics and Its Applications
• 2019 International Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) Symposium Short Course Title: Domain Decomposition Methods for Differential and Integral Equations

Research Statement

The foundation of my research is theoretical, computational, and statistical electromagnetics. The classical electromagnetic (EM) theory guided by Maxwell’s Equations has been around for over 150 years. It has an incredible impact on many modern technologies such as antennas and wireless communication, integrated circuits and computer technologies, remote sensing, lasers and optoelectronics, and more. Nowadays, with the exponential growth in computing power, machine intelligence and data revolution, quantum technologies and materials, there are enormous opportunities to continue advancing fundamental EM theories towards next- generation technology developments and applications.

My rudimentary research is the pursuit of mathematical and computational models that enable the prediction and discovery of classical and quantum electrodynamic phenomena. These models will allow for the design and optimization of novel electromagnetic systems at unprecedented scales, and contribute through education to the advancement of understanding. In this research statement, I will elaborate my recent and future research in four interrelated areas: (1) classical electromagnetism with scalable algorithms, (2) statistical electromagnetics: theories and practices, (3) quantum electromagnetics: simulating probability in space and time domain, and (4) chaotic reverberation chamber: measurement and control of uncertainties.

Post-Doctoral Research Opportunities

Prof. Peng is currently looking for outstanding post-doctoral researchers joining his research group.

Graduate Research Opportunities

Prof. Peng is currently looking for graduate students joining his research group.

Research Interests

• Classical electromagnetism with scalable algorithms: extreme-scale electromagnetic computation; computational electrodynamics with machine intelligence
• Statistical electromagnetics for complex environments: physics-oriented statistical wave analysis integrating order and chaos; electromagnetic information theory for wireless communication
• Quantum electromagnetics: simulating probability in space and time domain
• Chaotic reverberation chamber: measurement and control of uncertainties

Research Topics

• Machine learning
• RF and microwave engineering

Books Authored or Co-Authored (Original Editions)

• F. Vipiana and Z. Peng, Integral Equations for Real-Life Multiscale Electromagnetic Problems, IET Scitech Publishing, 2024

Selected Articles in Journals

• G. Cao and Z. Peng, “RayProNet: A Neural Point Field Framework for Radio Propagation Modeling in 3D Environments,” in IEEE Journal on Multiscale and Multiphysics Computational Techniques, vol. 9, pp. 330-340, 2024.
• I. Jung, Z. Peng, Y. Rahmat-Samii, "Recent Advances in Reconfigurable Electromagnetic Surfaces: Engineering Design, Full-Wave Analysis, and Large-Scale Optimization," Electromagnetic Science, in press, doi: 10.23919/emsci.2024.0020, 2024.
• S. Lin, S. Luo, Y. Shao, B. D. Addissie, Z. B. Drikas, G. Gradoni, and Z. Peng, "Statistical Analysis of Cavity Quality Factor Due to Localized Losses With the Stochastic Green's Function Method," IEEE Trans. Electromagnetic Compatibility, vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 844-858, June 2024.
• O. Noakoasteen, C. Christodoulou, Z. Peng, S. K. Goudos, "Physics-informed surrogates for electromagnetic dynamics using Transformers and graph neural networks", IET Microw. Antennas Propag., 18(7), 505-515 (2024).
• H. -W. Gao, X. -M. Xin, Q. J. Lim, S. Wang and Z. Peng, "Efficient Full-Wave Simulation of Large-Scale Metasurfaces and Metamaterials," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 800-811, Jan. 2024.
• J. Tobon, V. F. Martin, A. Serna, Z. Peng and F. Vipiana, "On the Use of a Localized Huygens’ Surface Scheme for the Adaptive H-Refinement of Multi-Scale Problems," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 71, no. 12, pp. 9344-9356, Dec. 2023.
• Q. J. Lim, C. Ross, A. Ghosh, F. Vook, G. Gradoni and Z. Peng, “Quantum-Assisted Combinatorial Optimization for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces in Smart Electromagnetic Environments,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 147-159, Jan. 2024.
• S. Lin, S. Luo, S. Ma, J. Feng, Y. Shao, Z. B. Drikas, B. D. Addissie, S. M. Anlage, T. Antonsen, and Z. Peng, “Predicting Statistical Wave Physics in Complex Enclosures: A Stochastic Dyadic Green’s Function Approach,” IEEE Trans. Electromagnetic Compatibility, vol. 65, no. 2, pp. 436-453, April 2023.
• X. -M. Xin, H. -W. Gao, S. Wang, Z. Peng and X. -Q. Sheng, "An Efficient and Effective Preconditioner for the Discontinuous Galerkin Domain Decomposition Method of Surface Integral Equation," in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 22, no. 10, pp. 2367-2371, Oct. 2023, doi: 10.1109/LAWP.2023.3288535.
• Gradoni, G., Di Renzo, M., Diaz-Rubio, A., Tretyakov, S., Caloz, C., Peng, Z., …Phang, S. (2022). Smart Surface Radio Environments. Reviews of Electromagnetics, 1, 1-42. https://doi.org/10.53792/roe/2022.1/21012
• H.W. Gao, S. Wang, X.Q. Sheng and Z. Peng, "Rapid Numerical Analysis of Electrically Large PEC Platforms With Local Variations via a Platform Green’s Function Method," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 70, no. 10, pp. 9544-9556, Oct. 2022.
• C. Ross, G. Gradoni, Q. J. Lim and Z. Peng, "Engineering Reflective Metasurfaces With Ising Hamiltonian and Quantum Annealing," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 70, no. 4, pp. 2841-2854, April 2022.
• S. Lin, Z. Peng, and T. Antonsen, "A Stochastic Green's Function for Solution of Wave Propagation in Wave-Chaotic Environments," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 68, no. 5, pp. 3919-3933, May 2020.
• O. Noakoasteen, S. Wang, Z. Peng and C. Christodoulou, “Physics-Informed Deep Neural Networks for Transient Electromagnetic Analysis,” IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation, vol. 1, pp. 404-412, 2020.
• S. Wang, Y. Shao, and Z. Peng, "A Parallel-in-Space-and-Time Method for Transient Electromagnetic Problems," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 67, no. 6, pp. 3961-3973, June 2019.
• B. MacKie-Mason, Y. Shao, A. Greenwood and Z. Peng, “Supercomputing-Enabled First-Principles Analysis of Radio Wave Propagation in Urban Environments,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 66, no. 12, pp. 6606-6617, Dec. 2018.
• H.-W. Gao, Z. Peng and X. -Q. Sheng, "A Coarse-Grained Integral Equation Method for Multiscale Electromagnetic Analysis," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 1607-1612, March 2018.
• Z. Peng, Y. Shao, H.-W. Gao, S. Wang and S. Lin, "High-Fidelity, high-performance computational algorithms for intra-system electromagnetic interference analysis of IC and electronics," IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, Invited paper for Special Topics Section on Addressing Signal and Power Integrity in Future Generation Systems. vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 653-668, May 2017.
• H.-W. Gao, Z. Peng, and X.-Q. Sheng, "A Geometry-Aware Domain Decomposition Preconditioning for Hybrid Finite Element-Boundary Integral Method," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 65, no. 4, pp. 1875-1885, April 2017.
• Z. Peng, R. Hiptmair, Y. Shao and B. MacKie-Mason, "Domain decomposition preconditioning for surface integral equations in solving challenging electromagnetic scattering problems," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 210-223, Jan. 2016.
• B. MacKie-Mason, A. Greenwood and Z. Peng, "An adaptive, parallel surface integral equation solver for very large-scale electromagnetic modeling and simulation," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, vol. 154, pp. 143-162, 2015.
• Z. Peng, "A Novel Multitrace Boundary Integral Equation Formulation for Electromagnetic Cavity Scattering Problems," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 63, no. 10, pp. 4446-4457, Oct. 2015.

Professional Societies

• Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques (2018 - 2020)
• Board of Directors, The Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (2019-2022)
• Technical Program Committee, Electrical Performance of Electronic Packaging and Systems (2020-present)
• Guest Editor, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (2023)
• Associate Editor, IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation (2023-present)

Honors

• Young Scientist Award in International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory (EMT-S 2010), Berlin, Germany (2010)
• ElectroScience Laboratory Annual Best Paper Award, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA (2011)
• Young Scientist Award of the 2013 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory (EMT-S 2013), Japan (2013)
• Young Scientist Award of 2013 Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference (AP-RASC 13), Taipei, Taiwan (2013)
• Best Transaction Paper Award - IEEE Antenna and Propagation Sergei A. Schelkunoff Transactions Prize Paper Award (2014)
• Young Scientist Award of XXXI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium of the International Union of Radio Science (URSIGASS 2014) (2014)
• The Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society Early Career Award (2015)
• 20th IEEE Workshop on Signal Integrity and Power Integrity Best Poster Paper Award (2016)
• International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference Young Scientist Award (2016)
• Distinguished Researcher Award, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico (2016)
• IEEE Albuquerque Section's Outstanding Young Engineer Award (2017)
• Best Transaction Paper Award - IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (2018)
• The ICEAA - IEEE APWC Award (at International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications and IEEE-APS Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications) (2018)
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award (ENG/ECCS/CCSS) (2018)
• IEEE EMC Symposium Best Paper Award (at 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, Signal & Power Integrity) (2019)
• EPEPS Best Paper Award (at 28th Conference on Electrical Performance of Electronic Packaging and Systems) (2019 )
• EPEPS Best Paper Award (at 30th Conference on Electrical Performance of Electronic Packaging and Systems) (2021)
• Best Electromagnetics Paper Award at 16th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (2022)
• IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Lecturer (2024)
• Richard B. Schulz HMTP Transaction Paper Award for IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility (2024)
• Best EMC Symposium Paper Award, 2nd Place (at the 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, Signal & Power Integrity (EMC+SIPI) ) (2024)

Teaching Honors

• UIUC List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent By Their Students (2024)

Research Honors

• UNM ECE Student Paper Competition, 3rd prize in Journal Paper Section (Brian MacKie Mason, Andrew Greenwood, and Zhen Peng) (2016)
• 20th IEEE Workshop on Signal Integrity and Power Integrity Best Poster Paper Award (Shen Lin, Hong-Wei Gao, and Zhen Peng) (2016)
• "Supercomputing-enabled first-principles analysis of wireless channels in real-world environments" entered into the best IMS Advanced Practice Paper in 2017 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (2017)
• "Quantitative Statistical Analysis with Physics-based Surrogate Modeling for Wave Chaotic Systems" received honorable mention award in Student Paper Competition at 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting (Shen Lin and Zhen Peng) (2017)
• Graduate Student Excellence Award in Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) (Brain MacKie-Mason) (2017)
• "A novel stochastic wave model statistically replicating reverberation chambers" received Best Paper Award in 26th Conference on Electrical Performance of Electronic Packaging and System (Shen Lin and Zhen Peng) (2017)
• "First-Principles Statistical Model of Communication Through Wave-Chaotic Environments" received an honorable mention award in Student Paper Competition at 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting (Shen Lin and Zhen Peng). (2018)
• 1st place in the student paper competition, "A Space-Time Domain Decomposition Method for High-fidelity Electromagnetic Simulation", 2018 International Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) Symposium (Shu Wang and Zhen Peng). (2018)
• "A Stochastic Green's Function - Integral Equation Method for Communication in Diffusive Multipath Environments," received Best Paper Award at International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications (ICEAA) and IEEE-APS Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications (APWC) (Shen Lin, Evelyn Dohme and Zhen Peng). (2018)
• 3rd place in the student paper competition, "Physics-Informed Deep Neural Networks for Transient Electromagnetic Analysis," 2019 IEEE MTT-S International Conference on Numerical Electromagnetic and Multiphysics Modeling and Optimization (Oameed Noakoasteen, Shu Wang, and Zhen Peng) (2019)
• 1st place in the student paper competition, "Platform-aware In-situ Antenna and Material Analysis and Design," 2019 International Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) Symposium (Shu Wang, Brian MacKie-Mason and Zhen Peng) (2019)
• "Physics-Oriented Statistical Analysis of Information Transmission in Wave-Chaotic Environments" received an honorable mention award in Student Paper Competition at 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting (Shen Lin and Zhen Peng). (2019)
• "Statistical Analysis of Information Transmission in Ray-Chaotic Enclosures: A Stochastic Green's function approach" received the 3rd place in Student Paper Competition at 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and North American Radio Science Meeting (Shen Lin and Zhen Peng) (2020)
• Honorable mention award and Final list in Student Paper Competition (SPC) at IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting (2021)
• Yuen T. Lo Outstanding Research Award in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) (Shen Lin; Advisor: Zhen Peng) (2022)
• "A Hybrid Predictive Model for the Spatial-Spectral Analysis of Wave Physics in Complex Enclosures" received an Honorable mention award in Student Paper Competition (SPC) at IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting (Sangrui Luo; Advisor: Zhen Peng) (2023)
• "Full-Wave Simulation of a 10,000-element Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface with a Single Workstation Computer" received an Honorable mention award in Student Paper Competition (SPC) at IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting (Qijian Lim; Advisor: Zhen Peng) (2023)
• IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) Fellowship (Shen Lin; Advisor: Zhen Peng) (2023)
• International Union of Radio Science Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale (URSI) Young Scientist Award (Shen Lin; Advisor: Zhen Peng) (2023)
• Best Student Paper Award (2nd prize) at the IEEE MTT-S International Conference on Numerical Electromagnetic and Multiphysics Modeling and Optimization (Charles Ross; Advisor: Zhen Peng) (2023)
• Dr. Eric K. Walton Graduate Award (Charles Ross; Advisor: Zhen Peng) (2023)
• Raj Mittra Outstanding Research Award (Qi Jian Lim; Advisor: Zhen Peng) (2024)
• Global Electromagnetics Conference (GLOBALEM 2024) Young Scientist Award (Shen Lin) (2024)
• "Swarm-based Antenna Array Synthesis through Spin-based Bifurcation Algorithm" received an Honorable mention award in the Student Paper Competition (SPC) at the IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting (Qijian Lim; Advisor: Zhen Peng) (2024)

Recent Courses Taught

• ECE 210 - Analog Signal Processing
• ECE 211 - Analog Circuits & Systems
• ECE 498 ZP3 (ECE 498 ZP4, ECE 598 ZP) - Wave Physics in Wireless Comm
• ECE 520 - EM Waves & Radiating Systems