Education

Educational materials and teaching related to topology optimization, computational design, and structural engineering.

Educational Materials

Educational Review

A Comprehensive Review of Educational Articles on Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization

Chao Wang, Zhi Zhao, Ming Zhou, Ole Sigmund, and Xiaojia Shelly Zhang

Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, 64, 2827-2880, 2021.

This review collects and organizes educational articles and codes in structural and multidisciplinary optimization, including topology, sizing, and shape optimization as well as reusable building blocks, providing an entry point for students and researchers learning optimization-based computational design.

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Open-Source Educational Software

FEniTop: A Simple FEniCSx Implementation for 2D and 3D Topology Optimization Supporting Parallel Computing

Yingqi Jia, Chao Wang, and Xiaojia Shelly Zhang

Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, 67, 140, 2024.

FEniTop is a Python-based, open-source topology optimization platform built on FEniCSx. It allows users to define 2D and 3D problems in weak form, uses automatic differentiation for sensitivity analysis, supports flexible solver and preconditioner choices, scales from laptops to computing clusters through parallel computing, and exports optimized designs for visualization, STL generation, and fabrication-oriented post-processing.

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Teaching

CEE 370 Engineering Mechanics of Deformable Bodies

Instructor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fall 2026

CEE 470 Structural Analysis

Teaching Assistant

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Spring 2022

CEE 498 Theory and the Creation of Structure

Teaching Assistant

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Fall 2021

CEE 595 Structural Engineering Seminar Series

Teaching Assistant

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Fall & Spring 2021-2023