About me

You can find my CV here: Zhong Zhang’s Curriculum Vitae.

From Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, China, I am Zhang Zhong. As a child, beneath the vast canopy of stars, my curiosity about the universe was ignited. This passion eventually guided me to Tsinghua University, where I now delve into the art of trajectory optimization.

I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Aerospace Engineering at Tsinghua University, deeply interested in the confluence of Astrodynamics and artificial intelligence. My primary research revolves around trajectory optimization, optimal control of spacecraft, and the scheduling of autonomous space systems. It’s the intersection of these domains—leveraging heuristic algorithms and machine learning techniques—that I find especially intriguing, evident in its applications to challenges such as space debris removal and asteroid exploration.

Up to now, I have published many papers in top journals such as Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics and IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems. And I led a team to win the 11th edition of the Global Trajectory Optimization Competition (GTOC 11) in 2021, and organized GTOC 12 in 2023.

Some of the interesting projects I’ve been a part of include:

1. Optimal strategies for large-scale space mission design via heuristic algorithms.
2. Data-driven methods for improved spacecraft trajectory optimization.
3. Robust and fast neural policy for spacecraft guidance.