Zheng Li

Class of 2025 in Civil Engineering

During her time at ZJUI, she won numerous awards for her outstanding academic performance and remarkable comprehensive qualities. She not only received the title of "Excellent Student of Zhejiang University" for three consecutive years, but also won honors such as the Zhejiang Provincial Government Scholarship, the Second-Class Scholarship of Zhejiang University, the Xiaomi Scholarship of Zhejiang University, and the First Prize in Social Practice at the International Campus, Zhejiang University. As an outstanding student with all-round development, she excelled in sports competitions and helped her team win the championship in the 4×400m relay at the Zhejiang University Sports Meeting. Meanwhile, she actively engaged in public welfare undertakings, was awarded the title of "Five-Star Young Volunteer" of Zhejiang University, and won multiple individual awards for academics, student work, public service, arts and sports activities, and labor. She also served as the Head of the Activity Department of the Red Cross Society for Students at the International Campus, Zhejiang University. In terms of professional competitions, she demonstrated outstanding practical abilities: in 2025, together with her team members won the First Prize in the GeoWall Competition of the Pacific Division organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); additionally, she obtained the Second Prize and the Best Paper Award with her team respectively in the 4th and 5th Zhejiang University Concrete Dragon Boat Competitions. With her exceptional performance, she has successfully been recommended for admission to the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture of Zhejiang University for postgraduate studies, and is about to embark on a new journey of research.

Break down the whole into parts and keep moving forward

When it comes to learning, Zheng Li, a seasoned running enthusiast, believes that sustained learning and research share striking similarities with endurance running—both hold goal management as the key. "When running the 1,500-meter race, I use a goal breakdown strategy," Zheng Li shared. "I don’t get hung up on the specific number of remaining meters; instead, I focus on specific technical points like 'maintaining a 90-degree arm swing angle' or 'overtaking the runner ahead at the next bend.'"

In her learning and exploration, she put this way of thinking into practice: breaking down complex course modules into quantifiable knowledge units and transforming long learning processes into manageable phased tasks. From her perspective, whether it is on the race track or in the classroom, the secret lies in converting abstract goals into specific action plans.

▲Zheng Li (first from the left) and her team won the gold medal in the Women's 4x400m Relay at the Zhejiang University Sports Meeting

Zheng Li clearly remembers the challenges she faced when first entered ZJUI. "From the very first day, English-only textbooks, lectures, assignments and classroom discussions formed an entirely new language-based learning ecosystem," she explained. "This required me to improve my English proficiency while also quickly mastering internationalized professional knowledge."

Facing the dual pressures of language and academics, Zheng Li decided to first consolidate her foundation by leveraging the basic learning resources provided by ZJUI's teaching system. After each class, she organized her lecture notes into a bilingual (Chinese-English) version. "This is both a process of learning the language and reinforcing knowledge," Zheng Li said. Following this, she would actively participate in the post-class Office Hours and group discussions with the questions identified during the note-organizing process. Through communicating and solving problems, she gradually finalized her research topics, organized her knowledge framework, and wrote academic papers. By adopting this iterative learning method of "recording-organizing-discussing," Zheng Li not only overcame the language barrier but also built a systematic knowledge system, allowing her to navigate the English-only learning environment with ease.

In addition, Zheng Li also chose to join the teaching assistant (TA) team to deepen her understanding and application of knowledge. She has served as a TA for several core courses, including General Chemistry Laboratory, Introduction to Differential Equations, and Surface Hydrology, taking charge of tasks such as problem-solving guidance and after-class tutoring. "Every time I answer my classmates' questions, it is a process of re-examining the knowledge," she shared. "This also allows me to constantly refine my expressive skills and ensure that I convey professional knowledge with the clearest and most accurate logic."

In particular, for CEE450 (Surface Hydrology), she not only assisted her classmates in building complex hydrological models, but also excelled at breaking down the abstract modeling process into easy-to-understand steps. "Transforming profound theories into accessible explanations is in itself a form of in-depth learning," she explained.

Professor Zhu Tingju from ZJUI, the instructor of CEE450 (Surface Hydrology), spoke highly of her: "Zheng Li is extremely diligent in her studies and has achieved outstanding performance. She has a strong ability to understand and comprehend complex concepts and problems, demonstrating excellent academic potential. During her tenure as a TA for the CEE450, she not only excellently assisted in completing tasks such as teaching coordination and answering questions, but also showed excellent communication skills, a strong sense of responsibility, and a collaborative spirit."

This TA experience not only significantly improved her logical thinking and English expression abilities, but also enhanced her understanding of professional knowledge, laying a solid foundation for her subsequent academic research.

Synthesize and integrate to transcend boundaries and innovate

Facing civil engineering—a discipline that covers numerous subfields—Zheng Li, who was new to the academic world, once struggled with choosing a research direction. To clarify her research ideas, she still adopted the exploration method of the goal breakdown strategy: starting from her professional interests and gradually delving deeper into practice.

During her freshman year, Zheng Li proactively participated in the Sino-foreign cooperative civil engineering seminars organized by the institution. Through these seminars, she gained a systematic understanding of major research directions—from structural engineering and geotechnical engineering to future urban technologies—helping her establish a comprehensive grasp of the discipline's framework.

In her sophomore year, she took the initiative to integrate theoretical knowledge with practice, successively participating in projects such as wind tunnel correlation experimental research and the numerical modeling project of the hydrological model for the Dongyang River Extra Large Bridge in Zhejiang. By engaging in these practical activities, Zheng Li not only mastered basic research skills like physical modeling but, more importantly, found her interest in computational modeling-related research, which clarified the direction for her subsequent academic development.

Zheng Li also actively participated in various academic competitions to enhance her engineering practical capabilities. Under the guidance of Associate Professor Li Binbin from ZJUI, the work she co-created with her team won the Second Prize and the Best Paper Award in the 4th and 5th Zhejiang University Concrete Dragon Boat Competitions respectively. As a core team member, Zheng Li was mainly responsible for 3D modeling based on SolidWorks and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. Through the coupled analysis of the hull shape and hydrodynamic characteristics, she systematically optimized the dragon boat's hydrodynamic performance.

"This project allowed me to deeply understand the importance of interdisciplinary integration in engineering practice," Zheng Li recalled. "It also helped me further comprehend the complex interactive relationships between material properties, structural responses, and modeling assumptions."

▲The work of Zheng Li's team for the Concrete Dragon Boat Competition

In the GeoWall Competition of the Pacific Division organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Zheng Li collaborated with students from the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture of Zhejiang University. Leveraging their outstanding engineering practical capabilities, the team won the First Prize.

During the project, Zheng Li's team developed an improved numerical model that accounts for the soil arching effect. They accurately calculated the earth pressure distribution to verify the model's reliability. Building on this foundation, the team systematically designed dozens of reinforcement arrangement schemes for comparative tests, improved the compaction process, and significantly enhanced the uniformity of filled soil by optimizing compaction parameters. After rigorous theoretical calculations and repeated experimental verification, the retaining wall model finally designed by the team successfully passed the two-stage loading test, winning unanimous recognition from the judging experts.

These practical experiences not only consolidated her theoretical knowledge but also enabled Zheng Li to gain a deeper understanding of the application value of theoretical knowledge in real-world scenarios.

▲Zheng Li (second from the right) at the on-site venue of the GeoWall Competition (Pacific Division) organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

In her junior year, driven by a strong interest in computational modeling, Zheng Li joined a water flow simulation project based on the shallow water equations. For this challenging research topic, she systematically participated in the entire research process—from the establishment of governing equations to solving the eddy evolution process using the finite volume method.

"This research experience allowed me to go through the complete process from physical phenomena to mathematical models, and then to numerical implementation," Zheng Li said with deep insight. "It also helped me gain a deeper understanding of the dialectical relationship between models and physical authenticity."

Based on her experience in various projects, Zheng Li put forward a research proposal addressing existing issues in the field of modeling: "In the field of material constitutive modeling, can we break through the limitations of traditional empirical models and develop computational methods with greater adaptability and generalization capabilities to describe the stress-strain response of complex materials?"

To better address this interdisciplinary issue, Zheng Li enrolled in the micro-minor program at Zhejiang University, choosing Data Science and Analytics as her minor field, with the goal of providing more systematic solutions to engineering problems. By studying courses on algorithms, Python programming, and data modeling, she mastered the methodology of integrating computer technology with engineering simulation—laying a foundation for its subsequent application in tasks such as physical modeling and numerical simulation in her research.

Currently, she is committed to exploring the potential of Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) and other data-driven models in stress response modeling, nonlinear constitutive relation expression, and multi-scale data fusion. Her efforts aim to improve the accuracy of constitutive models and provide a new expression framework for material behaviors that are difficult to model directly.

Apply what you learn, and impart knowledge with passion through action

Beyond her studies, Zheng Li has always held a passion for serving society. During the summer vacation of 2022, as a core member, she participated in the "University-Local Cooperation" volunteer teaching program at Juxi Primary School in Cangnan, Wenzhou. She took on the roles of volunteer homeroom teacher and geography instructor, mainly responsible for classroom teaching, curriculum design, and organizing after-school activities.

When facing the children's curiosity about "fluvial landforms," she adopted a teaching method that combined theory with practice: using plasticine to make simple river channel models and vividly demonstrating the processes of water erosion and sedimentation through on-site water injection experiments. This engaging, fun-oriented teaching approach not only ignited the children's enthusiasm for science but also fostered their hands-on practical abilities.

In the end, the volunteer teaching team she belonged to, with its outstanding teaching achievements, won the First Prize for Social Practice at International Campus, Zhejiang University , as well as the honors of "Zhejiang University Excellent Team" and "Excellent Thesis."

▲Zheng Li volunteered as a teacher at Juxi Primary School in Cangnan, Wenzhou, Zhejiang

In addition, as the Head of the Activity Department of the Red Cross Society at International Campus, Zhejiang University, she launched the "Heart Bridge · Pen Pal Program". She organized nearly 100 college student volunteers to establish long-term letter exchanges with left-behind children in rural primary schools in Yunnan, Guangdong and other places.

Through the carefully designed letter exchanges, the volunteers not only provided academic guidance to the children, but also built a bridge for spiritual communication. This program has continuously brought warmth and companionship to children in remote areas, helping them broaden their horizons and open the door to the world of science.