The Next Stage of AI: Digital-Twins for Industrial and Societal Research Applications: How Engineers are Designing Technologies in the Upcoming Century

Tarek I. Zohdi received his Ph.D. in 1997 in Computational and Applied Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin and his Habilitation in General Mechanics (Allgemeine Mechanik) from Gottfried Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany, in 2002. He is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Chair of the Designated Emphasis Program in Computational and Data Science and Engineering, Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering and holder of the W. C. Hall Family Endowed Chair in Engineering at UC Berkeley. He also holds a Faculty Scientist position at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs. He has published over 200 archival refereed journal papers and eight books. In 2012, he was elected President of the United States Association for Computational Mechanics (2012-2014). He is an Editor-in-Chief of the leading journal inhis field, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (CMAME) and serves on 11 editorial boards of international journals. He is also the co-founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Computational Particle Mechanics (CPM). Overall, he has given more than 200 plenary, keynote and contributed lectures at conferences, universities and other research institutions. He is active in modeling, high-performance simulation and machine-learning to develop digital-twin technologies in six industrial research areas (1) high-strength fabric (2) highly heterogeneous and composite materials (3) fire-control technologies (4) food systems (5) advanced manufacturing processes and (6) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and LiDar technologies. In 2000, he received the Zienkiewicz Prize and Medal given by The Royal Institution of Civil Engineers in London. In 2003, he received the Junior Achievement Award given by the American Academy of Mechanics. In 2008, he was elected Fellow of the International Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM) and in 2009 he was elected Fellow of the United States Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM). In 2017, he received the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award; the highest award for teaching at UC Berkeley. In 2019 he was elected as Fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics (AAM)-only one new Fellow is inducted in the nation and in the Americas each year: https://medium.com/the-coleman-fung-institute/tarek-zohdi-named-2019-aam-fellow-d4df374246e1 and https://oden.utexas.edu/news-and-events/news/TarekZohdiAlumnusAAMFellow/. In 2020, he received the prestigious Humboldt-Forschungspreis (Humboldt Research Prize). The prize, given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of the German Government, recognizes renowned researchers outside of Germany whose “fundamental discoveries, new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future.” He received it in recognition of lifetime achievements in Computational Mechanics https://me.berkeley.edu/news/me-professor-tarek-zohdi-receives-prestigious-humboldt-research-prize-in-the-area-of-mechanics/. In 2026, he was awarded the UC Berkeley’s Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes outstanding service to the University https://awards.berkeley.edu/university-awards/chancellors-distinguished-service-award/recipients/. For more information on T. Zohdi, see http://www.me.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/tarek-i-zohdi.