CBE Welcomes Professor Wentao Tang to the Faculty

Professor Wentao Tang joined the faculty in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering as an assistant professor on August 16, 2022. Wentao’s current research focuses on developing data-driven control algorithms that integrate nonlinear control theory with machine learning techniques, which avoid detailed dynamic modeling procedures and can be more flexible for systems with complex dynamics. He is also interested in derivative-free algorithms for optimization problems without explicit algebraic models, especially in how the solution of large-scale problems can benefit from the identification of underlying network topology, decomposition of networks into constituent subsystems, and adoption of acceleration schemes.

Wentao was born in Hunan Province, P. R. China and received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering and a secondary B.S. degree in mathematics and applied mathematics from Tsinghua University in 2015. He earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota in 2020. He was a recipient of the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship at the University of Minnesota for 2018-2019 and the 1st place winner of the AIChE CAST Directors’ Student Presentation Award in 2019. Prior to joining NC State, he worked as a process control engineer at Shell, where he undertook multiple research projects for the development of Shell’s advanced process control software.

Wentao said: “I am looking forward to launching my academic career at NC State, conducting exciting research with my future students and enjoying teaching courses as a part of my life. I hope that my expertise in process systems engineering – control, optimization and machine learning – will contribute to NC State’s prestigious chemical engineering program, bring useful perspectives and find interesting applications through extensive collaboration with my colleagues. I feel honored to become a member of the Wolfpack community and look forward to meeting everyone!”

Visit Wentao’s research group website.