BlackboardHang Zhang
Hang Zhang, a senior in electrical and computer engineering at the Florida A&M University-FSU College of Engineering, decided on engineering after he came to The Florida State University.
Zhang decided to study electrical and computer engineering because of his interest in personal computers and other electronic devices. "The very fast advance in computer technology, especially in CPUs," Zhang says, "makes me wonder about computer speed and how to make them run even faster. This area of inquiry could make peoples' lives better and easier by designing and building faster, cheaper and more secure computers and electronic devices."
"And my favorite research area", Zhang continues, "is VLSI, which stands for very large-scale integration. It is a process for making microprocessors and all CPUs. I am very interested in learning how to put more transistors on a smaller chip, increasing the processing speed while reducing power consumption."
Zhang also has an interest in renewable energy research. "I think the use of renewable energy would greatly improve peoples' lives and be very good for the environment", he remarks.
In speaking about his greatest experience as a student at the College, Zhang enthused, "My greatest experience was last year working on a research project at the FSU's Materials Science Center. It was my first experience being exposed to carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and I was surprised at what nanotubes can do."
Zhang explains, "The project involved studying the use of CNTs to reinforce polymer composites to increase composite strength. The result was great. And we were able to increase the strength of the polymer by 10 times, while at the same time keeping the composite's transparency to about 40%. This is great because nobody was able to achieve that using CNTs. Additionally, we applied for a patent and submitted a paper on this project already!"
And the learning experience did not end there. "We also built a CNT acoustic speaker", Zhang added. "This was very interesting because speakers in use today generate sounds by vibration. We discovered that acoustic speakers generate sounds by heat. When the electric current of the music passes through the CNTs, they heat up. Nanotubes release heat very quickly making the air heat up and cool down around the speaker generating air pressure that produces sound waves. It can play music perfectly. It can be more durable than the speakers we normally use because it has no moving parts. This new composite material can be applied to many different surfaces, like cloth or paper which we can stretch into different shapes."
"When I am not studying", says Zhang, "I play video games. I like photography and traveling. I enjoy going to different places and experiencing different cultures. I am also a soccer fan and I play a lot of soccer, actually every week. It's fun. I'm on an amateur soccer team from the Chinese community here in Tallahassee. We have very good fields at FSU for playing soccer."
Zhang grew up in southeast China in city called Shaolin and came to the United States right after graduating from high school. Zhang admits, "Trying to adapt to the American culture has been my greatest challenge. Coming to the US alone after high school, I found that people think differently here than people in China. My English was not very good and it was difficult to communicate with Americans. I often found myself in embarrassing situations. But it's much better now. I've learned it takes time to adapt to a completely different culture but once I adapted, it's been awesome."
Zhang has enjoyed his time at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. He says, "The College has very nice facilities and convenient computer access and most importantly, it has excellent faculty and staff. And plenty of parking!"
In the next 5 years, Zhang sees himself earning a Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering.
