Mengchu Zhou, PhD, is a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Discrete Event Systems Laboratory at New Jersey Institute of Technology. His research interests focus on computer-integrated systems, embedded control software, intelligent manufacturing automation, Petri nets, computer network and security, lifecycle engineering design, and discrete event simulation.

Most recently, Zhou presented two papers at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. Both papers, "Optimal Siphon-Based Deadlock Prevention Policy for a Class of Petri Nets in Automation" and "Interference Impacts on ZigBee-based Wireless Mesh Networks for Building Automation and Control" have been published in IEEE Explore, an online publication. At the same conference, Zhou served as a chair for the session entitled "Discrete Event Systems and Petri Nets."  He also judged the Franklin V. Taylor Best Paper Award, an event sponsored by the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society.  He received this award in 2010. He also was the judge of the overall best student paper award competition.

In August 2011, Zhou presented three papers at the 2011 IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering in Trieste, Italy. One of his papers entitled "Modeling and Analysis of Dual-Arm Cluster Tools for Wafer Fabrication with Revisiting: was the finalist of "QSI Best Application Paper Award."  At this conference, Zhou was elected chair of the steering committee of this series of conferences that he helped found eight years ago. He is also one of the founders of the series of IEEE International Conferences on Networking, Sensing and Control.

Zhou, an IEEE Fellow, is the founding editor of the recently launched Wiley-IEEE press series on systems science and engineering. He is also editor of IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. He has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed research papers, 10 books and 18 book chapters. He has made in his career more than 40 invited presentations before notable scholarly groups.

His many honors include NJIT's Harlan J. Perlis Award for Research (1996); The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's Humboldt Research Award for US Senior Scientists (2000); and the Chinese Association for Science and Technology in the US Achievement Award (2001).

Zhou received his BS degree from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China (1983); his MS degree from Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China (1986); and his PhD in computer and systems engineering in 1990 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

Last update: January 24, 2012