Zakia Ahmed

zakiaahmed@vt.edu

EDUCATION

Ph.D.

Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

Mechanical Engineering

Research Area: Dynamics and Control

Advisor: Craig Woolsey, Ph.D.

GPA: 3.87/4.00

Recipient, Mary Virginia Jones Mechanical Engineering Scholarship, awarded to outstanding females in Mechanical Engineering

December 2023 (Anticipated)

B.S.

The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX

Mechanical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude

GPA: 3.91/4.00

GRE (Verbal/Quantitative/Writing): 161/159/4.5

December 2017

EXPERIENCE

Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering

Aug. 2019-Present

- - Advisor: Craig Woolsey, Ph.D.
  - Project Title: Vibrational Control of Underactuated Mechanical Systems
  - Study methods from controls and geometric mechanics to control underactuated mechanical systems
  - Design and build a mechanical system to implement vibrational control theory and validate analytical results
  - Mentor a group of undergraduate student researchers and create a positive atmosphere for learning, constructive feedback, and collaboration

Graduate ABET Assistant, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

June 2019-June 2020

- - Coordinated with course instructors to collect and organize course assessment tools that evaluate effectiveness of courses in relaying key concepts to students
  - Tabulated and organized assessment data to display departmental outcomes in relation to ABET assessment criteria
  - Prepared a comprehensive set of ABET review material including course outcomes, faculty information, and facility information to submit to external program reviewer for ABET accreditation review
  - Constructed data collection, organization, and report templates to facilitate and streamline future data collection for ABET review

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

Aug. 2018-May 2019

- Courses: ME 4005 and ME 4006 (Mechanical Engineering Labs I and II)
- Guided student experiments to reinforce concepts of thermodynamics, vibrations, robotics, fluid mechanics, and experimental design and testing
- Instructed groups of 25-30 students, graded papers, and provided constructive feedback of student performance
- Received student evaluations of my instructional abilities were consistently above or at par with college and departmental averages

PUBLICATIONS

Ahmed, Z., Tahmasian, S., and Woolsey, C. “Vibrational Control of a 2-Link Mechanism”, Proceedings of the 2020 Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Pittsburgh, PA. (To appear)

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

- - American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Student Member

Download CV: Ahmed-Zakia_CV