Weicheng Cui, born in 1963 in Haimen, Jiangsu Province, was the "National Excellent Scientific and Technological Workers" (2010). On May 17, 2013, as a representative of Jiaolong R&D and sea trial team, he was received by the top leaders of the Party and the state, and was awarded the Medal and Certificate of "Manned Deep-diving Hero" at the subsequent commendation meeting. In 2016, he was named "Ten Science Stars of China" by Nature magazine. Bachelor of Solid Mechanics, Tsinghua University, 1986, and Doctor of Structural Reliability, University of Bristol, UK, 1990. Returning to China in February 1993, he was employed by China Ship Science Research Center as a senior engineer and master's supervisor. He was promoted to be a research professor and doctoral supervisor in 1995. In 1999, he was appointed by Shanghai Jiaotong University and served as vice dean of School of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering. In 2002, he was appointed as the Director of China Ship Scientific Research Center. He was also the Head of the Overall and Integration Project of Jiaolong and the First Deputy chief Designer. In 2013, he joined Shanghai Ocean University and founded the first Hadal Science and Technology Research Center in domestic universities. He was one of the early persons in China who introduced the new mode of industry-university-research cooperation of "state support + private investment" and "scientist + entrepreneur", and initiated the project of "Rainbow Fish Challenging the Challenger Deep". The goal is to develop the Hadal Science and Technology Movable Laboratory, which consists of full ocean depth manned/unmanned submersible vehicles. Climbing the peak of manned technology in the world and making positive contributions to fill the gap of Hadal Science in China. He has joined Westlake University full-time since September, 2018 and has been appointed as Chair Professor in School of Engineering and the head of Deep Sea Technology research center. He is currently leading a team to develop a biomimetic intelligent robotic fish type submersible and conduct cutting-edge basic research on the unified theory of complex systems.

Professor Weicheng Cui's research group mainly focuses on the study of multidisciplinary design optimization techniques for biomimetic fish-like submersibles and study of a unified theory for complex systems. Since 2013, as the project leader, the research and development of "Hadal Science and Technology Movable Laboratory" has been in progress to about half and is planned to be completed in the next five years. Innovative achievements have been made in the field of ultimate strength analysis method of marine structures, fatigue life prediction method, multidisciplinary design optimization method and its application in submersible design. More than 300 papers have been published in SCI and EI cited journals, ranking first on Elsevier's list of "China's Highly Cited Scholars" in 2017. Because of his outstanding contribution to the Jiaolong manned submersible development project, he won the Oceanology International 2013 Award for achievement in manned submersible technology in 2014 and the Blancpain Hans Hass Fifty Fathoms Award. He is the first person to win the award in Asia. In 2016, he was named "Ten Science and Technology Stars of China" by Nature magazine. In 2017, he was awarded the first National Innovation Competitive Talents Award. He is currently a member of editorial board in five international journals, Marine Structures (1998-), Journal of Marine Science and Technology (2001-), Journal of Engineering for the Maritime Environment (2002-), Ships & Offshore Structures, Design, Construction and Operation (2004-), Ocean Engineering (2006-).

1. Pan B, Cui W. (2020). Multidisciplinary Design Optimization and Its Application in Deep Manned Submersible Design, Ocean Engineering & Oceanography 13, Zhejiang Science and Technology Publishing House Co., Ltd. and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6455-0

2. Li WK, Chen H, Cui WC*, Song CH, Chen LK. (2023). Multi-Objective Evolutionary Design of Central Pattern Generator Network for Biomimetic Robotic Fish. Complex & Intelligent Systems, 9:1707-1727. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40747-022-00883-7

3. Wang Z, Zhang B, He Q, Chen H, Wang J, Yao Y, Zhou N*, Cui W*. (2023). Multimaterial Embedded 3D Printing of Composite Reinforced Soft Actuators. Research, 6:0122. https://doi.org/10.34133/research.0122

4. Cui W*, Li R, Pan L. (2023). A Comparison of New General System Theory Philosophy With Einstein and Bohr. Philosophy Study, 13(1):1-22. https://doi.org/10.17265/2159-5313/2023.01.001

5. Cui W*, Lian L, Pan G. (2023). Frontiers in Deep-Sea Equipment and Technology. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 11(4):715. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11040715

6. Chen H, Li W, Cui W*. (2023). Surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithm with hierarchical surrogate technique and adaptive infill strategy. Expert Systems with Applications, 232:120826. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2023.120826

7. Kang L; Lu XY, Cui W*. (2022). Intermittent Swimming of Two Self-propelled Flapping Plates in Tandem Configuration. Physics of Fluids, 34:011905. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0078829

8. Song W, Yang C, Cui W*, Lei Y, Hong J, Wang Z, Hu Z. (2022). Study of Pressure-Balanced Oil-Filled (PBOF) Technology. Ocean Engineering, 260:111757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2022.111757

9. Cui W*. (2022). On the Trajectory Prediction of a Throwing Object Using New General System Theory. Philosophy Study, 12(2):53-64. https://doi.org/10.17265/2159-5313/2022.02.001

10. Cui W*. (2021). On the Philosophical Ontology for a General System Theory. Philosophy Study, 11(6):443-458. https://doi.org/10.17265/2159-5313/2021.06.002

Email: cuiweicheng@westlake.edu.cn

Our research includes the following three main directions: (1) Research and development of the third generation of new bionic intelligent robotic fish-type unmanned submersible. (2) Industrialization and application of second-generation deep-sea submersible technology. (3) Fundamental research on the unified theory for large complex engineering systems. We have several open positions for research (associate, assistant) professors, postdocs, research assistants, and PhD students.

Please visit https://dstrc.lab.westlake.edu.cn/ for more information.

Please visit https://en.westlake.edu.cn/admissions_aid/phdprograms/ for more details about the PhD programs.