Jinsheng (Frank) Lai 「赖近昇」

I am a M.Eng. student in Civil Engineering at South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.

Research Interests: the structural analysis and design of offshore renewable energy systems, with a focus on floating structures—including floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs), wave energy converters (WECs), and floating photovoltaic systems. I advance these through numerical simulation, physical experimentation, and data-driven methods, and I am especially interested in how advanced materials and AI-driven engineering can support more resilient and sustainable marine infrastructure.

I am seeking PhD positions for Fall 2027 intake.

Email: frankjslai@gmail.com

If my background and interests align with your group's research, I would be glad to hear from you—please feel free to reach out by email.


News


Publications

GFRP blade section CT scanning

[P1] Mechanical Properties and Feasibility of GFRP from Decommissioned Large-Scale Wind Turbine Blades for Wave Energy Converter: A Case Study.

Yan-Wen Li*, Jin-Sheng Lai, Bin-Zhen Zhou, Li Cheng. Polymers (JCR Q1), 18(7), 892, 2026.

[Paper] [DOI]

Offshore wind O&M reinforcement learning framework

[P2] Applications of Deep Reinforcement Learning in Optimization of Offshore Wind Power Operation and Maintenance.

Jin-Sheng Lai*. ICEPET 2026, accepted.

[Paper]

Hybrid bonded-bolted GFRP and duplex stainless steel joint

[P3] Structural reuse of decommissioned wind-turbine-blade GFRP in marine and civil infrastructure: performance and design of hybrid bonded-bolted GFRP-to-duplex stainless steel joints.

Jin-Sheng Lai, Tian-Hui Fan, Li Cheng, Yan-Wen Li*.

Construction and Building Materials (JCR Q1), Under review, 2026.

Repurposed-blade hinged-raft wave energy converter simulation

[P4 in preparation] A repurposed-blade hinged-raft wave energy converter: concept design, hydrodynamic performance, and structural integrity.

Jin-Sheng Lai, Yan-Wen Li*. 2026.


Research Experience

Wave energy converter system design

High-Value Repurposing of Decommissioned Wind Blade GFRP: Materials, Joints, and Marine Applications

Conducted material characterization of retired blade GFRP through mechanical testing and CT scanning, developed GFRP-duplex stainless steel bonded/bolted joint designs, and investigated an articulated multi-body wave energy converter through hydrodynamic simulation and wave tank testing.

CT Scanning, Mechanical Testing, Abaqus, AQWA, Wave Tank. Images: materials, joint design, system.

DDPG-based intelligent O&M framework

Modeling and Intelligent Operation and Maintenance of Offshore Wind Systems

Independently studied and implemented deep reinforcement learning from scratch, formulating offshore wind O&M as a Markov Decision Process with a hybrid state space (turbine health, environmental conditions, resource availability, and market signals) and a hybrid discrete-continuous action space. Trained and evaluated a DDPG agent on public and simulated data from a 20-turbine 5 MW offshore wind farm over a 3-year horizon: it outperformed DQN and PPO baselines in revenue, failure frequency, MTBF, and MTTR, and stayed robust under stressed conditions (wind-speed variance +20%, failure rate +15%). This work led to the ICEPET 2026 conference paper.

Python, PyTorch, DDPG, Markov decision process.

Blurred confidential floating wind turbine simulation model

The specific model configuration is not publicly disclosed due to project confidentiality.

Environmental Sensitivity Analysis of a Floating Wind Turbine and Semi-submersible Foundation

Contributed to numerical modeling and environmental sensitivity analysis in ANSYS AQWA for a floating wind turbine and semi-submersible foundation. Assessed tower-base and tower-top motion responses across variations in wave height, wind speed, wave period, and wave-current incidence angle. The analysis identified wave height as the dominant driver of horizontal motion amplitudes, whereas wave period exerted a stronger influence on heave response.

ANSYS AQWA, Hydrodynamic Simulation, Environmental Sensitivity Analysis.

3D-printed metamaterial specimens

Compressive Response of 3D-Printed 2D Metamaterial Reinforced Composites with Diversified Geometries

Tested and evaluated the compressive behavior of 24 diverse 2D composite architectures, and proposed a comprehensive performance evaluation coefficient to screen for designs with superior specific energy absorption and specific strength.

3D Printing, Mechanical Testing.

BP neural network architecture

Crack Recognition Based on Backpropagation Neural Networks

Engineered a Multi-Layer Perceptron neural network with optimized activation functions and cross-entropy loss with backpropagation for automated Structural Health Monitoring.

Python, Neural Networks.

SAP2000 steel frame model with dampers

Vibration Damping Performance Analysis of Graded Yield Metal Dampers in a Steel Frame Structure

Investigated the energy dissipation mechanism of graded yield metal dampers in steel frame structures through modal decomposition response spectrum analysis and elastic time-history analysis across minor, moderate, and major earthquake scenarios.

SAP2000, Seismic Analysis.

Coir-FRP concrete specimens

Flexural Property and Mechanism of Coir-FRP Seawater and Sea-Sand Concrete for Artificial Fish Reefs

Optimized coir-fiber-matrix compatibility through combined chemical modification, tested flexural strength, integrated a non-linear MATLAB prediction model, and used SEM analysis to study the fiber bridging toughening mechanism.

Lab Testing, MATLAB, SEM.


Education

South China University of Technology (Project 985), Guangzhou, China
M.Eng. in Civil Engineering, Sep. 2024-Expected Jun. 2027. GPA: 3.63/4.0. Admission with entrance exam waived.
Hainan University (Project 211), Haikou, China
B.Eng. in Civil Engineering, Sep. 2020-Jun. 2024. GPA: 3.61/4.0 (88.26/100).

Honors & Awards

  1. Outstanding Graduate, Hainan University, 2024.
  2. First Prize, National University Structural Design Information Technology Contest, China, 2023.
  3. First-Class Comprehensive Scholarship, Hainan University, 2021 and 2022.
  4. Meritorious Student, Hainan University, 2021 and 2022.

Skills

Programming: Python, MATLAB, Linux; AI-assisted engineering workflows (Claude Code, Codex).
Simulation: ABAQUS, ANSYS AQWA, OpenFAST, Sesam.
Languages: Chinese (native), English (IELTS 7.0 overall, Mar. 2026; Reading 7.0, Listening 7.0, Speaking 6.5, Writing 6.5).