Yan Zhang

01

About

I'm a software engineer, ML engineer, and licensed electrical engineer (P.Eng.)specializing in the dynamic realm of power systems. My work sits at the intersection of two disciplines: deep expertise in grid physics and optimization, and modern machine learning at production scale.

Currently at ThinkLabs AI, I develop graph neural networks that estimate the real-time state of electric distribution grids. Before that, I spent five years building GE's GridOS-DERMS — optimization and power-flow software that utilities use to manage distributed energy resources.

MEng in ECE at the University of Toronto (2023–2026) · BE in ECE from Western University (2013–2017).

02

Experience

full CV →

2024 — PRESENT

Senior Software Engineer

ThinkLabs AI Inc.

GNN-based models for Distribution System State Estimation (DSSE)
Temporal-Spatial GNN (TSGNN) for grid measurement anomaly detection
Heterogeneous GNN (HGNN) for time-series power flow analysis
Scalable data-generation, training & inference pipelines on Ray.io + Kubernetes

2023 — 2024

Senior Software Developer — GridOS-DERMS

GE Digital / GE Vernova

Scoped milestones with product management; broke down features and estimated delivery
Cross-functional design with architects, PM and QA; evaluated new tools & frameworks
Mentored junior developers

2019 — 2023

Software Developer — GridOS-DERMS

GE Digital / GE Vernova

Mathematical optimization models of grids with DERs in GAMS
Maintained the optimization-engine Python package for power flow analysis
OPF objectives: cost minimization, operational envelopes, bid fulfillment
RESTful microservice APIs (Flask) and Kafka queue-based services
Validated OPF results against IEEE PES published data

2017 — 2019

Full Stack Developer

GreenfieldSCM

Visualized supply-chain management system (tracking, payment, invoicing) — React + Django + MySQL

03

Skills

Power Systems

AC OPFDSSEGAMSOptimizationDERMSPower Flow

Machine Learning

PyTorchPyGGNNsRay.ioRLLLM Agents

Software & Infra

PythonRustReactFastAPIKafkaDockerK8sAWS · GCP · AzureCI/CD

04

Projects

all projects →

A decade of shipping software for the grid — industry products deployed at real utilities and research projects exploring what AI can do for energy.

Industry · GE Digital