[2] Zhang's research involves geometric modeling, mesh generation, image processing, finite element method and isogeometric analysis.

[6] After staying on at the University of Texas for postdoctoral studies with Bajaj and Thomas J.R. Hughes,[6] she joined the mechanical engineering department at Carnegie Mellon in 2007.

The US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) awarded Zhang their Gallagher Young Investigator Medal (2013), "for pioneering research in high-fidelity geometric modeling and mesh generation with broad interdisciplinary finite element applications in computational biomedicine, material sciences and engineering".

[6] At CMU, she received David P. Casasent Outstanding Research Award (2020),[8] George Tallman Ladd and Florence Barrett Ladd Professorship (2019), Clarence H. Adamson Career Faculty Fellow in Mechanical Engineering (2014), Donald L. & Rhonda Struminger Faculty Fellow (2011), and George Tallman Ladd Research Award (2010).

[18] She also serves as the program director for the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Activity Group on Geometric Design.