Zhang, a member of the Duerstock IAS (Institute for Accessible Science) Lab and Wachs ISAT (Intelligent Systems and Assistive Technologies) Lab, won in the "Human Behavioral" category of the Purdue University Health and Disease: Science, Technology, Culture and Policy Research Poster Session.

Her poster is titled "Recognition of Blind Users' Image Exploration Behaviors Using Spike-timing Neural Networks" and is part of her dissertation research. She co-authored the poster with Brad Duerstock, Associate Professor of Practice in Industrial Engineering, and Juan Wachs, the James A. and Sharon M. Tompkins Rising Star Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering.

The event was co-sponsored by  the Purdue Colleges of Engineering, Agriculture, Health & Human Sciences, Liberal Arts, Libraries, Pharmacy, Science, Polytechnic Institute, and Veterinary Medicine. Its mission was to promote interdisciplinary collaboration in health and disease research across Purdue University.

Zhang is also co-founder of Purdue startup HaptImage, a portable hardware and software system that allows the blind and visually-impaired to access images in real time, and can be carried in a bag and plugged into mobile devices for instant access. Zhang and Shruthi Suresh, a PhD student in biomedical engineering, co-founded this Purdue startup and have won numerous entrepreneurship competitions. Their HaptImage research was featured in New Scientist (February 2017).