Dr. Cheryl Xu is currently an Associate Professor at the Florida State University. She received her Ph.D. in 2006 in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, and her M.S. in 2001 in mechanical manufacturing and automation from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Her research interests include advanced manufacturing of multifunctional ceramic composites, high temperature sensor design and manufacturing, manufacturing process optimization and control through artificial intelligence (AI). Dr. Xu has co-authored a textbook: Intelligent Systems: Modeling, Optimization and Control (CRC Press, 2008) and four book chapters. She has published 47 peer-reviewed journal articles and 30 refereed conference proceedings. She has eight US patent applications in the areas on manufacturing of multifunctional ceramic materials, especially on their electric/dielectric and thermal properties and how to manufacture and modify such materials for high temperature applications.

She received a Faculty Research Excellence Award from FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in 2017 for research accomplishments. She had won twice of the FSU GAP competition award in 2016 and 2017, funded by FSU the Office of Research to transfer research result from laboratory into commercial market. She was the only receipt of the IEEE Education Society Teaching Award in 2015; won the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award and the Society of Manufacturing Engineering (SME) Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer (OYME) Award in 2011.