Professor Xiangyu Wang

PhD, Purdue University 2005; M.S., University of Washington 2002; B.S., Tongji University 2000

Prof. Wang is the Founding President of International Society for Smart Construction and Production. He is a Member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA), a Fellow of UK Royal Society of Arts (RSA), a Member of European Union Academy of Sciences (EUAS), a Member of American Association of Advances in Sciences (AAAS), a Fellow of Australian Institute of Engineers (IEAust), a Fellow of International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM), and UNESCO permanent expert. He is the Distinguished Professor in East China Jiatong University.  He was also affiliated with Curtin University, University of New South Wales and University of Sydney since 2011. He is the Editor in Chief of Journal of Building Design and Environment and the Associate Editor of AI in Civil Engineering.

Professor Wang is an engineer and world-leading authority in infrastructure informatics. His ground-breaking scientific contributions enhanced the understanding of how infrastructure performs and the ways to best improve its life-cycle performance. More specifically, based on his pinpointed concept “infrastructure is alive”, he pioneered research innovator in digital twins, building on ideas from artificial intelligence, intelligence science, Internet-of-Things, and constraints programming. These significant cross-disciplinary contributions have strongly influenced both the theory and practice of how to solve complex and challenging optimization problems such as dynamic scheduling, work packaging, resources allocation, and workforce improvement.

Over his two-decade research career, he has focused on advancing digital technologies in sustainable infrastructure. He has been honored twice with Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers (2022, 2025), the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award (2019), Research.com Computer Science in Australia Leader Award (2022, 2023), and IAAM Laureate Lecture (2024), Kyung Hee Award (2018), best paper awards in International Journal of Production Research (2018), iCCPMCE (2018), AUBEA (2019) CRIOCM (2015), Runner-Up Award of Curtin Commercial Innovation Awards (2012), PVC Prize for Highest Research Performance (2013), and International visiting award in South Korea (2010).

His research has significantly impacted the field of digital engineering and sustainable infrastructure, particularly through innovations in digital twin technologies and Artificial Intelligence applications. He has published 500+ papers among which there are nearly 400 journal articles, and over 34 papers recognized as ESI Top 1% Highly Cited Papers and 14 papers as ESI Top 0.1% Hot Papers. His work is published in leading high impact factor journals demonstrating his global leadership in digital engineering and sustainable infrastructure research. Recognition from his peers includes being listed among the 2023 World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University (single year ranking as the 9,023^rd out of 200,000 scientists globally). In the discipline of Building and Construction, he was ranked as 58^th out of 38,433 scientists globally. He was also named twice a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in 2022 and 2025 who is one of the recognized 6,000 researchers globally.

His research work bridges innovation with practical applications, securing over $30 million USD from the global funders. Among his 100+ competitive research grants, there are 8 Australian Research Council (ARC) grants, 1 US NSF grant, and 2 Korean National Research Foundation, and Fortune 500 companies like Shell and Samsung Heavy Industry. He also mentored his research team who have won another 7 ARC grants. His impact has further expanded from academic to creating university-industry linkages and translating discoveries into value creating industry practice. He has established a high-value global industry network called CATRINA (Curtin Advanced Technology Research and Innovation Alliance), Through CATRINA, he created 11 best industry practices in digital engineering and sustainable infrastructure, which have been widely deployed in the fields of infrastructure, energy efficiency, and smart cities. The impact of his work is global, evidenced by his close collaboration with Woodside Energy and ENR Top 500 companies like Shell Global and Samsung Heavy Industry (Korea) (world largest shipyard) and POSCO, Korea (the 7th largest steel manufacturer in the world), as well as 40 international engineering and consulting companies. He is also the elected Vice President (Industry) of International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction, a world leading authority established in 1988.

His industry impact was reported over 40 times by a wide range of international and domestic prestigious media. His work with his industry partners was featured twice in the Australian newspaper, as well as in CNN, Energynewsbulleting.net, Business News, ScienceWA magazine, ScienceNetwork Western Australia, LNG World News, Western Australian Energy Research Alliance News, the Conversation, and Energy Publications, Ingrid Willinge of Sky News Interviews, Trunkline, and so on.

He has delivered over 130 lectures globally, including plenary and keynote speeches at international conferences, engaging with a broad network of researchers from over 40 countries. He has fostered significant international collaborations. Through CATRINA, he has fostered collaborations with 50+ universities and 100+ companies worldwide, enhancing research with entities like University of Washington, Cambridge, and EPFL. He established four research centers in Asia and fostered projects in Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and the United Arab Emirates. He collaborated with scholars from 40 countries, with 200 joint publications with China, 128 with Korea, and 36 with the USA, reinforcing his role as a global ambassador in infrastructure informatics.

He completed 50 postdocs and 30+ PhD students, and 50 visiting scholars, advocated for STEM and gender equity. 70% of them went to academia and 30% to industry in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Ireland, US, UK, South Korea, and Europe. His leadership in establishing international collaboration advances the field's global standards.

He plays significant leadership roles in a number of professional societies, contributing profoundly to the global academic and industrial community in infrastructure informatics. He is serving as Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor/Editorial Board member of 10+ international journals and He has been a Guest Editor for 20 special issues in international journals and conference proceedings. He participated in the organizing of dozens of international conferences as co-chair or session chair, e.g. CONVR in London, EG-ICE in Cardiff, ICCCBE in Finland 2018, ISARC in Germany 2018, CDVE 2009 in Luxemburg, and CDVE 2008 in Spain. He also spearheaded major conferences as general chair and honorary chair in IPC (Innovative Production and Construction) conference series (ITC 2012, ITC 2014, IPC 2015, IPC 2016, IPC 2017, IPC 2018, IPC 2020, IPC 2022, IPC 2024) and IGLC 2015.

Prof. Wang served on the ARC College of Experts, a significant role assessing >200 research proposals each year (2016-18). Prof Wang is also the invited Panelist for National Competitive Category 1 Funding in many countries including but not limited to US National Science Foundation; European H2020 and Horizon Europe programmes; NSERC Canada; Canadian Foundation for Innovation; Korean National Research Foundation; Chinese Natural Science Foundation; Hong Kong RGC/UGC; United Arab Emirates; and European research councils of UK, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Belgian, Slovenia and the Netherlands.

1.     Academic Rankings and Citations (as of April 2026):

Google Citations: 44,984; Google H-index: 117; i10-index: 387

Scopus Citation: 20,869; H-index: 79

Web of Science Core Collection Citations: 16,654; H-index: 73

1.1  Clarivate Analytics：

l  Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher recognition in 2022, 2025, one of the globally recognized 6,000 researchers.

l  Clarivate ESI Top 1% Highly Cited Paper number (historically total): the 1^st in Civil Engineering (34 papers)

l  Clarivate ESI Top 0.1% Hot Paper number (historically total): the 1^st in Civil Engineering (14 papers)

1.2  World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University in 2023: the 9,023^rd place globally across all fields in single year citation out of 10 million scientists, and 58^th out of 38,433 scientists in the field of “Building and Construction” worldwide.

1.3  AD Scientific Index "World Scientists Rankings": the 6,294^th place globally across all fields in H-index out of 2.6 million scientists and in the “Civil Engineering” field, H-index ranked the 2^nd place in Australia, and the 20^th place in the world.

1.4  Scholar GPS: globally ranked the 16^th in Augmented Reality, the 2^nd in Building Information Modelling, and the 3^rd in Informative Modelling.

1.5  Google Scholar Citations: the 1^st globally in the tags of Smart City, and Smart Construction.

1.6  His work has formed the foundation of at least 68 patents of others (US 61; FR 1; EP 1; WO 4; CN 1). Among those citing patents,

o   61 are US Patents.

o   30 are inventions included in Monday.com Ltd. (2022 revenue of $729.7 m).

o   4 out of 50 patents by DataRobot Inc. (substantial net worth of $6 billion and 2021 revenue of $176 m) have cited his papers as a single reference.

o   2 patents of IBM and 2 patents of Microsoft cited his work.

Awards, Honors and Recognitions:

1.     Fellow, the UK Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (Royal Society of Arts), 2026

2.     Elected Ordinary Member, European Academy of Science and Arts, 2025

3.     Gold Medal at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions, 2025

4.     Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (Engineering), 2022, 2025

1. Fellow, International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM), 2024
2. Fellow, Australian Institute of Engineers (FIEAust), 2024
3. Platinum Member, American Association of Advances in Sciences (AAAS), 2024

8.     First Class Scientific and Technological Progress Award, China General Chamber of Commerce, 2024

9.     Cooperation Star Award, the 2^nd China-ASEAN Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (theme: Digital Empowerment for a Shared Future), 2025.

10.  Founding President, International Society of Smart Construction and Production (ISSCP)

11.  Editor in Chief, Journal of Building Design and Environment

12.  Associate Editor, AI in Civil Engineering, Springer-Verlag

1. Top 1 ranking in Google Citations in the disciplines of Building Information Modeling, Smart City, and Smart Construction, 2026

14.  Best Paper Awards for 2014-2023, Frontiers of Engineering Management

15.  UNESCO Permanent Member of Expert Group, The Bridging Innovation and Learning in TVET (BILT) Project (2019-2025), UNESCO

1. Laureate Lecture, IAAM, 2024
2. Vice President (Industry), International Association on Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC), 2024
3. Research.com Computer Science in Australia Leader Award, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
4. World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University in 2023, ranking 9,023^rd globally, and 58th out of 38,433 in Building and Construction, 2023
5. Fellow, European Union Academy of Sciences, 2018
6. Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, 2018
7. Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts, 2016
8. Board of Directors, IAARC, since 2016
9. Board of Directors, Asian Group for Civil Engineering Informatics (AGCEI), since 2014
10. Board of Directors, International Society of Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ISCCBE), since 2010
11. Kyung Hee Award, South Korea, 2018
12. Best Paper Award, International Journal of Production Research, 2018
13. Best Student Paper Award, AUBEA 2019
14. Best Student Paper Award, iCCPMCE 2018
15. Distinction Paper Award, CRIOCM2015
16. Pro-Vice Chancellor Prize for Highest Research Performance, 2013
17. Outstanding performance recognition by Woodside Energy Ltd., 2013
18. Runner-Up Award of Curtin Commercial Innovation Awards, 2012
19. International Scholar Visiting Fellowship, South Korea, 2010.

Employment history:

·         Distinguished Professor and Director (2023-presence), Smart Construction Institute | State Key Lab of Safety and Resilience of Mountain Civil Engineering, East China Jiaotong University

·         Professor (2011 to 2025), School of Design and Built Environment, Curtin University

·         Woodside Chair Professor for Oil, Gas & LNG Construction and Project Management （July 2013- July 2018），Curtin University

·         Vice President (Industry), International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC), since 2024.

·         UNESCO Expert Group (2019-2025), UNESCO

·         ARC College of Experts (January 2016 – Dec 2018), Australian Government

·         Acting Woodside Chair Professor of Oil, Gas and LNG Construction and Project Management Construction (February 2012 – July 2013), Curtin University

·         Curtin Director of Australasian Research Centre for Building Information Modelling (BIM) (March 2012 - presence), Curtin University

·         Curtin-Director, Curtin-Chongqing Joint Research Lab on Next Generation Construction Technologies (March 2014 - 2019), Curtin University

·         Editor-in-Chief, Visualization in Engineering: an International Journal, Springer-Verlag (2012)

·         Senior Lecturer (2011), University of New South Wales

·         Lecturer (May 2006 – December 2010), University of Sydney

·         International Scholar (March 2010 – February 2011), Kyung Hee University, South Korea.

Research interests:

• Smart City, Smart Industry, and Smart Infrastructure
• Integrated Asset Engineering Management
• 3D Printing, Solid Waste, and Smart Materials
• Artificial Intelligence in Civil Engineering
• Structure Health Monitoring
• Building Information Modeling (BIM)
• Digital Architecture and Design Computing
• Computational Methods and Optimization in Engineering Problems
• Computer-aided Engineering and Design
• Construction, Project, and Innovation Management
• Safety, Risk and Training
• Automation and Robotics in Built Environment

Grants and Projects (Selected)

• ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LE210100019): Collaborative robotics for structural assembly and construction automation, Led by Monash University, Total Funding: $664,580.00
• ARC Linkage Project (#LP180100222), Asset Intelligence: Maximising Operational Effectiveness for Digital Era, Chief Investigator:  Xiangyu Wang and so on.
• ARC Discovery Project (DP170104613): “Automatic construction monitoring through semantic information modelling”, Chief Investigators: Xiangyu Wang and Ioannis Brilakis, awarded amount: $547,500
• ARC Discovery Project (DP170104612): “A multi-agent system for stakeholder management in off-site construction”, Chief Investigators: Xiangyu Wang, Kerry London, Changzhi Wu, Heap-Yih Chong, awarded amount: $432,000
• Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant (LP160100528): “Bridge Performance Assessment through Advanced Sensing and Modelling”, Chief Investigators: Xiangyu Wang, Yonghong Wu, Jun Li, Keith Hampson, Changzhi Wu, Hung-Lin Chi, Ian Smith, Theodore Shao, James Body, Mahes Rajakaruna; Sarah Iwaniwawarded amount $280,000.
• ARC Industrial Training Centre (#IC150100023): ARC Training Centre for Advanced Manufacturing of Prefabricated Housing, Main Participating Organisations, The University of Melbourne (Leading Organisation); Curtin University; The University of Sydney; Monash University; Funding Total: $4,000,000.00

·       Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant (2014-2017): “Boosting Up Productivity: Optimising Scaffolding Life Cycle Management through Virtual Design and Construction”, Chief Investigators: Xiangyu Wang, Keith Hampson, Kok Lay Teo, Changzhi Wu, Monty Sutrisna, Tele Tan, Martijn Truijens, James Body, Wayne Cannell, and Sudharsanan Loganathan. awarded amount $427,500

·       Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant (2013-2016): “Transforming liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant construction productivity through mobile computing technologies”, Chief Investigators: Xiangyu Wang, Kok Lay Teo, Martijn Truijens, awarded amount $500,000.

·       Woodside Energy Inc. (2013-2018): Improving Community of Practices of LNG Construction and Project Management, Chief Investigator, Xiangyu Wang, awarded amount AUD $ 750,000

·       Shell Inc. (2016-2018): “Container Insert, Mercury Disposal and FLNG Logistics Studies under the Principles of Curtin’s Advanced Technologies Research and Innovation Alliance (CATRINA)” Chief Investigators: Xiangyu Wang, et al.. awarded amount $300,000.

·       Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre (2015-2016): Infrastructure Asset Management – Using Computerised Life Cycle Asset Management to Support Strategic Decision Making, Chief Investigators: Xiangyu Wang, Wu, P., Rahnamayiezekavat, P. , Russell Kenley, Mi Jeong Kim, awarded amount AUD: $210,000.

·       Korean National Research Foundation (Korea NRF) (2015-2016). “A New Approach to Asset Management for Off-shore Floating Systems". Xiangyu Wang through ‘Global Research Center for Ships and Offshore Plants’ at Pusan National University; awarded amount: $ 110,000. 

Science education, outreach, advocacy and/or policy development

·         UNESCO Permanent Member of Expert Group: he provided advice to policy makers at Ministries and national bodies, labour market partners, and researchers worldwide. Specifically, he is with the Bridging Innovation and Learning project (2019-2025) funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and implemented by UNESCO-UNEVOC with support of the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. For the building and construction sector, he organized regular meetings within the expert group, summarized global developments, identified innovative practices and developed recommendations for policy and practice, and delivered final reports focused on the themes of green, digitalization and impact of immigration. 

·         Government Partnerships: His collaborations with government authorities/regulators like Western Australia Main Roads and Queensland Transportation Main Roads have directly influenced policy-making and bolstered infrastructure resilience, focusing on integrating sustainable practices and technological advancements to improve public infrastructure.

·         Policy Development Contributions: Through his active involvement with the Western Australian Energy Research Alliance (WA ERA), he has influenced energy research directions and policy development. His contributions here aim at integrating sustainable solutions within the energy sector, promoting policies that support the adoption of renewable energies and efficient energy use.

·         Renewable Energy Consulting: In RACE for 2030 (Reliable, Affordable, Clean Energy), his strategies for solar energy implementation have advanced renewable energy adoption and sector-wide sustainable development.

·         Game Changer to the Community of Practice: As the Industry Chair by Woodside, he has lifted up the entire community of practices in the energy sector, demonstrating the impact of digital transformation on operational greening.

Interdisciplinary accomplishments or interests

“As the world overflows with information yet often lacking in meaningful interaction, there is an increasingly vital need for the promotion of personal communication across borders and disciplines”. He believes his work is perfectly aligned with addressing this need.

His work addresses global sustainability challenges in sectors such as infrastructure, energy, and manufacturing through an interdisciplinary fusion of digital technologies, engineering, and sustainability. He has pioneered the "Engineering Brain" framework, leveraging AI and digital twins for smarter infrastructure development and project management. Additionally, his advancements in Building Information Modeling (BIM) and 3D printing have revolutionized construction, facilitating partnerships with companies to enhance sustainable practices and reduce environmental impacts. These efforts underscore his commitment to creating resilient and environmentally-friendly infrastructures, contributing to innovative solutions for sustainable development and climate resilience.

His inter-disciplinary accomplishment is also evidenced by publication in diverse disciplines: Engineering: 264 papers (34.4%); Computer Science: 168 papers (21.9%); Mathematics: 59 papers (7.7%); Business, Management and Accounting: 47 papers (6.1%); Social Sciences: 35 papers (4.6%); Environmental Science: 33 papers (4.3%); Energy: 28 papers (3.7%); Earth and Planetary Sciences: 16 papers (2.1%).

He has also merged traditional industry skills with digital literacy to develop multidisciplinary professionals nationally and internationally. His education efforts focus on accessible STEM, soft skills, and lifelong learning to equip students for significant roles in global sustainability and digital innovation.