Dr Xiaoming Wang is revealing the intrinsic identities and behaviours of systems.

Dr Xiaoming Wang: better planning and management solutions for the built environment

Dr Xiaoming Wang is developing modelling, simulation, monitoring technology and optimal decision-making process in design and management for the built environment in response to climate change.

• 23 March 2011 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Xiaoming Wang is investigating how vulnerable our buildings and infrastructure are to changing climate conditions, and how climate adaptation strategies can support them to maintain serviceability, safety and durability during their service life cycles.

These adaptation strategies include anticipatory, progressive, reactive or corrective measures, through planning, design, construction, monitoring, maintenance, rehabilitation, and post-responses that are also interconnected within the broader environment and human settlement systems.

Dr Wang has also been working on in-situ and real-time condition diagnosis and prognosis by integrating human-mimicking intelligence into structures and infrastructure systems.

His other current research areas include:

• buildings and infrastructure performance under changing climate, including serviceability, durability and safety, and especially, thermal, indoor and energy performance of buildings 
• assessment, planning and management of natural hazards, including flood, inundation and wind, considering the likely impact of climate change
• climate adaptation engineering to reduce climate change impact
• urban environment under changing climate
• low-carbon built environment for mitigating climate change.

Background

Dr Wang developed a fundamental theory on the interaction of material behaviour in multiple physical domains in his doctorate research in magneto-electro-thermo-elastic materials.

He developed composite manufacturing process monitoring techniques at the Intitut fuer Verbundwerkstuff in Germany between 1995 and 1997.

In 1997, as a research fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia, his research was directed towards smart materials and structures.

He joined CSIRO in 2001 as a senior scientist and one year later was awarded a grant from the Australian Academy of Science to study the reliability and management of bridges and infrastructures at the University of Colorado, USA.

His research extended to civil engineering and the built environment with project leadership in the areas of:

• life-time performance modelling

  'How vulnerable are our buildings and infrastructure to changing climate conditions, and how can climate adaptation strategies support their service life cycles?'

  Dr Xiaoming Wang
• risk management
• sensing and data/information interpretation technology
• natural hazards and climate adaptation engineering for built environment.

Academic qualifications

Dr Wang was awarded his Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Mechanics, from Xian Jiaotong University, China, in 1993.

Achievements

Dr Wang's pioneering doctorate was awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship.

He is associate editor of leading international journal Structural Health Monitoring, and has authored more than 120 publications, including 50 refereed journal papers and 50 refereed conference proceedings.

He was a visiting professor and senior fellow with several international universities, and an associate with the University of Sydney and Monash University.

His research highlights include:

• climate change impacts on building energy performance and carbon mitigation schemes
• climate change impact on concrete structures and adaptations in design and maintenance
• coastal inundation in South-east Queensland under changing climate
• contribution to the Garnaut Climate Change Review on consideration of human settlement and infrastructure
• research for the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) on the risks of Australian construction and design industries in China in relation to Australia-China Free Trade Agreement
• advanced water end-use monitoring technology
• Bayesian theory-based causal network in relation to the assessment of structural condition, construction safety, and organisation culture
• a sensor-fusion-based pattern recognition for structural health monitoring with distributed sensor networks
• life cycle asset maintenance planning and management for electricity utilities: a model that predicts the life cycle reliability of utility systems from material, product levels to structures and structural system under the influence of macro to micro climates
• fundamental theory on magneto-electro-elastic materials, originating in his doctoral work which has received many award
• strategic and operational planning through assessment with Bayesian theory based causal network, 2005.

He is an Adjunct Professor with the Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences in Swinburne University of Technology, taking leading research roles in the National Climate Adaptation Flagship and Urban Systems Program.

He is also an expert of international standing for the Australian Research Council (ARC), assessing proposals for:

• ARC Federation Fellowships
• ARC Fellowships
• Discovery Projects.

Read more about CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences.