Professor Yang Zou

To date, I have secured multi-million-pound research funding as PI/Co-PI/Co-I from both national and international funding agencies. I have also published >100 papers in leading journals and international conferences (~90% of my journal articles are in JCR Q1 journals), receiving >3,300 citations according to Google Scholar.

Current research activity

• “Improving Performance and Collaboration for Offsite Construction through Learning between Projects and Knowledge Reuse”, funded by Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ) through New Zealand Building Research Levy Fund, 2023-26
• “Developing a Construction 4.0 transformation of Aotearoa New Zealand's construction sector”, funded by New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) Endeavour Fund – Research Programmes, 2022-26

Recently completed research projects

• “Digital Twinning – A Future Rail Platform”, New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) Innovation Fund, 2023
• “Automated Building Code Compliance Checking for Prefab Designs: Key Barriers and Recommendations”, funded by Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ) through New Zealand Building Research Levy Fund, 2019-22
• “Agent-Based Building Earthquake Evacuation Simulation: AB2E2S”, funded by New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) National Science Challenge (NSC) – Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI), 2019-22
• “Rapid post-earthquake assessment of bridge damage through 3D BIM reconstruction”, University of Auckland Faculty Research Development Fund (FRDF): New Staff Grant, 2018-21

• Agrawal, A.K., Zou, Y.*, Abdelmegid, M., Gonzalez, V. & Jin, H., 2026, “Automated generation of assembly schedules for precast building projects under uncertainty using reinforcement learning and Monte Carlo sampling”, Advanced Engineering Informatics, Elsevier, 73, pp. 104510 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2026.104510
• Zabin, A.*, Gonzalez, V.A., Zou, Y. & Amor, R., 2026. “WAM-ONTO: A Semantic Framework for Water Infrastructure Asset Management”, Advanced Engineering Informatics, Elsevier, 70(2026), pp. 104109 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2025.104109
• Yang, T., Zou, Y.*, Castillo, EDR., Lei, H. & Zhong, J., 2026, “Enhancing Bridge Scan-to-BIM Using Point Cloud Completion Techniques”, Automation in Construction, Elsevier, 181 (Part A), pp. 106285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2025.106606
• Agrawal, A.K., Zou, Y.*, Abdelmegid, M., Chen, L., Gonzalez, V. & Jin, H., 2025, “Leveraging linked data for space constraints checking of mobile cranes in modular construction assembly lookahead planning”, Advanced Engineering Informatics, Elsevier, 68 (Part C), pp. 103778 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2025.103778
• Zhang, C., Zou, Y.*, Wang, F. & Dimyadi, J. 2025, “Automated UAV image-to-BIM Registration for Planar and Curved Building Façades Using Structure from Motion and 3D Surface Unwrapping”, Automation in Construction, Elsevier, 174, pp.106148 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2025.106148
• Wang, F., Zou, Y.*, Chen, X.Y., Zhang, C., Hou, L., Castillo, E.D.R., & Lim, J.B.P., 2024, “Rapid in-flight image quality check for UAV-enabled bridge inspection”, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Elsevier, 212, pp. 230-250 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2024.05.008

Internationally, I am an Associate Editor of Construction Innovation and Engineering Sustainability journal. I also serve as a Board of Directors member for the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC) and Asian Group of Civil Engineering Informatics (AGCEI). I have been invited to review grant proposals for Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC). In addition, I am a scientific committee member for over 25 international conferences and a regular reviewer for over 20 leading journals.

Professional affiliations

• Chartered Member, Chartered Institute of Building
• Assocaite Fellow, Higher Education Academy

Awards

• Best Paper Award, 48th Australasian Universities Building Education Association International Conference, Canberra, Australia, 2025
• Faculty of Engineering and Design (FoED) Teaching Development Award, The University of Auckland, 2025
• Australian Decarbonising Building Industry (DBI) Network’s Visiting Fellowship, 2025
• Best Paper Award, 6th International Conference on Civil and Building Engineering Informatics, Hong Kong, 2025
• Young Scientist Award, New Zealand Chinese Scientists Association, 2023
• Best Paper Award, CIB World Building Congress, Melbourne, Australia, 2022
• Merit Award in “Singapore Challenge: The Science of Future Cities”, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, 2015

External activities

• Reviewer of >20 international journals
• Member of Scientific Committee for >25 international conferences
• >40 invited seminars, guest lectures and industry talks
• External reviewer for Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust

Key collaborators

My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and stakeholder partners, including:

• University of Alberta
• University College London
• University of Leeds
• Cardiff University
• City University of Hong Kong
• TU Delft
• University of Auckland
• University of Canterbury
• Massey University
• UNSW Sydney
• University of Melbourne
• RMIT University
• University of Adelaide
• Southeast University
• Sichuan University