Hexu Liu

Hexu Liu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering at Western Michigan University. His research focuses on integrating emerging technologies like BIM, discrete-event simulation, virtual reality, and AI into construction planning and management. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, where he also served as a post-doctoral fellow.

Dr. Liu received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Shaanxi, China, and has been recognized with awards such as the Joseph D. Thompson/Zurich Canada Graduate Award and the 2017 Outstanding Reviewer from the Journal of Automation in Construction. His work emphasizes automation in construction through BIM innovations, including semantic quantity take-off and BIM-simulation integration.

Research Interests:

• Building Information Modeling (BIM) and its applications
• Discrete-event simulation for construction processes
• AI-driven predictive maintenance and safety monitoring
• Offsite construction technologies
• Occupant-centric facility management

Recent work highlights include frameworks for highway cost indices during inflation, digital twin-based fire safety systems, and human-robot collaboration in construction. He actively reviews for journals like Automation in Construction and conferences like CRC 2018.

Awards and Honors:

• Joseph D. Thompson/Zurich Canada Graduate Award
• 2017 Outstanding Reviewer Award (Journal of Automation in Construction)
• Ernie Tromposch Graduate Scholarship

Labs/Teams: Leads the DSC (Data-Driven Sustainable Construction) Lab, focused on advancing smart technologies in construction through interdisciplinary research.