Chenxi Yuan

Dr. Chenxi Yuan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Construction Management at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's School of Engineering. He directs the Transparent Civil Infrastructure System (T-CIS) Lab and maintains affiliations with McCarthy Construction Company through a faculty residency fellowship. Previously, he worked as an Assistant Engineer at ARUP.

Education includes:

• PhD in Civil Engineering, Purdue University (2018)
• Master of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, China (2010)
• Bachelor of Mechanics Engineering, Central South University, China (2007)

Dr. Yuan's research develops transparent civil infrastructure systems through sensing, informatics, and visualization. His work integrates Building Information Modeling (BIM), mixed reality, and machine learning to enhance buildability, readability, and socio-responsibility of infrastructure. Research spans automated inspection systems, earthmoving operations optimization, and subsurface utility mapping.

Publications demonstrate strong focus on construction informatics and infrastructure visualization, with recent work incorporating large language models for bridge inspection and ontology-based knowledge systems. Consistent themes include computer vision applications, risk-based inspection frameworks, and geospatial data integration.

Awards and honors:

• K.B. Woods Award, TRB (2019)
• Best Paper Award (First Place), TRB Committee on Construction Management (2018)
• Robert L. Bowen Industry Residency Fellowship (2022)

Dr. Yuan has supervised 6+ graduate students in thesis research on construction automation and infrastructure informatics. Funded projects include:

• NSF-funded ontology-based bridge inspection system ($10K)
• Real-time decision frameworks for manufacturing ($14K)
• Mixed reality alignment systems ($14K)

The T-CIS Lab features drones, AR/VR systems (HoloLens, HTC Vive), and construction simulators to support research in infrastructure transparency and visualization technologies.