Staff Profile

I joined the School of Engineering, Newcastle University as a NUAcT fellow in October 2022. Before that, I worked as a Research Associate at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge and the Centre for Digital Built Britain from 2018 to 2022. I received my PhD degree in Control Science and Engineering from Zhejiang University in 2018. 

My research focuses on data-centric and energy-oriented asset management for building and urban infrastructure. I am interested in applying machine learning, knowledge graph, digital twin, and human-machine interaction technologies to facilitate the digital transformation of built assets, contributing to the lifecycle analysis and decarbonisation of the building and construction sector. I have published more than 20 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and conferences in this area. 

For further information, please refer to my personal research website: Click here

Google scholar: Click here

Linkedin: Click here

Professional Memberships:

• Member of the Institution of Engineering & Technology (MIET);
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Research interests:

• Digital transformation of the built environment
• Digital twin for existing built assets
• Data-centric facilities asset management
• Energy informatics for the decarbonisation of buildings
• Whole-life carbon assessment for urban infrastructure

Current Fundings:

• Royal Society Research Grant: Integrating Drone and BIM for Automated Visual Inspection in Utility Tunnels, £20k, 2024-2025, PI.
• Horizon Europe: WILSON-Distributed data modelling and Federated Digital Twinning for lifecycle data-driven sustainable operation and management of buildings and districts, £613k (€5 million in total), 2024-2028, Co-I.
• Royal Society International Exchange Scheme: Demand Flexibility Modelling and Optimal Scheduling in Building Energy Systems through Plug-and-Play Appliance Integration, £12k, 2024-2026, PI.
• Innovate UK: Aquila: a novel AI Digital Twin tool for Construction Sites, £135k, 2024-2025, Co-I.
• Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP): Knowledge-based engineering and Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) in Industrialised construction (with Merit Holdings LTD.), £409k, 2024-2026, Co-I and KTP associate supervisor.
• 1851 Royal Commission: Integrating Self-programming Artificial General Intelligence in UK Clean Air Zones Using Large Language Models, £100k, 2024-2025, PI.
• EPSRC-DfT: UK National Clean Maritime Research Hub (UK-MaRes Hub), £548k (£7.4m in total) with additional in-kind match funding from project partners, 2023-2027, Co-I.

Previous research projects:

• TwinAIR: Digital Twins Enabled Indoor Air Quality Management for Healthy Living, funded by Horizon Europe Programme.
• West Cambridge Digital Twin Research Facility, funded by Construction Innovation Hub through the UK Industrial Strategy Fund.
• Creating an inter-hospital resilient network for pandemic response based on blockchain and dynamic digital twins: a systems approach for now and future, funded by UCL CBT Project on COVID-19 and Distributed Ledger Technologies.
• Using IoT data to produce Mixed-Fidelity Building Models, funded by the Pitch-In Mini Project Award.
• Research on big data analysis and cloud service for urban drinking water network safety, funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

• Articles

  • Wang K, Xie X, Liu BT, Yu J, Wang ZQ. Reliable multi-horizon water demand forecasting model: A temporal deep learning approach. Sustainable Cities and Society 2024, 112, 105595.
  • Wang K, Ye ZT, Xie X, Cui HD, Chen T, Liu BT. MLN-net: A multi-source medical image segmentation method for clustered microcalcifications using multiple layer normalization. Knowledge-Based Systems 2024, 283, 111127.
  • Chang J, Xie X, Parlikad A. Cloud-based Building Information Modelling (CBIM): Software Engineers' Insights into Improving Asset Information Quality. Built Environment Project and Asset Management 2024, ePub ahead of print.
  • Liu P, Xu Y, Xie X, Turkmen S, Fan S, Ghassemi H, He G. Achieving the global net-zero maritime shipping goal: The urgencies, challenges, regulatory measures and strategic solutions. Ocean and Coastal Management 2024, 256, 107301.
  • Lu Q, Chen L, Xie X, Fang Z, Ye Zhen, Pitt M. Framing blockchain-integrated digital twins for emergent healthcare management at local and city levels: a proof of concept. Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers: Engineering Sustainability 2023, 176(4), 228-243.
  • Moretti N, Xie X, Morino J, Chang J, Parlikad AKN. Federated data modelling for built environment Digital Twins. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering 2023, 37(4), 04023013.
  • Xie X, Merino J, Moretti N, Pauwels P, Chang J, Parlikad AK. Digital twin enabled fault detection and diagnosis process for building HVAC systems. Automation in Construction 2023, 146, 104695.
  • Merino J, Xie X, Moretti N, Chang J, Parlikad A. Data Integration for Digital Twins in the Built-Environment: A Hybrid method based on federated data modelling. Smart Infrastructure and Construction (Proceedings of the ICE) 2023, 176(4), 194-211.
  • Xie X, Fang ZG, Chen L, Lu QC, Tan T, Ye Z, Pitt M. Facilitating Patient-Centric Thinking in Hospital Facility Management: A Case of Pharmaceutical Inventory. Buildings 2022, 12(7), 888.
  • Chen L, Xie X, Lu QC, Parlikad A, Pitt M, Yang J. Gemini Principles-Based Digital Twin Maturity Model for Asset Management. Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8224.
  • Xie X, Lu QC, Herrera M, Yu QJ, Parlikad A, Schooling J. Does historical data still count? Exploring the applicability of smart building applications in the post-pandemic period. Sustainable Cities and Society 2021, 69, 102804.
  • Xie X, Lu QC, Rodenas-Herraiz D, Parlikad A, Schooling J. Visualised inspection system for monitoring environmental anomalies during daily operation and maintenance. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management 2020, 27(8), 1835-1852.
  • Hadjidemetriou GM, Xie X, Parlikad A. Predictive Group Maintenance Model for Networks of Bridges. Transportation Research Record 2020, 2674(4), 373-383.
  • Lu QC, Xie X, Parlikad A, Schooling J, Konstantinou E. Moving from building information models to digital twins for operation and maintenance. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Smart Infrastructure and Construction 2020, 174(2), 46-56.
  • Lu QC, Xie X, Parlikad A, Schooling J. Digital twin-enabled anomaly detection for built asset monitoring in operation and maintenance. Automation in Construction 2020, 118, 103277.
  • Lu QC, Parlikad A, Woodall P, Ranasinghe GD, Xie X, Liang ZL, Konstantinou E, Heaton J, Schooling J. Developing a Digital Twin at Building and City Levels: Case Study of West Cambridge Campus. Journal of Management in Engineering 2020, 36(3), 05020004.
  • Moretti N, Xie X, Merino J, Brazauskas J, Parlikad A. An openBIM Approach to IoT Integration with Incomplete As-Built Data. Applied Science 2020, 10(22), 8287.
  • Xie X, Hou DB, Tang XY, Zhang HJ. Leakage Identification in Water Distribution Networks with Error Tolerance Capability. Water Resources Management 2019, 33, 1233-1247.
  • Xie X, Zhou Q, Hou DB, Zhang HJ. Compressed sensing based optimal sensor placement for leak localization in water distribution networks. Journal of Hydroinformatics 2018, 20(6), 1286–1295.
  • Tang XY, Xie X, Fan B, Sun YX. A fault-tolerant flow measuring method based on PSO-SVM with transit-time multipath ultrasonic gas flowmeters. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement 2018, 67(5), 992-1005.
  • Xie X, Zhang HJ, Hou DB. Bayesian Approach for Joint Estimation of Demand and Roughness in Water Distribution Systems. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 2017, 143(8), 04017034.
  • Tang XY, Xie X, Zhang HJ, Zhou HL. Data integration for multi-path ultrasonic flowmeter based on Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. IET Science, Measurement & Technology 2015, 9(8), 909-920.

• Authored Book

  • Lu QC, Xie X, Parlikad A, Schooling J, Pitt M. Digital Twins in the Built Environment: Fundamentals, principles and applications. London: ICE publishing, 2022.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Xie X, Chang J, Kassem M, Parlikad AK. Resolving inconsistency in building information using uncertain knowledge graphs: a case of building space management. In: 2023 European Conference on Computing in Construction 40th International CIB W78 Conference. 2023, Heraklion, Crete, Greece: European Council for Computing in Construction.
  • Xie X, Herrera M, Shah T, Kassem M, James P. Learning partial correlation graph for multivariate sensor data and detecting sensor communities in smart buildings. In: Proceedings LDAC2023 - 11th Linked Data in Architecture and Construction. 2023, Matera, Italy: CEUR Workshop Proceedings.
  • Xie X, Huang HY. Evaluating the costs and benefits of using recycled aggregate concrete in buildings: Does recycling lead to long-term sustainability for sure?. In: 11th International Conference on Industrial Ecology. 2023, Leiden, Holland: ISIE.
  • Xie X, Moretti N, Merino J, Chang J, Pauwels P, Parlikad A. Enabling Building Digital Twin: Ontology-Based Information Management Framework for Multi-source Data Integration. In: CIB World Building Congress 2022. 2022, Melbourne.
  • Tsianikas S, Xie X, Puri RS, Parlikad AK, Coit DW. Comparison of Neural Network Based Approaches for Short-term Residential Energy Load Forecasting. In: The IISE Annual Conference & Expo 2022. 2022, Seattle Washington, USA: Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, IISE.
  • Xie X, Moretti N, Merino J, Chang J, Parlikad A. Ontology-Based Spatial and System Hierarchies Federation for Fine-Grained Building Energy Analysis. In: Joint Conference CIB W78 - LDAC 2021. 2021, Luxembourg: ITC Digital Library.
  • Xie X, Lu QC, Parlikad A, Schooling J. Digital Twin Enabled Asset Anomaly Detection for Building Facility Management. In: 4th IFAC Workshop on Advanced Maintenance Engineering, Services and Technologies. 2020, Cambridge, UK: Elsevier Ltd.
  • Lu QC, Xie X, Heaton J, Parlikad A, Schooling J. From BIM Towards Digital Twin: Strategy and Future Development for Smart Asset Management. In: International Workshop on Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing SOHOMA 2019. 2019, Valencia: Springer.
  • Xie X, Parlikad A, Puri RS. A Neural Ordinary Differential Equations Based Approach for Demand Forecasting within Power Grid Digital Twins. In: 2019 IEEE International Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing Technologies for Smart Grids. 2019, Beijing: IEEE.