News

- posted on Apr. 18, 2023

Promotion

Dr. Liu has been promoted to associate professor with tenure at WMU.  

- posted on Mar. 17, 2023

New Research Grant

Another research grant, "Improving Cost Estimation and Budget Planning with New Michigan Highway Construction Cost Index,"  has been recommended for award by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). Given the high inflation, Dr. Liu's team will investigate a new estimation method for transportation construction projects.   

- posted on Feb. 22, 2023

New Research Grant

Our research grant, "Evaluation of MDOT's Methodology for Estimating Work Zone User Delay Times & Costs,"  has been recommended for award by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).  The research team led by Drs. Jun-Seok Oh, Valerian Kwigizile, and Hexu Liu will provide a solution for estimating user delay times and costs in the work zone in a cost-effective way.   

- posted on Feb. 09, 2023

New Research Article

Our article, "Digital Twin-enabled Smart Facility Management: A Bibliometric Review", has been accepted to the Frontiers of Engineering Management.  

- posted on Nov. 15, 2022

New Research Article

Two publications have been accepted to the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management and Buildings, respectively.  

- posted on Jul. 11, 2022

New Research Grant

Our research proposal on Enhancing the Development of Ohio’s Statewide Highway Construction Cost Index has been recommended for award by the Ohio Department of Transportation.  

- posted on May 02, 2022

Outstanding Reviewer

Dr. Liu has been selected by the Editor of the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management as an Outstanding Reviewer for 2021. 

- posted on Mar. 11, 2022

New Research Article

Our article, Towards Automated Construction Quantity Take-off: An Integrated Approach to Information Extraction from Work Descriptions, has been accepted to the Journal of Building.  Congratulations, Shengxian. 

- posted on Feb. 17, 2022

New Research Article

Our new publication, "Parametric-based design optimization of air distribution system in panelized construction", has been accepted to the Journal of Building Engineering. It is resulted from a collaboration with scholars at Concordia University, Canada.    

- posted on Jan. 09, 2022

Congratulations

 As of November/December 2021,  our article, Building information modelling for off-site construction: Review and future directions, was recognized as a "Highly Cited Paper", i.e., receiving enough citations to place it in the top 1% of the academic field of Engineering based on a highly cited threshold for the field and publication year.

- posted on May 25, 2021

New Editorship

Dr. Liu joined the Editorial Board of Journal of Advances in Civil Engineering (Impact factor, 1.176) as an academic Editor. 

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ace/editors/  

Advances in Civil Engineering publishes papers in all areas of civil engineering. The journal welcomes submissions across a range of disciplines, and publishes both theoretical and practical studies. Contributions from academia and from industry are equally encouraged.  

- posted on April 21, 2021

New Research Article

Our two new publications are accepted to the Construction Specialty Conference of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering 2021 (CSCE).  Congratulations, Mohamed and Sulaiman. 

- posted on April 13, 2021

New Research Article

Our new publication, "Design for Manufacturing and Assembly: A BIM-enabled Generative Framework for Building Panelization Design", has been accepted to the Journal of Advances in Civil Engineering.    

- posted on Mar. 10, 2021

New Research Article

Our new publication, "ICT based integrated framework for smart facility management: An industry perspective", has been accepted to the Journal of Facilities Management. Congratulations, Sulaiman. 

- posted on Jan. 28, 2021

New Editorship & Call for Papers

Dr. Liu joined the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (Impact factor, 2.347) as a Guest Associate Editor,  and is organizing a special issue on "Modular construction/off-site construction" in collaboration with Dr. Zhen Lei at University of New Brunswick, Dr. Hong Xian Li at Deakin University, Dr. Sang Hyeok Han at Concordia University, and Dr. Mohamed Al-Hussein at University of Alberta.   

Please refer to the link for details:  http://ow.ly/5EWn50DxO6t  

Submission Deadlines: Abstract April 30 2021;  Full Paper October 31 2021.

- posted on Jan. 15, 2021

New Research Article

Our new publication, "Holistic Framework for Highway Construction Cost Index Development based on Inconsistent Pay Items", has been accepted to the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management.     

- posted on Dec. 23, 2020

New Research Article

Our new publication, "Mobile Crowdsourcing-based Data Collection for User-centered Facility Maintenance Management", has been accepted to the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering.  Congratulations, Mohamed.   

- posted on Dec. 09, 2020

New Research Service

Dr. Liu is invited to join the topic board of Journal of Buildings (Impact factor: 2.648) as a Topic Editor.  https://www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings/topic_editors 

Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal (free for readers) that publishes original articles, critical reviews, research notes, and communications on building science, building engineering and architecture design.

- posted on Dec. 07, 2020

New Research Article

Our new publication, "An Evaluation Method for Effective Prestress of Simply-Supported Prestressed Concrete Beams with Breathing Cracks", has been accepted to the Journal of Advances in Civil Engineering.  It is resulted from a collaboration with scholars at Chang' an University, China.   

- posted on Nov. 23, 2020

New Research Grant

Our research grant on Competitive  Bidding  in  Construction  Contracting  has been recommended for award by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).  The research team led by Drs. Hexu Liu,  Valerian Kwigizile, and Wei-Chao Huang will investigate the impact of various bidding procedures and behaviors on bidding competition and project cost.   

- posted on Oct. 30, 2020

New Research Article

Our new publication, "An Integrated Decision Support System for Building Asset Management based on BIM and Work Breakdown Structure", has been accepted to the Journal of Building Engineering. 

- posted on Jul. 28, 2020

New Research Article

Our new publication, "A Unified Work Breakdown Structure-based Framework for Building Asset Management", has been accepted to the Journal of Facilities Management. 

- posted on Jul. 28, 2020

New Editorship & Call for Papers

Dr. Liu joined the Journal of Advances in Civil Engineering as a Guest Editor,  and is organizing a special issue on "Smart Manufacturing for Industrialized Construction" in collaboration with international collaborators.  Please refer to the below link for details.

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ace/si/503183/ 

- posted on Jun. 05, 2020

New Research Article

Our new publication, "Virtual Reality Applications for the Built Environment: Research Trends and Opportunities", has been accepted to the Journal of Automation in Construction. 

- posted on May 30, 2020

New Research Article

Our new publication, "Exploring and Verifying BIM-based Energy Simulation for Building Operations", has been accepted to the Journal of Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management. 

- posted on Dec. 19, 2019

New Research Article

Our new publication, "A BIM-based Framework for Operation and Maintenance of Utility Tunnels", has been accepted to the Journal of Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2019.103252 

- posted on Dec. 13, 2019

New Research Grant

Our research grant on the Michigan Transportation Construction Price Index has been recommended for award by the Michigan Department of Transportation.  The research team led by Drs. Hexu Liu,  Valerian Kwigizile, and Wei-Chao Huang will investigate a method of developing and maintaining the Michigan state Highway Construction Cost Index for more accurate construction cost estimation and program planning.   

- posted on Oct. 04, 2019

Congratulations 

Akash Sunil Awatade, an MSc student recently graduated from the DSC Lab, will join the MWH Constructors as a BIM coordinator in October 2019. The MWH Constructors is a global expert in alternative project delivery - from complex water infrastructure to capital construction. Congratulations,  Akash! 

- posted on Nov. 29, 2018

One Graduate Research Assistantship Available

One PhD research assistantship with a full financial support is available within our research group at the Western Michigan University.  

Minimum Requirements: 1) B.S. in Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering and Management, Computer Engineering, or related field; 2) minimum grade point average of 3.25 at the master’s and 3.0 at the bachelor’s levels; 3) general GRE test scores; and 4) English Proficiency (clicking here). 

Preferred Requirements: 1) a master degree in Engineering; 2) programming skill in C#, Python, or/and Matlab; and 3) knowledge and experiences in a) Building Information Modeling (BIM), b) computer-aided design, c) artificial intelligence, d) machine learning, e) computer vision, and f) statistics, inference, and mathematical modeling.  

How to apply: Please contact Dr. Hexu Liu (hexu.liu@wmich.edu)

Application Deadline: April 01, 2019