People

Principal Investigator

Yazhou (Tim) Xie

Dr. Yazhou (Tim) Xie is the Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at McGill University.
Xie received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and his M.S. in Bridge Engineering and B.S. in Civil Engineering, both from Tongji University, China.
Xie received the 2014 Martin Rubin Scholarship and the 2017 Dissertation Year Fellowship Award, both from UCLA. Prior to joining McGill, Xie was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Natural Hazards Mitigation Research Group at Rice University.
Xie's research interests lie within the broad areas of resilience, infrastructure systems, and natural hazards.

Email: tim.xie@mcgill.ca

Postdoctoral Researchers

Yexiang Yan

Fall 2024
Dr. Yexiang Yan received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Civil Engineering from Southwest Jiaotong University in China, and his Ph.D. from Tongji University in China. Dr. Yan will join Professor Xie's research group as a postdoctoral fellow in the fall of 2024. His research interests include structural analysis, seismic fragility assessment, uncertainty quantification, and the life-cycle performance evaluation of bridges under multi-hazard scenarios.
In his free time, he enjoys reading, writing, and programming.

Research: Life-cycle risk assessment of bridge infrastructure in eastern Canada

Hongzhou Zhang

Fall 2024
Dr. Hongzhou Zhang received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto and M.A.Sc in Civil Engineering from the University of British Columbia, with a focus on structural and earthquake engineering. Before his graduate studies, Hongzhou obtained his Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Jilin University, China. In Fall 2024, Hongzhou will join Professor Xie's research group as a postdoctoral researcher.
His research interests include seismic analysis of structures, uncertainty quantification, sensitivity analysis, and the calibration of hysteretic models.
In his free time, Hongzhou enjoys playing badminton and hiking.

Research: Uncertainty quantification for seismic risk assessment of highway bridges in Western Canada

Sirui Song

Fall 2025
Sirui Song received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from McGill University, as well as his B.E. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Tsinghua University, respectively.
His PhD research focused on seismic fragility assessment of irregular bridges.
In his spare time, he enjoys reading and running.

Research: Mass timber seismic retrofits

PhD Students

Han Lin

Fall 2021
Han Lin received his M.S. in Civil Engineering from McGill Unversity. He received his B.S. in Engineering Mechanics from Tianjin University, China. He won the Honorable Mention in Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) in 2017 and received the Top Ten Youths in School of Mechanical Engineering in Tianjin University in 2018.
In his free time, he enjoys working out, skiing, and music.
Research: Risk assessment of underground infrastructure under explosive loading
han.lin2@mail.mcgill.ca

Farzaneh Abedini

Winter 2022
Farzaneh Abedini will join the University of McGill in winter 2022 as a Ph.D. student, and she is going to work under the supervision of Professor Tim Xie. She studied her B.Sc in Civil Engineering and her M.Sc in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Tehran, Iran. Her research is about regional risk assessment of the underground tunnels.
In her spare time, she enjoys reading and painting.

Research: Regional seismic risk assessment of underground infrastructure
farzaneh.abedini@mail.mcgill.ca

Chunxiao Ning

Fall 2022
Chunxiao Ning graduated from Dalian University of Technology, China, with a B.S. in civil engineering in 2020, and McGill University, with a MSc-thesis degree in structural engineering in 2022. He will join Professor Xie's group in Fall 2022 and study for his Ph.D. degree.
He was awarded as the Excellent Graduate of Dalian University of Technology in 2020, and also won the Graduate Excellence Fellowship (GEF) from McGill University. He is very interested in structural analysis and can use a variety of analysis software. His undergraduate thesis is about the research on structure control system.
Chunxiao likes Voluntary activities and once won the tittle of Outstanding Volunteer. At the same time, he is a loyal fan of Peking Opera and music.
Research: Deep learning applications in earthquake engineering
chunxiao.ning@mail.mcgill.ca

Shanshan Chen

Fall 2022
Shanshan Chen received her B.E. and M.S. in Civil Engineering, both from South China University of Technology. She will join Professor Xie's group in Fall 2022 as a Ph.D. student. She was awarded the Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC scholarship).
In her spare time, she enjoys running and origami.
Research: Regional resilience assessment of the LA bridge network
shanshan.chen2@mail.mcgill.ca

Pouya Tavakoli

Winter 2024
Pouya Tavakoli holds both an M.Sc and B.Sc degree in Structural and Civil Engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran. His master's thesis was on semi-active tuned mass damper. He will join McGill University as a PhD in Winter 2024 under the supervision of Professor Tim Xie.
During his leisure hours, he enjoys listening to music and indulging in bicycle rides.
Research: Dynamics of railway bridges under earthquake loads
pouya.tavakoli@mail.mcgill.ca

Lei Liao

Winter 2024
Lei Liao received his B.E. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Chang'an University and Hunan University, respectively. He will join McGill University in Winter 2024 as a Ph.D. student.
Prior to joining McGill University, his research focused on seismic fragility analysis. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and hiking.
Research: Multi-hazard fragility and risk assessment
lei.liao@mail.mcgill.ca

Ali Amini

Fall 2024
Ali Amini holds an MSc in Structural Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) in Iran and a BSc in Civil Engineering from Shiraz University, Iran. He has contributed to the civil engineering academic community as a reviewer for various journals, including those published by Nature, Elsevier, Springer, ASCE, and IEEE.
His research interests include Uncertainty Quantification, Risk, Reliability and Resilience, Artificial Intelligence, Multi-Criteria Decision Making, Earthquake Engineering, and Structural Optimization.
In his spare time, Ali enjoys playing ping pong and watching films.

Research: AI-aided regional resilience quantification of infrastructures
Email: ali.amini@mail.mcgill.ca | Google Scholar | Web of Science

Master Students

Youssef Said

Fall 2023
Youssef Said graduated from McGill University in Winter 2023, with a B.Sc in Civil Engineering. He is pursuing a M.Sc degree in Structural Engineering at McGill University starting Fall 2023. His research is about snap-through buckling of shallow arch bridges. He is very interested in structural analysis, design, and modeling using software.
He was awarded upon graduation the Class of ‘51 Structural Engineering Prize and the British Association Medal from McGill University as the undergraduate student with the highest grades in structural engineering core courses and as the undergraduate student with the highest cumulative GPA in Civil Engineering respectively. He was also awarded the MEUSMA Scholarship from McGill University.
In his spare time, Youssef Said enjoys song writing, playing the piano, cooking, tennis, football, night walks, and running.
Research: Snap-through buckling of shallow arch bridges
youssef.said@mail.mcgill.ca

Huan Ju

Fall 2024
Huan Ju received his BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Ottawa with a distinction of Summa Cum Laude. He will join McGill University in the Fall of 2024 as a master’s student.
In his spare time, he likes photography, swimming, and playing basketball.
Research: Friction dampers for seismic retrofit of non-ductile reinforced concrete buildings
hju121099@outlook.com

Zixi Huang

Winter 2025
Zixi Huang received her BSc in Civil Engineering at McGill University, and her area of interest is sustainable structural design and materials.

During her spare time, she enjoys playing guitar, hiking, and working out.
Research: Generation of artificial ground motions
zixi.huang@mail.mcgill.ca