Dr Yidan Zhang

Name: Dr Yidan Zhang

Academic Division: Civil Engineering

Research Group: Delivering Impact

Email: yz2121@cam.ac.uk 

Research Interests

As the construction sector undergoes rapid technological and organisational change, there is a growing need to connect innovation with practical implementation and measurable value. This challenge underpins Yidan’s research, which sits at the intersection of technology, management, and policy in the built environment. Her work focuses on innovation management, performance measurement, market analysis and digital solutions. Through a multidisciplinary approach, she examines how emerging technologies and innovative delivery methods can be effectively adopted, evaluated, and scaled. Her research aims to support more effective, evidence-based, and scalable solutions for the transformation of the built environment. 

Strategic Themes

• Commercialisation and Business Models for Digital Roads 
• Standards Development and Industry Translation for Digital Roads 

Research Project

Digital Roads of the Future (DRF) explores how a novel synthesis of digital twins, smart materials, data science, automation, and robotics can create an interconnected physical–digital infrastructure system and its associated processes. By integrating these technologies, DRF aims to transform roads from passive assets into intelligent, responsive, and data-rich systems that support more efficient construction, real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and adaptive management. For more information, see Research  

Equally important is understanding how such innovations can be supported by viable business models, effective commercialisation pathways, and robust standards and industry frameworks that enable effective implementation, so that technical advances can be adopted at scale and translated into practical value for industry, government, and the wider public.

Biography

Dr Yidan Zhang is a Research Associate in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She received her PhD degree from The University of Hong Kong (HKU), supported by the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme and the HKU Presidential PhD Scholar Programme. Following the completion of her doctoral training, she was appointed as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Civil Engineering at HKU.  

Her academic journey in the world-leading universities has provided her with substantial experience in multi-disciplinary research, spanning innovation management, market analysis, modular construction and its supply chain management, building informatics, and construction performance measurement. She is particularly interested in research that connects technological innovation with practical implementation in the built environment, supporting the adoption and scaling of transformative approaches such as digital twins and construction automation. 

She has been actively involved in a range of government-commissioned and competitively funded research projects, including those supported by the National and Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China, Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme, and consultancy projects for the Hong Kong Government. Her involvement in these initiatives has given her extensive experience in both leading and contributing to collaborative research, with an emphasis on generating both academic insight and real-world impact.  

Her research activity is demonstrated by a growing portfolio of peer-reviewed publications, including journal articles published in journals such as Developments in the Built Environment and Engineering, Construction, and Architectural Management, conference papers presented at ISARC, CRIOCM, etc., and policy research reports accepted by the Hong Kong Government. 

Looking ahead, she aims to further develop the research directions at the intersection of technology, management, and policy through collaboration with leading universities, research centres, and industry partners. Her long-term goal is to bridge the technical and commercial dimensions of construction innovation, contributing to the future of intelligent, data-driven infrastructure stewardship.