Research Team Overview
The Solar Building and Environment Research Team is led by Professor Liu Yanfeng, a Distinguished Professor of the Changjiang Scholars Program of the Ministry of Education. Relying on the State Key Laboratory of Green Building and the National Collaborative Innovation Center for Western China Green Building of Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, the team is affiliated to the first batch of the national Huang Danian-style Teacher Team and the first Innovation Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China in the discipline of Architecture. Facing the major strategic needs of the country in the new era, the team focuses on research into fundamental scientific issues and key technological innovations in the fields of low-carbon architecture, renewable energy utilization, healthy and livable environments, and the intelligent development of architecture. It provides crucial scientific and technological support for national and industrial development, emerging as a high-level research team with a well-structured academic echelon and distinctive research features.
Faculty Strength
The team currently has 12 faculty members, including 5 professors, 6 associate professors and 1 postdoctoral researcher, with 28 doctoral candidates and 88 master candidates pursuing their studies. The talent team features a high academic level and a rational structure. Core members have been awarded more than 20 national and provincial-level talent program titles in total. The team leader, Professor Liu Yanfeng, is a Distinguished Professor of the Changjiang Scholars Program, a leading talent in scientific and technological innovation of the National Ten-Thousand Talents Program, and a Young and Middle-Aged Science and Technology Innovation Leading Talent of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Professor Wang Dengjia is a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and a Young Changjiang Scholar of the Ministry of Education. Professor Wang Yingying is a recipient of the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars. Many other team members have been honored as Young Top-notch Talents of the Shaanxi Provincial Special Support Program and Young Science and Technology Stars of Shaanxi Province, forming a research echelon with complementary professional advantages and outstanding innovation capabilities.
Research Interests
Centering on the national strategic needs of energy conservation, emission reduction and renewable energy utilization, the team focuses on fundamental scientific issues and key technological innovations in the field of low-carbon building energy conservation and renewable energy heating and air conditioning, with its main research directions as follows:
1. Theories and key technologies of building zero-carbon energy systems, focusing on solar zero-carbon heating and air conditioning systems, integrated utilization of solar thermal and photovoltaic energy, multi-energy complementary integrated energy systems, and intelligent operation, maintenance and management of energy systems;
2. Theories and methods for creating livable built environments in extreme climate regions, with a focus on the design theories, creation methods and key technologies of thermal-humidity-oxygen integrated environments in extreme climate regions such as plateaus;
3. R&D of new low-carbon building materials and their thermal parameter systems, focusing on the climate-adaptive building thermal technology systems and the physical property parameter systems of building materials for specific regions.
Research Achievements
The team has presided over more than 60 national and provincial-level major scientific research projects, including the National Key R&D Program projects of the 13th and 14th Five-Year Plans, major project topics of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and key projects of the Regional United Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. It has also undertaken more than 30 industry-commissioned projects with sufficient research funding.
The team has won 2 Second Prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and more than 10 provincial and ministerial-level awards including the First Prize of Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Award and the Special Prize of Huaxia Construction Science and Technology Award. It has published more than 500 academic papers in high-level journals in the field, including over 300 SCI papers, and obtained more than 70 authorized invention patents and 20 software copyrights. The team has chief-edited more than 10 monographs and textbooks in the field of building energy conservation and renewable energy utilization, many of which have been funded by the National Publication Fund and the National Academic Works Publication Fund. It has also compiled more than 30 national, industrial and local standards.
A number of the team's research achievements have been transformed into practical applications, applied in engineering demonstrations and technological implementation. Among them, renewable energy utilization technologies have been used to construct more than 20 landmark test/demonstration projects, leading the popularization and promotion of solar heating in the northwest China and plateau areas, and greatly improving the level of building energy conservation and human settlements in western China.
Academic Activities and Mentoring
Relying on two national platforms of Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology—the State Key Laboratory of Green Building and the National Collaborative Innovation Center for Western China Green Building—the team has been approved as a Shaanxi Provincial Key Scientific and Technological Innovation Team and the Shaanxi University Engineering Research Center for Solar Building and Environment for many times, boasting nationally leading scientific research platform conditions.
The team actively conducts international and domestic academic exchanges and industry-university-research cooperation, and has established long-term in-depth partnerships with international authoritative institutions such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), as well as renowned universities including Aalto University in Finland and Politecnico di Milano in Italy. It has hosted many high-quality international and domestic academic conferences in the field of energy and environment for several times, and its members have delivered plenary and keynote speeches at important conferences such as the International Conference on Renewable Energy Heating on multiple occasions.
Adhering to the deep integration of scientific research and talent cultivation, the team has cultivated a large number of high-quality professional talents for the country in the field of building energy conservation and renewable energy utilization. Its graduated postgraduates have become the backbone of scientific research and engineering practice in universities, research institutes and enterprises.
Media Coverage
The team's scientific research achievements and the practical effects of their engineering applications have attracted great attention from mainstream media. Authoritative media outlets including China Central Television (CCTV), Xinhua News Agency, Science and Technology Daily, Tibet Daily and Shaanxi TV Station have conducted in-depth reports on the team's technological breakthroughs and practical achievements in the field of renewable energy heating on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under the themes of "Clean Heating in Tibet Enables People to Live in Warm Houses" and "Technology Brings Warmth to the Snowy Plateau". The relevant coverage has achieved extensive social communication and high recognition, demonstrating the social value and industrial influence of the team's research results.
Research Vision
In the future, the team will closely align with the major strategic needs of the country, continue to deepen research on the key technologies of renewable energy utilization, low-carbon building development and habitability in extreme climates, strengthen technological innovation and achievement transformation, and provide solid scientific and technological support as well as talent guarantee for the high-quality development of China's green architecture, livable environments and renewable energy industry.
