Keynote Speakers

Mike Xie

After 10 years as the Head of Civil Engineering discipline at RMIT University, Prof. Xie is now serving as the Director of RMIT Centre for Innovative Structures and Materials.

He was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ASTE) in 2011 for his outstanding contributions to the theory and application of structural optimisation techniques. His primary research interest is the design and manufacture of novel and efficient structures and materials. Prof. Xie has collaborated with many companies, including Boeing, Arup, and Smith & Nephew.

He is one of the most highly cited researchers in the civil engineering discipline in Australia, with over 10,000 citations (Google Scholar). He was awarded the title of “RMIT Distinguished Professor” in 2016. In addition to his academic and consulting work at RMIT, Prof. Xie established an engineering practice known as XIE Archi-Structure Design (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

He was the winner of the 2017 Clunies Ross Innovation Award, a prestigious national prize administered by the ATSE to recognise research innovation and practical impact. He is also the winner of the 2017 AGM Michell Medal, awarded by Engineers Australia in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the field of mechanical engineering.

Jeong Whan Yoon

Jeong Whan Yoon is currently Professor of Applied Mechanics at Deakin University, and also Professor of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST, Korea.

He is leading the International Consortium for Innovative Manufacturing (ICIM) with General Motors toward high reliability design and manufacturing for lightweight materials and structures. The consortium includes six Tier-1 members, and one Tier-2 and three Tier-3 industry members. He led Boeing-chaired manufacturing research (AusAMRC) at Swinburne University from 2010 to 2013.

He has published over 200 technical papers for international journals and conferences with over 4000 citations (H-index: 33, Scopus). He received “2008 International Journal of Plasticity Award” for outstanding contributions in the field of plasticity. He has been serving as an “Editorial-Board” member for International Journal of Plasticity since 2008. As guest editors, he edited seven special issues at Int. J. Plasticity and two special issues at Int. J. Solids & Structures.

He also has diverse industry experiences including LG Electronics (Korea) for product development, MSC Software Corporation (USA) for MSC. Nastran & Marc source code development and Alcoa Technical Center (USA). He served as the chairman of NUMISHEET2014 held in Melbourne, Australia. He received his PhD at KAIST in 1997.