Bridging Disciplines for Impact: PhD Student He Renfei Wins Interdisciplinary Research Award

Image: He Renfei with Professor Wen Yonggang, Dean of Graduate College.

We are pleased to congratulate our PhD Student, He Renfei, on receiving the Graduate College’s Interdisciplinary Research Award for the academic year 2024-2025.

This award is presented to graduate students who have engaged in outstanding inter-disciplinary or trans-disciplinary projects. The award recognises research that integrates concepts or practices from multiple disciplines to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline.

Image: He Renfei with his supervisor, Associate Professor Robert Tiong.

Renfei's research is deeply motivated by a personal experience: the 2021 flood disaster in Zhengzhou, China, which overwhelmed the city’s metro system. The severe consequences of the event emphasised the importance of improving emergency management of urban metro infrastructure.

To integrate diverse perspectives and expertise into practical solutions, Renfei undertook self-learning and interdisciplinary training. Coupled with his background in Civil Engineering, his research addresses the challenge of integrating knowledge and practices from meteorology, hydrology, geographic information systems, artificial intelligence, and operations research.

"By combining knowledge and techniques from multiple disciplines, my research aims to improve emergency management and resilience strategies for urban metro systems, thereby mitigating the impacts of future flood disasters," he shares.

Renfei was previously awarded the NTU Interdisciplinary Graduate Programme (IGP) Year 3 Research Excellence Award 2024.