Skip to main content
Alan Kwan  BEng (Hons), PhD, CEng, FICE

Professor Alan Kwan

BEng (Hons), PhD, CEng, FICE

Professor, Deputy Head of School

School of Engineering

Overview

Dr Kwan is a Professor in Structural Mechanics and member of the BRE Institute of Sustainable Engineering in the School of Engineering.

Dr Kwan has >90 publications (>35 in refereed international journals), including a chapter in the SCI Steel Designers' Manual. His h-index is 10 (by Scopus) with >200 citations in these ten publications. Under Google-Scholar, the h-factor is 13, and these 13 publications have been cited 400 times. Altogether, he has been cited 300x (Scopus) and 550x (Google-Scholar).

Since 2010, Dr Kwan has been active in the field of “sustainability informatics”, e.g. 4 out of 6 recent journal papers (average journal impact factor of 4.38) are all in this field. All four of his current (2013) research grants (one starting Feb 2014, two as principal investigator with 1 co-applicant, and two more with 3 co-applicants) are in also in this field; these grants total £1.04M (£6.8M when including non-Cardiff share). His five grants previous to these (going back to 2009) totalled £572k (£384k of which was also in the field of sustainability informatics).

He has a total of 21 doctoral students (19 completed), and two MPhil student (completed). He has also been external examiner of higher degree on 7 occasions, and is currently (2015) External Examiner of taught degrees at both UK and overseas institutions.

One of the KTP projects where Dr Kwan was principal investigator has led to the development and subsequent commercialisation of a deployable lifting product for Reid Lifting Ltd. This product has led to the double award of the 'Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation 2013', and the 'Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade 2013'.

Dr Kwan is on the Editorial Board of three journals, and eleven international conferences. He has delivered two invited lectures at international conferences. He is a regular referee for about ten international journals, the UK research councils, and other journals.

He was elected to the Board of the Association of European Civil Engineering Faculty in 2003, and subsequently twice re-elected.

Dr Kwan obtained his BEng(Hons) from Sheffield (1987) and PhD from Cambridge (1991), working on deployable structures.


Experience

Sustainable Informatics - Telemetry, control systems, optimisation, predictive simulation, networks, web-based real-time decision support
systems

Sustainable Construction - Material Flow Analysis, masonry separation, enhanced soil block construction

Deployable Structure - Structural morphology, Force Method, foldable stuctures, pantographic structures, prestress analysis, displacement
control, mechanisms, kinematics

Geometric Nonlinearity - fabric structure, membrane structure, cable structure, cablenets

Structural Optimisation - Genetic Algorithms, layout optimisation, shape optimisation.

Publication

2023

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

  • Zhang, Y., Kwan, A. S. K. and Miles, J. J. 2008. Using generative representations for structural design. Presented at: Intelligent Computing in Engineering 2008 Conference: 15th workshop of the European Group for Intelligent Computing in Engineering (EG-ICE), Plymouth, UK, 2-4 July 2008 Presented at Rafiq, Y., de Wilde, P. and Borthwick, M. eds.Proceedings: Intelligent Computing in Engineering 2008 Conference. Plymouth: American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) pp. 36-45.
  • Matsunaga, N. and Kwan, A. S. K. 2008. Blended learning - low hanging fruits. Presented at: Proceedings of the 6th AECEF Symposium on Civil Engineering Education, Vilnius, Lithuania. pp. 56-66.
  • Nassehpour, S. and Kwan, A. S. K. 2008. New concepts in large deployable parabolic solid reflectors. Presented at: Proceedings of 6th AECEF Symposium on Civil Engineering Education, Vilnius, Lithuania. pp. 162-171.
  • Chen, H., Miles, J. C. and Kwan, A. S. K. 2008. CardiffGA: a new genetic algorithm framework. Presented at: 6tth International Conference on Engineering Computational Technology, Athens, Greece, 2-5 September 2008 Presented at Papadrakakis, M. and Topping, B. H. V. eds.Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Engineering Computational Technology. Kippen: Civil-Comp Press
  • Kwan, A. S. K. 2008. Displacement and force control in pin-jointed assemblies. Presented at: 9th International Conference on Computational Structures Technology, Athens, Greece, 2-5 September 2008 Presented at Topping, B. H. V. and Papadrakakis, M. eds.Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computational Structures Technology (Athens, Greece). Kippen: Civil-Comp Press pp. Paper 162., (10.4203/ccp.88.162)
  • Yalley, P. P. and Kwan, A. S. K. 2008. Use of waste and low energy material in building block construction. Presented at: Proceedings of the 25th Conference Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Dublin, Ireland. Vol. 128.

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

Articles

Book sections

Conferences

Research

Research Theme: Energy and Environment

Contracts

TitlePeopleSponsorValueDuration
Nurturing sustainability practices in construction through a user-centred multi-disciplinary knowledge platform: a feasibility studyRezgui Y, Miles JC, Kwan ASKNational Assembly for Wales (A4B)1997320/04/2009 - 19/07/2009
Field Testing and Numerical Modelling of a Tidal TurbineStoesser T, Kwan ARepetitive Energy Company Ltd3880001/10/2013 - 30/09/2016
Mechanical loading and drop testing of mounting brackets and T-Davit structures for lifting devicesPullin R, Eaton M, Holford K, Kwan AREID LIFTING LTD252214/08/2012 - 13/11/2012
KTP - To develop Voltcom capability in designing and product development of rapidly deployable structures for the protection of under-power line amenities including roads, tracks, buildings, pathways when replacing or constructing o/h power linesPullin R, Mahdi T, Kwan AKTP for Voltcom Construction Ltd16422301/04/2015 - 30/06/2017
SCriPT: Sustainable Construction Service PlatformRezgui Y, Miles JC, Kwan ASK, Hopfe C, Li HWelsh Assembly Government (A4B)33929501/01/2010 - 30/06/2013
Knowledge based energy management for public buildings through holistic information modeling and 3D visualisation KNOWHOIEMRezgui Y, H Li, Kwan AEuropean Commission (FP7)28625201/09/2011 - 31/08/2014
WISDOM Water analytics and intelligent sensing for demand optimised managementRezgui Y, Kwan A, Li H, Mourshed M, Beach TEuropean Commission (FP7)35268701/02/2014 - 31/01/2017
Developing a real time abstraction & Discharge permitting process for catchment regulation and optimised water management (Wanda)Rezgui Y, Li H, Kwan ATSB via Cambrensis22495901/08/2013 - 31/07/2016
Vertical axis drag marine turbine R&D - design and input onlyKwan A, Rezgui YRepetitive Energy Company Ltd496701/05/2013 - 31/07/2013
Proair advanced indoor climate control system (PAICCS)Kwan A, Rezgui YDECC Via Proair Installations Ltd11998601/04/2013 - 30/03/2015
To Develop Company Expertise and Procedures for Design that can Accelerate its Product Development to Maintain its Growth Rate and ProfitabilityKwan ASK, Pullin RMomenta/Reid Lifting16110615/02/2010 - 14/02/2012
KESS - Knowledge economy skills scholarshipKwan ASK, Falconer RA,CORUS STRIP PRODUCTS LTD, WELSH EUROPEAN FUNDING OFFICE9980301/02/2010 - 31/01/2013
To develop an innovative, industry leading design and optimisation methodology and tool for the design and development of new trailer upper structure productsClarkea, Eaton M, Kwan ASKLoadlok (KTP)12728901/06/2016 - 31/05/2018

Supervised Students

TitleStudentStatusDegree
An Integrated User-Centric Platform To Promote Sustainable BehaviourALSULAIMAN Abdulaziz Abdullah HamadGraduatePhD
Integrated Security Control Under City Information Moduling - Using Intelligent Control Systems for Providing Full Vision to Decision-Makers in the City ManagementALTAMEEMI Abdulhakeem Salem AliCurrentPhD
Investigating the Influence of Information Systems Applications on Quality of Electronic Service in Municipal Sector: A sudy of acceptance of e-municipality servicesALSULIMAN Abdulrahman Abdullah HamadGraduatePhD
VIBRATION OF CABLE-BASED STRUCTURESLEE Bor-MingGraduatePhD
DISTRIBUTED CLOUD-BASED SEMANTIC ENERGY MANAGEMENT AT DISTRICT LEVEL.KUSTER CorentinCurrentPhD
Time-Dependent Deformation of High Strength ConcreteKANDARI FahadGraduateMPhil
Conceptual Design and Mechanisms for Foldable Pyramidal Plated StructuresKHAYYAT HassanGraduatePhD
ADVANCED EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMS.CHEN HuiThesis SubmittedPhD
A More Realistic Genetic AlgorithmCHEN HuiGraduateMPhil
TOPOLOGY OPTIMISATION OF SKELETAL STRUCTURESHAJI ABDUL AZID IshakGraduatePhD
Physical and Numerical Modelling of Marine Renewable Energy Technologies, with {Articular Focus on Tidal Stream And Tidal Range DevicesBRAMMER JamesGraduatePhD
An Environmental and Material Flow Analysis of the UK Steel Construction SectorLEY James DavidGraduateEngD
REAL-TIME AND SEMANTIC ENERGY MANAGEMENT ACROSS BUILDINGS IN A DISTRICT CONFIGURATION.REYNOLDS Jonathan WilliamCurrentPhD
An Application Of A Generative And Evolutionary Algorithms To Determining A Topology Using Bridge AestheticsWANG KaiGraduatePhD
Effects Of Grading Of Fine Aggregate On The Strength And Permeability Of ConcreteTHAMER KhalefaGraduatePhD
EMBEDDED CONTROL AND OPTIMIZATION OF BUILDINGSWENG KuiCurrentPhD
TESTING THE EFFICIENCY OF A TIDAL TURBINE IN AN UNBLOCKED, NATURAL ENVIRONMENT.PRIEGUE Luis MolinosCurrentPhD
BIM BASED COST OPTIMISATION OF GREEN BUILDINGS.MOHSIN MarwahCurrentPhD
Domestic Sustainable and Low Energy Design in Hot Climatic RegionsALDOSSARY Naief Ali RasheedGraduatePhD
Enhanced material flow analysis framework: beyond accounting and toward strategy. Specialisation - construction engineering.ALBELWI NaifCurrentPhD
Prestress and deformation control in flexible structuresSAEED Najmadeen MohammedGraduatePhD
DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF SHELLSEL KAABAZI Nihal Husein FouadGraduatePhD
Use of Waste and Low Energy Materials for ConstructionYALLEY Peter Paa-KofiGraduatePhD
Separation of Brick and Mortar Using Pressure WavesGREGORY RichardGraduatePhD
An Investigation Into The Applicability Of The Passivhaus Standard For The UK ContextMCLEOD Robert ScotGraduatePhD
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE BUILDING ASSESSMENT METHOD FOR SAUDI ARABIA BUILT ENVIRONMENTALYAMI SalehGraduatePhD
Research on BIM based robotics.GOW SimeonCurrentMPhil
Physical Testing And Numerical Modelling Of A Novel Vertical Tidal Stream TurbineHARRIES TomGraduatePhD
Comparing The Effectiveness of Face To Face And Computer Mediated Collaboration In DesignHATEM Wadhah AmerGraduatePhD
Comparing The Effectiveness of Face To Face And Computer Mediated Collaboration In DesignHATEM Wadhah AmerGraduatePhD
Topological Reasoning Using a Generative Representation And A Genetic AlgorithmZHANG YuGraduatePhD

Teaching

Sustainable Informatics - Telemetry, control systems, optimisation, predictive simulation, networks, web-based real-time decision support systems

Sustainable Construction - Material Flow Analysis, masonry separation, enhanced soil block construction

Deployable Structure - Structural morphology, Force Method, foldable stuctures, pantographic structures, prestress analysis, displacement control, mechanisms, kinematics

Geometric Nonlinearity - fabric structure, membrane structure, cable structure, cablenets

Structural Optimisation - Genetic Algorithms, layout optimisation, shape optimisation

Biography

Dr Kwan has >90 publications (>35 in refereed international journals), including a chapter in the SCI Steel Designers' Manual. His h-index is 10 (by Scopus) with >200 citations in these ten publications. Under Google-Scholar, the h-factor is 13, and these 13 publications have been cited 400 times. Altogether, he has been cited 300x (Scopus) and 550x (Google-Scholar).

Since 2010, Dr Kwan has been active in the field of “sustainability informatics”, e.g. 4 out of 6 recent journal papers (average journal impact factor of 4.38) are all in this field. All four of his current (2013) research grants (one starting Feb 2014, two as principal investigator with 1 co-applicant, and two more with 3 co-applicants) are in also in this field; these grants total £1.04M (£6.8M when including non-Cardiff share). His five grants previous to these (going back to 2009) totalled £572k (£384k of which was also in the field of sustainability informatics).

He has a total of 21 doctoral students (19 completed), and two MPhil student (completed). He has also been external examiner of higher degree on 7 occasions, and is currently (2015) External Examiner of taught degrees at both UK and overseas institutions.

One of the KTP projects where Dr Kwan was principal investigator has led to the development and subsequent commercialisation of a deployable lifting product for Reid Lifting Ltd. This product has led to the double award of the 'Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation 2013', and the 'Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade 2013'.

Dr Kwan is on the Editorial Board of three journals, and eleven international conferences. He has delivered two invited lectures at international conferences. He is a regular referee for about ten international journals, the UK research councils, and other journals.

He was elected to the Board of the Association of European Civil Engineering Faculty in 2003, and subsequently twice re-elected.

Dr Kwan obtained his BEng(Hons) from Sheffield (1987) and PhD from Cambridge (1991), working on deployable structures.


Experience

Sustainable Informatics - Telemetry, control systems, optimisation, predictive simulation, networks, web-based real-time decision support
systems

Sustainable Construction - Material Flow Analysis, masonry separation, enhanced soil block construction

Deployable Structure - Structural morphology, Force Method, foldable stuctures, pantographic structures, prestress analysis, displacement
control, mechanisms, kinematics

Geometric Nonlinearity - fabric structure, membrane structure, cable structure, cablenets

Structural Optimisation - Genetic Algorithms, layout optimisation, shape optimisation.

Professional memberships

CEng FICE

Committees and reviewing

Scientific Committee Member, IASS20/21 Int Conf on Spatial Structures 2020 (Surrey7)