Supported by the‘Foreign Experts Program’ high-end foreign expert project at ShanghaiUniversity of Engineering Science, we invited Professor William Yang, PrincipalScientist at CSIRO in Australia and an internationally renowned expert inexperimental fluid mechanics, to assist with research and teaching at theSchool of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering from September to November.
Prof. Yangpossesses extensive knowledge and experience in laser-based fluid measurementtechnology, with over 30 years of research and teaching experience inmechanical and biomechanical engineering. He has participated in numerous experimentaland numerical research projects in the fields of turbulent gas-particle flows,gas-liquid two-phase flows, and biomedical engineering. As a leading expert influid measurement, he has provided extensive technical support and trainingguidance for the school's first Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) laserexperimental measurement equipment, facilitating its application across variousfields. He has also offered comprehensive guidance on the purchase,installation, operation, and optimisation of this equipment. Thesecontributions have significantly enhanced the research capabilities and staffdevelopment in the fields of mechanical manufacturing, intelligentmanufacturing, thermal energy and power engineering at our university, whichsupports the establishment of an academic team focused on multiphase flowmechanics.
In terms ofresearch, Prof. Yang has upgraded the original PIV equipment to adapt it for accurateflow field measurements across multiple experimental scenarios within theSchool of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering. These scenarios include the ‘Healthand Biomedical Engineering Technology Laboratory’, ‘Renewable Energy andUtilization Technology Laboratory’, ‘Multiphase Biomass and Mixing TechnologyLaboratory’, and ‘Research Center of Human and Environmental Engineering’. Inaddition, he collaborated with laboratory members to advance various researchprojects by publishing high-quality SCI papers as the co-author.
In terms ofteaching, Prof. Yang has coordinated the course ‘Fundamentals and Applicationsof Machine Vision’, which is an open course for undergraduate students. Thiscourse enables students to understand essential concepts related to qualitycontrol in manufacturing processes, automatic detection systems, flow visualisation,particle and bubble size measurement, and medical imaging applications. In thiscourse, he instructed students on obtaining high-quality experimentalmeasurement images, utilising practical software tools for image dataprocessing, and applying basic programming codes to extract image informationthat is deeply hidden. Through this learning experience, students gained adeeper understanding of the principles, methods, and applications of differentfluid measurement technologies. Besides, the course broadened students’professional knowledge and perspectives. Students have highly praised hisengaging and charming teaching style and practical approach. In addition to histeaching duties, he has shared experiences in curriculum design and laboratorysetup with young faculty members at the school and engaged with undergraduateand master's students on improving their research article writing skills,contributing to the establishment of a top-tier engineering experimental fluidmechanics research team within the school.
