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Dr. Arnold Yuan

Arnold Yuan
Professor
BASc, MASc, PhD, PEng

Areas of Academic Interest

Engineering risk and reliability

Infrastructure asset management

Public-private partnerships

Progressive collapse

Infrastructure resilience

Structural integrity of nuclear power plants

Education

Year University Degree
2007 University of Waterloo PhD
2000 Hunan University MASc
1997 Hunan University BASc

Selected Courses

Course Code Course Title
CVL609 Civil Engineering Systems
CV8107 Infrastructure Asset Management
CV8311 Risk and Reliability for Engineers

Spotlight

Arnold Yuan wants to change the way that civil engineers and municipal leaders view uncertainty. “Obviously, civil engineering is a very cautious discipline because it’s our endowed duty to protect the public safety,” he says. “But we also need to embrace uncertainty in our decision-making as an opportunity that can guide us.”

Yuan is a leader in the emerging field of infrastructure asset management. He works with municipalities to help them adopt a new approach to decisions about renewing, repairing and upgrading infrastructure such as water mains, bridges, pavement and sidewalks. To help municipal leaders see the full picture of an issue, he asks them three questions: What is the problem? What do we need to understand in order to solve it? How can we work together?

Ultimately, Yuan envisions a holistic approach to decision-making that accounts for the entire lifecycle of assets in a new way. “With a systems approach to asset management, we can not only look at the components of a system, but how people interact with it,” he says. “Then we can embrace uncertainty by taking into account both what we know and what we do not know.”

Arnold Yuan

“I love to work side by side with my students to create new knowledge that will help our engineering communities do their jobs better.”

 

  • Member of Editorial Board, ICE Journal of Infrastructure Asset Management
  • International Conference of Nuclear Engineering, Track 14 - Risk Assessment and Management, Associate Chair
  • Transportation Research Board, Committee AFH20 - Project Delivery Models