Rebecca Yang

A scholar of building, construction and distributed renewable energy who undertakes pure and applied research that can provide innovative solutions to the industry by integrating theories with cutting-edge technologies.

Rebecca has developed a strong and passionate commitment to industry-focused research and teaching. Her research resonates with RMIT’s vision of transforming the built environment to create sustainable and resilient cities, and her current research focuses on solar energy applications in buildings, and construction innovation.

She actively represents Australia as an Expert in the International Energy Agency (IEA) collaborative programs: she is the Australian lead in the Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (PVPS) Task 15 Enabling Framework for the Development of BIPV (https://apvi.org.au/pvps-task-15/), and the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (SHC) Task 66 Solar Energy Buildings. Her leadership role within these programs has provided great experiences working with lead researchers within Australia and internationally.

She is a member of the National Mirror Committee for International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) TC 82 Solar photovoltaic energy systems by Standards Australia, represents Australia to the development of an international standard IEC 63092 BIPV, reviews and comments on new proposed standards under IEC TC 82. With a background in building and construction and eight years’ experience in BIPV, she is uniquely placed to forge new directions in this field, combining sophisticated building design and modelling process and techniques with an understanding of BIPV features.

She has established Solar Energy Application Lab at RMIT and lead many academics, research students and research assistants from multiple in projects to support energy transformation through greater solar adoption in the building sector and the urban environment.

Committees (external)

• Student Chapter Advisor, CIB (International Council for Building), 2016-Present
• Organizing Committee Member, Asia-Pacific Solar Research Conference, 2020
• External Committee Member, the International Research Centre for Sustainable Built Environment, Chongqing University, 2018-Present
• Technical Committee Member, International Conference on Construction Project Management and Construction Engineering, 2018

Working groups

• Global Representative and Theme Leader, International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme Task 15 Building Integrated Photovoltaics, 2018- Present

Discipline-based professional development

• Trainer, Project Management for Researchers, RMIT University, 2019-Present
• Small organization member (Solar Energy Application Lab), Australian PV Institute, 2020

Editorial boards and peer reviewing

• Peer Reviewer, Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), Australian Research Council (ARC), 2018
• Editorial Review Board Member, Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, SciQ1 Journal, 2017-Present
• Editorial Member, International Journal of Construction Management, 2017-Present

Rebecca is a building and construction scholar working in the subfield of innovation adoption and stakeholder assessment. Her area of expertise is applied distributed renewable energy, and she is particularly known for my research on solar building envelope applications.

Building Integrated PV, Solar Building and Urban Environment, Energy Simulation and Modelling, Construction Innovation, Stakeholder Management

• Renewable energy in buildings and urban environment;
• Energy modelling and simulation
• Construction innovations
• Stakeholder management

• Extraction and Analysis for ethylene vinyl acetate from crystalline silicon solar module waste
• Machine Learning based building element recognition for BIPV application
• Machine learning and automated building surveying
• Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) – Design optimisation
• Fire safety performance of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV)
• Solar Energy Assessment in Urban Environment
• Digitalising Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) Products
• Optimising distributed solar PV systems through virtual power plants in Australian cities
• An Integrated Framework for Ict-Based P2p Distributed Renewable Energy Trading
• Supply Chain Management of Offsite Construction in Australian Low-rise Residential Buildings A Framework for Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) Design and Management in Australia in Early Design Phase
• Informing Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) Deployment in Australia: A Sociotechnical Perspective and Data Mining Methods