Faculty: Dr. Yilei Huang

Perhaps no other dogs on campus receive as many odd looks as Little Dee and Pete, the walking robot dogs that Dr. Yilei Huang takes out every so often.

“Most have never seen this before or even imagined it. They really wonder what it is and what does it do,” said Huang, an associate professor in East Carolina University’s Department of Construction Management. “We just let them know it’s a robot dog and it’s for construction management. We can have it carry our equipment or it’s for surveying and scanning. You can have the robot scan a building to create maps and models. It obviously gets a lot of attention when we walk it out.”

Huang embraces technology, introducing drones as well as augmented and virtual reality goggles to his students.

“In many people’s opinion, construction is old school, just hammers and nails, but we’re trying to change that,” he said. “If you don’t know how to use technology from your classes, you’re already behind because these are the tools you’re going to use. They’re out in the field, and that’s why they’re in our classrooms so our students can get that exposure to these technologies.”

He said that integration of technology is just one of the reasons ECU’s Department of Construction Management — now in its 40th year — is so special.

Dr. Yilei Huang demonstrates AR/VR technology during ECU’s Open House in the fall.

“This department has only one program. That means all the resources you can get are devoted to this single program,” he said. “The student population is pretty big here. I think we are one of the largest construction management programs in the Southeast. With this big student population, you can accomplish a lot of things in and out of the classroom. We engage undergraduate students in research and have various types of student organization activities.”

Huang grew up in Jiujiang, China, earning a bachelor’s degree in surveying engineering in 2008 before getting master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from the University of Kansas. That’s where he developed a passion for teaching.

“I started as a teaching assistant when I was in graduate school, helping students out in the lab, working on computer programs and helping with the surveying labs. That’s where I first got started with students,” he said. “To see them learn and see their confidence within the classroom, that’s the reason I got started. Over time, you can continuously develop your course material, your instruction, your skills and that lets me get students more involved and engaged.”

After starting his career in the Dakotas, he came to ECU in 2021.

“It was time for a move to a warmer part of the country,” he joked. “Those long winters were not always fun, so this is definitely a better place than the cold.”

One thing that drew him to ECU is the support faculty receive.

“There are a lot of university resources so you can explore your ideas and do small projects. I do appreciate that very much,” he said. “For other grants, you’re really restricted to work on what they want you to do. You can’t work on ideas that aren’t relevant to the project, but with these university resources, you have a lot of freedom to implement your own ideas.”

Huang received the College of Engineering and Technology Scholar-Teacher Award that recognizes faculty members who effectively integrate research and creative activity with their teaching roles. He also received the ELECTRI International Early Career Award in 2018.

He is part of a research team exploring building predictive maintenance for the Army, a team that includes his wife, Xiaoli Mao, a teaching instructor in the Department of Computer Science. They have a 9-year-old daughter, Karena, and a 1-year-old son, Caddarik.

“I was in a couple of hockey lessons with my daughter, and I really enjoyed it, but then she went to tennis, so I stopped my short hockey journey,” he said. “Now, we’ve got another little one at home, so maybe when he’s bigger we can do hockey again.”

Huang encourages students to take full advantage of their opportunities while at ECU, opportunities he said will create success no matter their career choice.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 10 years, so take all the opportunities that you have in college to learn,” he said. “You may think that you want to do this one thing for now, but sometimes you end up with something else. I did my undergraduate in surveying without liking it much, but I ended up teaching the surveying course, so take all the opportunities to learn now because you may never know when you’re going to need it.”

FAST FACTS

Name: Dr. Yilei Huang

Title: Associate professor, Department of Construction Management

Hometown: Jiujiang, China

Colleges attended and degrees: Nanjing Tech University, bachelor’s in surveying engineering; University of Kansas, master’s and doctorate in civil engineering

PIRATE PRIDE

Years working at ECU: Four

What I do at ECU: I teach undergraduate and graduate construction management courses and perform research activities in the field of construction and civil engineering.

What I love about ECU: I love that ECU is very supportive of faculty excellence. ECU provides many resources through workshops, internal grants and academies to support faculty’s teaching innovations and research ideas. I have received and participated in several of them, including the Course Innovation Grant, Teaching Grant, CourseFIT, Engagement and Outreach Scholars Academy, Sponsored Activities and Research Catalyst Program, I-Corps and Innovation Academy.

Research interests: Building information modeling; virtual reality and mixed reality; reality capture; unmanned aircraft systems; construction robotics

What advice do you give to students? The key to an A grade is don’t miss any class.

Favorite class to teach? Construction surveying and lab. This course integrates so many construction technologies, including construction drawings, total stations, GPS, laser scanning, drone photogrammetry and lidar.

QUICK QUIZ

What do you like to do when not working? Play board games and watch movies with kids.

 Last thing I watched on TV: I just rewatched “House of Cards” because it was the election year.