Rate My Professor Diya Yan

Diya Yan is a PhD candidate in the School of Built Environment, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture at the University of New South Wales. Her doctoral research leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to advance women's careers in the Australian construction industry. She holds a Bachelor of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying from Bond University and a Master of Research in Construction Safety from Central Queensland University. With over five years of industry experience as a quantity surveyor, Diya transitioned to academia, serving as a casual academic delivering construction management lectures and tutorials to more than 800 undergraduate and postgraduate students. She also acts as a study skills support mentor and research supervisor.

As a research assistant on a government-funded, award-winning 'Women in Construction' project, Diya developed virtual reality construction site tours, from on-site filming to final production, contributing to over 400 workshops and presentations that engaged more than 4,000 high school students and nearly 2,000 community members. Her contributions have earned prestigious recognitions, including the ADA HDR Research Output Award from UNSW, Merit Paper Awards from the 27th and 29th International Symposia on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate, Editor's Choice from the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (top 8%), and the 2024 AIB Professional Excellence in Building Awards from the Australian Institute of Building. Diya has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, such as 'Career progression of female and male managers in the Australian construction industry: a comparative analysis using LinkedIn data' (2025, International Journal of Construction Management), 'Key factors in women’s managerial advancement in the construction industry: insights from machine learning' (2026, International Journal of Construction Management), 'Pathways to Leadership in the Australian Construction Industry: A Comparative Social Network Analysis Using LinkedIn Profiles' (2026, Buildings), 'Improving Access to Building Licensing Information in Australia: Design and Development of a Graph-Based Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) Artificial Intelligence (AI) System' (2026, Buildings), and 'Driving digital transformation in construction education: Design and development of a 360° virtual reality construction site experience' (2026, Journal of Building Design and Environment). Additionally, she serves as the Higher Degree Researcher Representative for the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture on the WiRN committee (2025-2026).