Wei XIE is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction, Sichuan University, China. She received her Ph.D. degree and worked as a Postdoc in Architecture and Civil Engineering from City University of Hong Kong in 2022. She received her Bachelor and Master degree in Engineering from Southwest Jiaotong University in 2016 and 2019 respectively. Her research interests include pedestrian and evacuation dynamics, smart emergency response, fire safety, and emergency management and comprehensive disaster reduction. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers in SCI-indexed journals, including Science Advances, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Automation in Construction, Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, Safety Science, etc. She serves as an Editorial Board Member of Safety Science, Guest Editor for a special issue of Fire (Switzerland), and a Youth Editorial Board Member of Journal of Safety and Environment and Fire Science and Technology. She also acts as a reviewer for leading journals in the field, including Safety Science, Accident Analysis and Prevention, TRC, IJDRR, IEEE TITS, and TUST.
E-mail
xie_wei@scu.edu.cn
Research achievements
[1] Xie, W., Xuan, C., Wang, J., Lee, E. W. M., & Tian, B. (2026). A novel gait-based bipedal social force model for simulating pedestrian dynamics on inclined surfaces. Safety Science, 197, Article 107119.
[2] Xuan, C., Xu, D., Jiang, N., Lee, E. W. M., & Xie, W*. (2026). Unveiling the dynamics and decision-making of dyadic head-on pedestrian collision avoidance: An empirical study. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 208, Article 118126.
[3] Liang, X., Chen, J., Lee, E. W. M., & Xie, W*. (2026). Improved visual-information-driven model for crowd simulation and its modular application. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 209, Article 118481.
[4] Xie, W., Jiang, N., Ma, Y., Lee, E. W. M., Li, X., & Yu, H. (2025). Simulating pedestrian flow on slopes via transfer learning approach: From single-file to crowd. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 26(3), 3873–3884.
[5] Xie, W., Xuan, C., Lee, E. W. M., Jiang, N., & Li, T. (2025). Quantifying emergent leadership within pedestrian crowd under laboratory conditions. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 199, Article 116882.
[6] Wang, J., Luo, Y., Zhou, X., Zhao, W., Lei, Y., & Xie, W*. (2025). Impact of assistance behavior on evacuation efficiency in high-rise hospital inpatient buildings: An agent-based simulation study. Journal of Building Engineering, 112, Article 113780.
[7] Xuan, C., Li, Y., Wang, Y., Lee, E. W. M., Ma, Y., & Xie, W*. (2025). Understanding subway passenger alighting and boarding dynamics: Experiments and modelling. Chinese Physics B, 34(6), Article 068901.
[8] Li, T., Wang, C., Chen, Z., Zhao, W., Yuan, J., Yan, X., Chen, H., & Xie, W*. (2025). Investigation of fire smoke temperature and flow field distribution considering fire location under smoke-preventing air curtain in the complex section of an urban tunnel. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 162, Article 106613.
[9] Ma, Y., Niu, Z., Shi, M., Xie, W., Hu, Z., Wei, Y., Zeng, T., & Lee, E. W. M. (2025). Unraveling human crowd dynamics through the foot tracking of pedestrians. Science Advances, 11(26), Article eadw2688.
[10] Huang, Y., Li, R.*, Tong, Y., & Xie, W*. (2025). A citation analysis and bibliometric graph of human evacuation research. Fire, 8(4), Article 161.
[11] Xie, W., Lee, E. W. M., Li, T., Jiang, N., & Ma, Y. (2024). Pedestrian dynamics on slopes: Empirical analysis of level, uphill, and downhill walking. Safety Science, 172, Article 106429.
[12] Xie, W., Wei, Y., Xuan, C., Ma, Y., Lee, E. W. M., Li, T., & Cheng, Y. (2024). Understanding pedestrian crowd dynamics on ramps: An empirical study triggered by Seoul Halloween crowd crush. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 109, Article 104601.
[13] Xie, W., Gao, D., Cao, R., Lee, E. W. M., Yuen, R. K. K., & Weng, J. (2023). Study on single-group dynamics in evacuation considering pre-defined and undeclared leadership. Journal of Safety Science and Resilience, 4(1), 52–60.
[14] Xie, W., Lee, E. W. M., & Lee, Y. Y. (2022). Simulation of spontaneous leader-follower behaviour in crowd evacuation. Automation in Construction, 134, 104100.
[15] Xie, W., Gao, D. L., & Lee, E. W. M. (2022). Detecting undeclared-leader-follower structure in pedestrian evacuation using transfer entropy. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 23(10), 17644–17653.
[16] Xie, W., Lee, E. W. M., & Lee, Y. Y. (2022). Self-organisation phenomena in pedestrian counter flows and its modelling. Safety Science, 155, 105875.
[17] Xie, W., Lee, E. W. M., Li, T., Shi, M., Cao, R. F., & Zhang, Y. C. (2021). A study of group effects in pedestrian crowd evacuation: Experiments, modelling and simulation. Safety Science, 133, 105029.
[18] Xie, W., Lee, E. W. M., Cheng, Y. Y., Shi, M., Cao, R. F., & Zhang, Y. C. (2020). Evacuation performance of individuals and social groups under different visibility conditions: Experiments and surveys. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 47, 101527.
[19] Xie, W., Zhang, Y. C., Li, J. K., Mao, P. F., & Chen, L. F. (2018). Experimental study on characteristics of flame spread over diesel and n-butanol pool fires in tunnel. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 79, 286–292.
[20] Zhang, Y. C., Xie, W.*, Chen, S. M., & Li, T. (2018). Experimental study on descent speed on stairs of individuals and small groups under different visibility conditions. Fire Technology, 54(3), 781–796.
Awards & Honors
(1) 2025 Outstanding Individual, School of Disaster Reconstruction and Management, Sichuan University
(2) 2025 Second Prize (Science Popularization) of the Post-Disaster Prevention Science and Technology Award, China Association for Disaster Prevention (R9)
(3) 2022 Champion Award for Doctorate Degree, Hong Kong Institution of Engineers
(4) 2022 Outstanding Academic Performance Award, City University of Hong Kong
(5) 2019 First Prize for Paper, the 9th International Conference on Fire Science and Fire Engineering
(6) 2018 National Postgraduate Scholarship
(7) 2017 National Postgraduate Scholarship
Research projects
(1) General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 2027.1–2030.12, Principal Investigator
(2) Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 2024.1–2026.12, Principal Investigator
(3) Young Scientists Fund of the Sichuan Natural Science Foundation, 2024.1–2025.12, Principal Investigator
(4) Talent Recruitment Fund of Sichuan University, 2023.4–2026.4, Principal Investigator
(5) Tibet Autonomous Region Science and Technology Plan Project, 2026–2029, Participant
(6) National Social Science Fund of China (Western Project), 2027–2029, Participant
(7) General Research Fund (GRF) of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council: Development of a Dynamic Relative Competitive-Cooperative Behavioural Model for Building Evacuation Simulation, Participant
(8) General Research Fund (GRF) of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council: Development of a Dynamic Impatience Model for Building Evacuation Simulation, Participant
(9) General Research Fund (GRF) of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council: Development of a Human-guided Building Evacuation System by Numerical Simulation, Participant
Talent Development
I serve as a Master's Supervisor in the Safety Science and Disaster Reduction program, and teach undergraduate, master's and doctoral courses including Disaster Education and Disaster Response Capacity, Safety Risk Theory and Emergency Skills Practice, Disaster Society and Emergency Management, New Technologies for Urban-Rural Spatial Analysis and Planning, Introduction to Comprehensive Disaster Science, and Frontiers of Safety Science and Disaster Reduction. I welcome students with a background in safety engineering, computer science, civil engineering, transportation, or management science to contact me.
My research group mainly conducts experimental, modelling and artificial-intelligence-based research on pedestrian dynamics and emergency evacuation, as well as human behaviour and psychology. We maintain close collaborative ties with peers at City University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the University of New South Wales (Australia), Tsinghua University, the University of Tokyo, and the University of Science and Technology of China, among other leading universities at home and abroad. I am committed to providing group members with excellent academic conditions, including opportunities for visiting and further study at renowned domestic and international universities, attending academic conferences, and publishing high-level papers. I welcome motivated and diligent students with a genuine interest in research to apply for master's degree studies.
