Civil engineer, graduate supervisor and World Bank Group/APMG professional trainer Dr Maggie Tang is working to make positive changes in the construction industry, from improving safety and gender equality to cutting waste.

Dr Liyaning (Maggie) Tang A strong believer in multidisciplinary collaboration, Maggie works closely with computer science, industry partners and government.

There are several main facets to her current work.

These include improving the mental health of construction managers and workers, using big data analysis for sentiment analysis of public opinion to help develop sustainable infrastructure, women in construction, disaster waste management and construction waste management.

A childhood spent on site

Maggie's interest in her research came from having family in the construction business while she was growing up. As a child, she often went with her dad to sites to see progress and how he managed projects.

"That's what motivated me to choose a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, which I completed at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China," says Maggie. "I then went on to do my PhD at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China."

She then worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US, and then as a lecturer at West Virginia University, US, for three years.

During this time, she collaborated closely with government departments in both China and the US on several research projects. These included public-private partnership projects, investigations into highway pavement construction, dust control on construction sites, environmental impact assessments of construction projects, as well as the carbon footprint in construction.

Boosting mental health in construction

One of the things Maggie noticed when she was young was just how mentally tired and worn out her dad would become when a project was finished.

Years later, after learning about the poor mental health in the construction industry, she began focusing her research on how it could be improved.

"The suicide rate in construction is about six times more than any other industry," says Maggie. "This is largely down to the nature of the work, which is quite unstable, especially for the workers. They work job to job.

"On top of this, the nature of the work is dangerous, and the culture is often quite violent and prone to bullying."

To tackle this, Maggie is focusing on the managers; the people at the top who are stable. By starting here and working to change the environment and culture, the premise is that positivity will filter down to workers.

To gain a deep understanding, Maggie applies big data analytics to summarise sentiment from construction managers and workers from Twitter. At the same time, Maggie also researches work health and safety issues and knowledge/experience inheritance of ageing construction workers at work.

From sustainable investment to smart city using big data

As well as using big data analysis to improve mental health in construction, Maggie is also using sentiment analysis on Twitter to understand public feelings on public projects. This includes the Sydney train and light train projects.

"Do people like the project, or do they hate it? Do their feelings change as the project progresses due to media reporting – whether positively or negatively?"

"We then share this information with investors and government departments that take care of projects to make better decisions in the future or to change their investment strategy on public projects."

With the strategy of sustainable investment in mind, Maggie works with the local councils on developing smart cities, focusing on smart mobility, smart living, smart environment, smart people, and smart economy.

Bringing women into leadership

The next key area of Maggie's work is women in construction.

Currently, women aren't well represented in leadership roles. While many may start in lower-level entry roles at graduate level, once they get married, women often quit their job before they get to the top.

Through her research looking at 10 construction companies in Australia, preliminary results show that in seven out of the 10, there are no women at all on the company boards. This means there are no role models in the industry for females.

This research aims to present the current situation of women in leadership in the construction industry and to develop strategies for decision-makers to keep them in the industry and change the industry profile.

Better managing disaster and construction waste

On the environmental engineering side, Maggie is currently involved in a project helping the Pacific Island countries develop disaster waste management strategies and is establishing a work group.

"In NSW alone, we've had five floods in the past 18 months, and we're looking at helping those areas affected by the disaster to recover quickly. We also want to learn from these experiences to better prepare for the future."

She's also looking at another trending topic: construction waste management and developing sustainability in the industry.

"Australia is very lucky as it's a big country with a lot of land and a small population," continues Maggie. Any construction waste can simply go into landfill. However, due to changes in weather and an increasing population and infrastructure development, construction waste is growing, and landfill won't be enough."

What she's looking to develop is strategies and to provide some resilience methods for decision-makers.

This involves the government working together with industries, such as private construction companies, to figure out where construction waste can be recycled and reused on-site or turned into products that can used again.

Change at a local and global level

Maggie's work to date is already making a positive difference.

At a regional and community level, it's increasing safety on construction sites and the number of women on site. At a national level, it's changing the public image of the construction industry. And globally, it's helping to develop a sustainable built environment.

This has all been despite Maggie's initial language barrier and lack of connection in Australia with industry partners.

Maggie continues to be motivated by the many female HDR students on her research team, and when she sees projects save time and money thanks to her research.