Dr Yiwei Sun
BSc, PhD, FHEA, MIMMM

 

Research Overview

Research in Engineering and Materials Education

Engineering education, Assessment and feedback, generative AI in assessment, algorithmic team formation, Bayesian learning analytics, transnational education, graphene and 2D materials, carrier transport in semimetals

Interests

My scholarship asks how engineering education can be made fairer, more evidence-led and more robust now that students have access to generative AI. Current strands are an algorithmic method for forming student project teams that balances academic profile and student preferences and leaves no student isolated, used in QMES modules and adopted on Queen Mary's Nanchang transnational programme; a contribution-attribution scheme that credits each student's own work within group coursework; coursework designs that either resist or deliberately permit AI use while assessing the student's reasoning; and hierarchical Bayesian learning analytics for identifying students at risk (Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 2026). The work is developed and evaluated across the UK–China setting of the QMES programme, with pre-university outreach (the Centre for Public Engagement-funded "Materials Detectives" workshop) as a second testbed. As Centre Education Lead for CREME I also work with colleagues across SEMS on shared practice in assessment and feedback.

I remain active in fundamental materials physics, which feeds directly into research-led teaching: a model that corrects systematic errors in extracting the carrier densities and mobilities of semimetals such as graphene (Nano Letters, 2026); the mechanics and spectroscopy of graphene and graphite under pressure and in different environments, including why graphite lubricates; and graphene-oxide–bacteriophage composites for sensing. Earlier work includes three-dimensional strain in monolayer graphene (Physical Review Letters, 2019, Editors' Suggestion) and an invited review of the mechanical properties of graphene (Applied Physics Reviews, 2021). I continue to collaborate with Prof Sir Colin Humphreys's group.