Certified Passive House Designer (PHI, Germany); Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the U.K. (FHEA); Head of the Human-Centered Sustainable Interaction Research Center (HCSI), University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC); Director of International Student Recruitment, Faculty of Science and Engineering (FoSE); Standing Council Member of the Ningbo Civil and Architecture Society; Standing Council Member of the Ningbo Society for Urban Studies. Former roles: Head of the Department of Architecture and Built Environment (2023–2025), UNNC; Director of the Center for Sustainable Energy Technologies, UNNC (2022–2025); Head of the Sustainable Built Environment Research Group (2019–2025); and Course Director of Architectural Environment Engineering (2016–2018).

Deng has held various leadership roles at UNNC, including Course Director, Head of Department, Head of Research Group and Head of Research Center. During his tenure as Head of Department, he led the process of defining the Department’s vision and mission, established multiple industry partnerships, and successfully achieved the unconditional re-validation and re-accreditation from RIBA and CIBSE for the Architecture and Architectural Environment Engineering courses, respectively. The HCSI Research Center, currently under his leadership, consists of 32 full-time researchers from the fields of architecture, architectural engineering, product design and manufacturing, computer science, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering. The center also supports more than 90 PhD students conducting research and innovation at the intersection of artificial intelligence, sustainable built environment, human factors, and human–computer interaction.

Deng’s research and teaching experience span the fields of sustainable architectural design and architectural engineering. He completed his PhD Built Environment at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, in 2011. Prior to joining UNNC in 2013, he worked as a Lead Consultant/Technical Manager at the Eco-City Research Center, Siemens Corporate Technology.

His primary research interests include:

1.     AI-supported sustainable eco-city development

2.     Building prototyping and modeling

3.     Indoor and outdoor thermal comfort 

Since joining UNNC in 2013, Deng has secured more than RMB 5 million in research funding as Principal Investigator. He has published three books and over 120 journal and conference papers. His co-authored monograph, Eco-development in China: Cities, Communities and Buildings (Palgrave Macmillan), received the China New Development Award from Springer Nature in August 2019 for its exceptional contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Teaching

The modules I am currently convening are:

Environmental Science for Architects 2 – Architecture year 2 module

Architectural Engineering Design 5 – Architectural Environment Engineering year 3 module

I also contribute to teaching of:

People, Building and Landscape 

Integrated Design in Architecture 3

Architectural Design Studio 2

Architectural Engineering Design 3  

Architectural Engineering Design 4