Professor Sheng-feng Qin

Professor

School: Design, Arts and Creative Industries

Professor Qin joined Northumbria School of Design in 2014. He was 2019 Newton Prize recipient based on his collaborative research work with Professor Cuixia Ma at the Institute of Software of Chinese Academy of Sciences on Transforming Service Design and Big Data Technologies into Sustainable Urbanisation.

Prior to this appointment, he worked as a Senior/Lecturer in Department of Design at Brunel University (2001- 2013), a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (2000-2001) at University of Loughborough, a Research Assistant in the School of Product Design of Cardiff Metropolitan University (1998-1999). He was an Academic Visitor at the University of Birmingham (1996-1997) from East China Jiaotong University.

His research interest is broadly in digital design and manufacturing methods and technology for product-service systems. Early work includes design optimization, Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM), sketch-based modelling and interfacing, gesture-based modelling and interfacing, design process and team management.

At Northumbria University, Professor Qin has established the Smart Design Lab (SDL), leading design research into future smart products, services and interconnected systems design by applying cutting edge smart technologies and smart multi-disciplinary design research methods/tools.

Recent research is focused on planet/impact centred design theory, AI and Data-driven smart design methods, design for the product life cycle, design for ecosystem, crowdsourcing and digital twin-based design methods for smart manufacturing, railway, city, product, service, and well-being system.

Recent research projects are funded by UKRI, China Scholarship Council (CSC), British Council, British Academy, industry and charities, including

Prototyping Open Innovation Models for ICT-Enabled Manufacturing in Food and Packaging (EPSRC)
Crowdsourcing Platform for Product Development (Innovate UK)
Crowdsourcing-Based Product Design and Development for Manufacturing (CSC)
Modular Design Techniques for Product Family Development of High-Speed Train (Dowell Technology Limited)
Sustainable Urban and Rural Integration with AI and Big-Data Technologies(UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy & Newton Prize).
Designing Smart Services for Sustainable Urbanization with Fused Big-Data Visualization and Interaction Techniques (British Council)
A Digital Twin Platform of The Customer Journey for Future Advanced Services (EPSRC)
Developing a Grassroots Sustainable Futures Platform-Collective Participation in a Community-Based Cultural Organisation (British Academy)
Digital Twin-Driven Lifecycle Smart Product Design and Manufacturing for Railway Industry (British Council)
Emotion Recognition for Improving Team Work Performance (CSC)
Fusing Multiple Cultural Elements into Situational Jewellery (gift) Design for Very High-End Markets (CSC)
Digital Twining of Urban Transportation System for Smart Transportation Service Design and Innovation (CSC)

Professor Qin is currently the Director for our MA Design Programme, teaching research principles and methods for this programme.

He is the Editor-in-Chief for International Journal of Rapid manufacturing, and an Associate Editor for International Journal of Design Engineering.

Prof. Qin has published more than 200 papers in journals and conferences and 2 books. His publication profile can be found on Google Scholar and his ORCID.

Campus Address

Northumbria School of Design
Northumbria University, City Campus East
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE1 8ST

Email Sheng-feng

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Reserach Themes: Design+Business and Publics

Scholarly Interests:

Digital Design Technology, Smart Product and Service Design, Design Optimization, Digital Manufacturing, Smart Cities, Design for Emotion, Crowdsouring Product and Service Design and Development

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
A hierarchical strategy-optimized double deep Q-network for dynamic reentrant hybrid flow-shop scheduling problem with multi-stage batch processing machines, Ren, X., Zhang, J., Li, J., Qin, S., Chen, H. 1 Jan 2026, In: Computers and Industrial Engineering
A review of vision-based defect detection research for highly reflective metal surfaces, Xie, X., Shen, Y., Zhang, J., Qin, S., Chen, H. 1 Sep 2026, In: Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal
A scoping review of generative AI and digital twins in tackling loneliness during hospital-to-home transitions, Zhang, Y., Qin, S. 28 Sep 2026, In: Digital Health
A spatiotemporal evolution modeling method for flowing entities within production processes in digital twin shop floors, Liu, M., Chen, H., Zhang, J., Qin, S., Fu, J., Ding, G. 1 Oct 2026, In: Computers and Industrial Engineering
Engineering product design specification decomposition method from the perspective of product system evolution, Ma, K., Zhang, H., Gu, S., Qin, S., Li, R., Ding, G. 1 May 2026, In: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture
Metaverse Meets Fashion: The Fusion of Creativity and Technology, Lin, C., Shi, Y., Xia, G., Pogue, G., Lightley, L., Qin, S. 16 Mar 2026, Digital Fashion, Boca Raton, US, CRC Press
A Multimodal Emotion Recognition Enhanced Resilient Cognitive Twin, Ge, C., Qin, S. 27 Aug 2025, 2025 30th International Conference on Automation and Computing (ICAC), Piscataway, US, IEEE
A multi-target regression-based method for multiple orders remaining completion time prediction in discrete manufacturing workshops, Liu, M., Zhang, J., Qin, S., Zhang, K., Wang, S., Ding, G. 1 Jan 2025, In: Measurement: Journal of the International Measurement Confederation
An energy-saving real-time scheduling method based on bi-level multi-agent architecture with bargaining game for flexible job shops, Hu, M., Qin, S., Wang, S., Zhang, J., Ding, G. 15 Apr 2025, In: Expert Systems with Applications
A novel production execution logic model with directed service node pairs and encapsulated service cells for efficient scheduling and simulation in discrete manufacturing shops, Liu, M., Xie, J., Zhang, J., Qin, S., Ding, G., Chen, H. 1 Oct 2025, In: Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Developing a Grassroots Sustainable Futures Platform: Collective Participation in a Community-Based Cultural Organisation, Barron, L. (Principal Investigator), Qin, S. (Co Investigator), British Academy, 24/01/22 - 24/01/23, £15,290.00

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Developing a Grassroots Sustainable Futures Platform: Collective Participation in a Community-Based Cultural Organisation, Barron, L. (Principal Investigator), Qin, S. (Co Investigator), British Academy, 24/01/22 - 24/01/23, £15,290.00

PGR Supervision

Chenyu Ge Exploring a digital twin-based smart transportation system and services towards smart cities Start Date: 01/03/2022 End Date: 17/07/2026
Chenyu Ge Exploring a digital twin-based smart transportation system services towards smart cities Start Date: 01/03/2022 End Date: 17/10/2025
Yuqing Zhang Designing Smart Services Using Generative AI and Digital Twins to Alleviate Loneliness Among Elderly Individuals Start Date: 01/10/2024
Liying Yang Design of a forecast tool based on keystroke and mouse dynamics to understand workplace emotions and mental workload Start Date: 01/10/2020 End Date: 12/03/2025
Ziwen Zhu Design for individual emotion regulations from a designer’s perspective Start Date: 01/10/2020 End Date: 09/05/2025
Xiaoming Dong A feasibility study of building personal digital twins to support unpaid carers Start Date: 01/10/2022
Yuqing Zhang Designing Smart Services Using Generative AI and Digital Twins to Alleviate Loneliness Among Elderly Individuals Transitioning from Hospitalisation Start Date: 01/10/2024 End Date: 17/10/2025
Xiaoming Dong Building Digital Replicas of Unpaid Carers to Better Meet Community Needs: exploring the use of Personal Digital Twin (PDT) technology to provide responsive, personalized digital services to unpaid carers in Gateshead to improve community wellbeing Start Date: 01/10/2022 End Date: 17/10/2025

Further Information

Professor Qin is an associate member of The Design Lab at UC San Diego since his visit to the Design Lab in 2016-2017 under the Leverhulme International Fellowship.

Profsessor Qin is also a Visiting Professor to Southwest Jiaotong University of China on Digital Design and Manufacturing (2014-) and a Co-Coordinator of the Joint Design Innovation Lab with Northwestern Polytechnical University of China (2017-).

Professor Qin is an Associate Editor of International Journal of Design Engineering (Inderscience Publishers) and Journal of Systems Science & Control Engineering (Taylor & Francis Online).

Qualifications

Craft, Design andTechnology PhD February 29 2000
Computer Aided Engineering May 01 1988
Manufacturing Engineering BEng (Hons) July 01 1983
Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2014
Information not provided Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 2014