Miss Yuan Chai
School of Management
College of Business and Law
Dr Yuan (Rica) Chai is a Lecturer at the Adelaide University, specialising in complex project systems, systems thinking and system dynamics. Her research focuses on applying systems thinking and system dynamics to complex socio-technical challenges, including disaster response, infrastructure resilience, maritime logistics, and sustainable supply chain systems.
Dr Chai's research applies systems thinking and system dynamics to complex socio-technical challenges, with a particular focus on disaster response. Despite significant advances in disaster management, developing response strategies that remain effective across different disaster types, scales and contexts continues to be a major challenge. Disaster response has therefore relied heavily on knowledge and experience gained from previous events. The increasing frequency and complexity of disasters continue to place growing pressure on national and urban resilience while requiring substantial public resources. Disaster response is, in effect, a large and complex system: it involves every resident of an affected area, requires coordination across government functions, healthcare management and social organisations, and depends on each component for its overall success. Dr Chai's research aims to develop practical methodologies that help countries and cities respond to disasters more flexibly and efficiently, strengthening citizen safety and national/urban security.
Her work also extends to infrastructure resilience, maritime systems and shipping cybersecurity, and sustainable project and infrastructure systems, supporting evidence-based decision-making for governments and organisations operating in highly uncertain environments.
Dr Chai has published and presented her research in leading international journals and at conferences, including IEEE IEEM, and serves as a reviewer for several international journals and conferences. She actively collaborates with researchers from Australia, Europe and Asia on interdisciplinary projects involving project management, resilience and sustainability.
She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in project management, with experience in project risk management, systems design, complex project management and research supervision.
Research interests
- Systems Thinking and System Dynamics
- Complex Project Management
- Disaster Response and Emergency Management
- Maritime Systems and Shipping Cybersecurity
- Sustainable Project and Infrastructure Systems
- Infrastructure Resilience
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 - ongoing | Teaching Lecturer | University of Adelaide |
| 2024 - ongoing | Member | International Centre for Complex Project Management |
| 2023 - ongoing | Member | Chinese Construction Management Research Association |
| 2021 - ongoing | Academic tutor | University of Adelaide |
| Language | Competency |
|---|---|
| Chinese (Cantonese) | Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review |
| Chinese (Mandarin) | Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review |
| English | Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review |
| Spanish - Latin American | Can read, write, speak and understand spoken |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 - 2024 | University of Adelaide | Australia | Ph. D |
| 2018 - 2020 | University of Adelaide | Australia | Master |
| 2014 - 2017 | Dalian University | China | Bachelor |
| 2013 - 2017 | Dalian University | China | Bachelor |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Chai, Y., Gunawan, I., & Nguyen, N. C. (2026). Sustainable Disaster Governance and Public Satisfaction in South Australia: A Mixed-Methods Study. Sustainability Switzerland, 18(12), 22 pages. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Gulati, R., Mysore, K., & Chai, Y. (2025). A Conceptual Framework for Stakeholder Interactions Addressing Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Adversities in the Maritime Industry. In The AMLRN Annual Symposium 2025: Sustainable Maritime Supply Chain Opportunities in the Presence of Growing Protectionism. University of Adelaide. |
| 2025 | Chai, Y., Munim, Z. H., & Gunawan, I. (2025). Applying System Archetypes to Analyze Port Congestion. In IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (pp. 1027-1031). IEEE. DOI |
| 2025 | Huso, D., Munim, Z. H., Chai, Y., Kim, T. E., & Bhuiyan, Z. (2025). Factors Influencing Cybersecurity Risk and Autonomous Shipping Awareness. In IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (pp. 960-964). IEEE. DOI |
| 2024 | Chai, Y., Gunawan, I., Zuo, J., & Nguyen, N. (2024). A Preliminary Study of System Dynamics Models for Resilient and Smart Cities. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (pp. 1183-1187). IEEE Xplore: IEEE. DOI Scopus2 |
| 2024 | Chai, Y., Gunawan, I., & Nguyen, N. (2024). Disaster Response System Framework Analysis of the SoS Approach. In IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, (pp. 819-823). Bangkok, Thailand: IEEE. DOI Scopus1 |
| 2023 | Chai, Y., Gunawan, I., Nguyen, N., & Zuo, J. (2023). Smart Cities, Resilient Cities and Sustainable Cities, a New Triangular Stable City Model Built. In Proceedings of the 28th International Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate Vol. Part F4842 (pp. 1803-1814). Nanjing, China: Springer Nature Singapore. DOI |
| 2022 | Chai, Y., Gunawan, I., Nguyen, N., & Zuo, J. (2022). Complex Systems of Disaster Response: the Case of Covid-19. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management Vol. 2022-December (pp. 1097-1101). Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: IEEE. DOI Scopus1 |
University of Adelaide Research. 2021
Travel Grant 2022
Data Collection 2023
- Industry Project in Project Management
- System Thinking and Project
- System Design for Project
- Complex Project Management
- Risk Assessment and Project
- Project Risk Management
| Date | Role | Membership | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 - ongoing | Member | International Centre for Complex Project Management | Australia |
| 2023 - ongoing | Member | Chinese Construction Management Research Association | China |
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