Dr. Nieqing Cao is an Assistant Professor in the School of Intelligent Manufacturing Ecosystem at XJTLU. She received her Ph.D. degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the State University of New York at Binghamton, and earned her M.S. and B.S. degrees from Wuhan University of Technology.

Dr. Cao's research focuses on advancing smart manufacturing by integrating machine learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and data-driven modeling to optimize manufacturing processes, enhance quality control, and enable anomaly prediction. Her works support real-time decision-making tailored to complex industries, including electronics manufacturing and pharmacy automation. She specializes in leveraging generative AI, explainable and physics-informed machine learning, and simulation-driven insights to bridge data science and manufacturing systems, driving innovations in predictive analytics, production line automation, and system intelligence. Other current research interests include robotics and embodied AI, focusing on mobile manipulation and task planning in open-world environments.

Dr. Cao conducted research projects in academia, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), as well as in industry. The outcomes of these projects have been integrated into companies' AI optimizer solutions (e.g., Koh Young Technology Inc. and iA Pharmacy Automation Company), benefiting prominent customers such as Apple Inc. and Amazon.

Quality inspection optimization 

Predictive modeling and simulation for complex engineering system

Realtime control in smart manufacturing

Large-scale data mining optimization

Embodied AI and robotics

Assistant Professor, XJTLU, China, 2024 - Present

Graduate Research Associate, State University of New York at Binghamton, U.S., 2020 - 2024

Teaching Assistant, State University of New York at Binghamton, U.S., 2019 - 2022

DTS408TC Big Data Mining, Analysis, and Management