NERI Seminar Series by
Associate Professor Boyan Xu on 21 August 2026

The NUS Environmental Research Institute (NERI) was pleased to welcome Associate Professor Boyan Xu back for a short visit and to host him as part of the NERI Seminar Series. Associate Professor Xu was previously a Research Fellow at NERI and is currently with Beijing Normal University, where he has been actively involved in advancing AI for Science in water and wastewater treatment processes.

At the NERI Seminar held on 21 August 2026, Prof Xu delivered a talk titled “Making LLMs Useful for Water Treatment: From Knowledge to Process Decisions.” The seminar was chaired by Prof Hu Jiangyong, NERI Deputy Director.

As AI becomes an increasingly powerful tool in everyday life, its potential applications in environmental engineering and water management are also expanding. In his seminar, Prof Xu explored how large language models (LLMs) can support water and wastewater treatment through improved process decision-making, troubleshooting, monitoring, and operational recommendations. He also highlighted the importance of domain-adapted LLMs that integrate sector-specific knowledge, engineering tools, process data, and expert feedback to enable more reliable real-world applications.

The seminar showcased practical use cases, including membrane fouling analysis, activated sludge management, and smart water decision-making. It also addressed key challenges such as hallucination control, data quality, interpretability, safety, and human-in-the-loop validation.

NERI extends its sincere thanks to Prof Boyan Xu for his insightful sharing, and to all participants for joining the seminar.