Eric Wang

Dr Eric (Gengkun) Wang is a Senior Lecturer in Electronic Systems and Internet of Things Engineering in the College of Science and Engineering at James Cook University, Australia. He received his B.Eng. degree in Mechanical Engineering and M.Eng. degree in Mechatronic Engineering from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, China, in 2006 and 2009, respectively, and completed his PhD in Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.

Dr Wang has more than 16 years of experience in IoT, automation, embedded systems, telecommunications, and digital agriculture. Before joining James Cook University, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern Queensland for two and a half years. His current research focuses on smart irrigation, agricultural IoT, crop modelling, decision-support systems, remote sensing, weather forecasting, automation, and AI-enabled digital agriculture. His work has contributed to major national and industry-funded projects in sugarcane irrigation, including NESP, CSSIP, i-RAT, BIP, and the recently awarded CLOVER project under the Future Drought Fund Drought Resilience Innovation Challenges Pilot Program.

Dr Wang works closely with industry, government, and research partners, including sugarcane growers, productivity service organisations, Sugar Research Australia, AgriTech Solutions, Burdekin Productivity Services, natural resource management groups, and government agencies. His research has supported the development and adoption of practical irrigation decision-support tools, IoT monitoring systems, automation platforms, and modelling frameworks that improve water use efficiency, energy efficiency, productivity, and environmental outcomes in agriculture.

At James Cook University, Dr Wang is actively involved in teaching and curriculum development in electronic systems, IoT engineering, embedded systems, control and automation, and engineering capstone projects. He also leads and supports hands-on engineering outreach, school engagement, industry demonstrations, and maker-space activities that promote engineering education and student pathways into technology-related careers.

Dr Wang has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and has participated in numerous national and international research projects. He was the runner-up in the Asia-Pacific Robot Contest, ABU Robocon 2006, and received the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, Cancun, Mexico, in 2011.