Xianyi Zeng is a full professor (exceptional class) in ENSAIT Textile Engineer School – University of Lille, France, a Former Director of the GEMTEX National Laboratory, and also a guest professor of Donghua University, Soochow University, Nankai University and Wuhan Textile University. He received the titles of French National Knight in the Order of the Academic Palms in 2019, Top-10 Overseas Chinese Scientific Leaders in Europe in 2022, Honorary Doctor at Technical University of Iasi (Romania) in 2019 and University of Boras (Sweden) in 2024 and was holder of the Innovation R&D Award from France-China Committee in 2021. 

In ENSAIT, he is head of the Department of Fashion Management and Service Engineering and the Research Group for Human-Centered Design. His main research interests include artificial intelligence applied to textiles, fashion and textile digitalization, sensory analysis, intelligent wearable systems, computerized garment design and customized production management. He has published more than 180 papers in peer-reviewed international journals and presented more than 270 papers at international conferences and supervised more than 40 PhD students.

 In addition, as project coordinator, he was coordinator of three European projects and a number of national and regional research projects and industrial innovation projects in cooperation with international textile and fashion groups in France and Europe.