Jian has published more than 230 peer-reviewed papers (h-index 41, and over 6057 citations on Google Scholar) and holds 10 approved US patents. His research has been widely cited by related research communities and he has been invited to give keynote addresses and talks at numerous international conferences. As a supervisor, he has also enriched the experience of five research fellows and had 13 UTS graduated PhD students.

Jian has led the team to regularly partner with industry to undertake R&D programs to improve efficiency and productivity across a range of sectors. His recent projects for the Agri-food sector include developing artificial intelligence and video analysis to detect, segment and track livestock movements in a range of applications for fast and accurate counting of export vessel loading and saleyards trade; designing a fish quality assessment system in Sydney Fish Market, and collaborating with Australian Eggs to develop video-based AI technology to alert and protect smothering from pile-up and flock movement in chicken farms.