In this talk,we show three example systems where the electronic and transport properties are predicted by accurate first-principles approach.We first demonstrate that only when vdW interactions are explicitly taken into consideration can we give an accurate prediction of the structural and electronic properties of the binary tetradymite Sb2Se3.In contrast to general belief,we show that Sb2Se3 is a strong topological insulator with a bulk gap of 0.19 eV.To accurately predict the electron relaxation time of intermetallic compound YbAl3,we then use the density functional perturbation theory and Wannier interpolation techniques which can effectively treat the electron-phonon scattering.