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Construction Information Technology Laboratory

 

Staff

Dr Mahendrini Ariyachandra

Dr Mahendrini Ariyachandra presently serves as the Programme Manager for the Digital Roads of the Future (DRF) initiative. She holds overall managerial responsibility for the DRF programme, a collaborative effort involving the University of Cambridge, Costain, National Highways, and 24 other industry partners. Dr Ariyachandra completed her PhD in Engineering at the University of Cambridge, with her research focusing on the generation of Geometric Digital Twins for Rail Infrastructure in 2022. Her PhD was sponsored by the Cambridge Commonwealth European and International Trust (Cambridge Trust) and Bentley Systems (UK) Limited. Prior to her current role as DRF Programme Manager, Mahendrini held positions as an Assistant Professor at Kingston University, London, UK and as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Aston University, UK.  

 

 

Dr Nevena Vajdic

Dr. Nevena Vajdic is a Senior Project Manager with expertise in project management, problem-solving, and risk monitoring. She possesses extensive experience across various infrastructure projects in both the road and airport sectors, where she has held diverse roles. Nevena is currently working at the Digital Roads of the Future Initiative, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, where she is responsible for managing the European Commission’s MSCA COFUND Future Roads Fellowships project. Before her current role, Nevena worked as a Senior Airside Project Manager in the Investment and Development Department at Belgrade Airport, where she managed the implementation of 5-year airside infrastructure investment programs. She also has experiences working as a Short-Term Consultant for the World Bank delivering the update on the road sector model at the country level. Nevena holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the University of Belgrade. 

 

Aimee Yang

Aimee obtained her MA British Studies at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and was formerly the International Partnerships Manager at the University of Southampton in 2021 and Manager of Education and Training at the Drug Safety Research Unit in Southampton, UK, in 2022. She is currently the DRF Programme Coordinator. Her role coordinates and monitors the operations of the initiative and is part of the management team.

 

 

 

 

Embedded Staff

Rachel Judson

Rachel Judson, employed by Costain, serves as the Digital Roads Project Manager within the DRF programme at the University of Cambridge. Prior to her current role, she worked as the project manager for the Centre for Digital Built Britain at the University of Cambridge, which was a part of the National Digital Twin Programme. 

 

 

 

 

Research Professors

Dr Lavindra De Silva

Dr Lavindra De Silva is a Principle Research Associate (Research Professor) in the Cambridge University Engineering Department. He joined the Department in February 2019 as Research Lead on the Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring project, after which he took on the role of Programme Director on the Digital Roads of the Future Initiative. In particular he is interested in: developing novel hierarchical and hybrid (AI) planning approaches, including unifying the task and motion planning algorithms that are used in AI and robotics; in developing formal semantics for autonomous (and typically BDI-style) agent systems, including semantics for concurrency; and in the synthesis of provably correct controllers for robotics and manufacturing.

 

 

Dr Erika Parn

Dr. Erika A. Pärn (PhD, BSc (Hons), PgCE, PgCR) is a Senior Research Associate (Research Assistant Professor) at University of Cambridge based at Civil Engineering Department Construction Infromation Technology Lab supporting the IfM Cambridge Service Alliance. Previously, whilst working in industry, she led multiple research project technical deliverables for the EU commission, such as the two H2020 initiatives, GreenInstruct and BIMERRand, and the UKRI project SeismPrecast. During her time in academia as lecturer at Birmingham City University, she taught undergraduate and postgraduate students of built environment school and accrued research experience. To date, she has published her research in several peer-reviewed academic journals and has been a keynote speaker at several preeminent industrial and conference events. 

 

 

Dr Ran Wei

Dr Ran Wei is a Senior Research Associate (Research Assistant Professor) at the Division of Civil Engineering of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He is leading the Digital Twin team in the Digital Roads of the Future (DRF) initiative. Before joining the University of Cambridge, he was an associate professor (from 2020 - 2023) at Dalian University of Technology, China, where he focused his research on digital twins and model-based system assurance for robotic and autonomous systems. From 2013 – 2020, he was  a researcher in the University of York, UK, during which he took part in (and managed) the MONDO (Scalable Modeling and Model Management on the Cloud), DAASE (Dynamic Adaptive Automated Software Engineering) and the DEIS (Dependability Engineering Innovation for Cyber Physical Systems) project, researching on model-based systems engineering and its applications. 

 

 

Dr Damian Palin

Damian Palin is a Senior Research Associate (Research Assistant Professor) in the Digital Roads of the Future Initiative at the University of Cambridge. Previously, he received an Irish national research fellowship to work in Professor Daniel Kelly's Laboratory at Trinity College Dublin, leading a project developing nacre (or seashell)-inspired high-performance concrete (2021). Before that, he was a European Commission-funded Marie Curie Global Fellow in Professor Lara Estroff's group at Cornell University and Professor Henk Jonkers' group at the Delft University of Technology (TUD), leading a project synthesising biologically inspired material (2017-2020). In 2017, Dr Palin received his PhD from the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at TUD for work supervised by Professors Klass van Breugel and Henk Jonkers on the design and development of a smart, bacteria-based self-healing concrete.  

 

 

Dr Jie Xu

Dr Jie Xu is a Senior Research Associate (Research Assistant Professor) at the Division of Civil Engineering of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He is leading the Automation and Robotics team in the Digital Roads of the Future (DRF) initiative. Prior to this, he was a post-doctoral research associate in Professor Richard Buswell’s group at Loughborough University to deliver two EPSRC-funded significant projects (worth £2.2 mil in total) that delivered the next generation of 3D Concrete Printing technology - Hybrid Concrete Printing. He was responsible for providing robotic toolpath programs for 3D printing and milling operations, sensor-integrated robotic system development, geometric quality control and process monitoring. His work led to the realization of a world-first full-scale concrete structural assembly with dry joints and integrated building services through precision manufacturing. 

 

 

Dr Stephen Green

Dr Stephen Green is a Senior Research Associate (Research Assistant Professor) at the Division of Civil Engineering of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He is leading the Data Science team in the Digital Roads of the Future (DRF) initiative. Prior to this, he was a post-doctoral research associate in Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge. 

 

 

 

 

Embedded Senior Researchers

Dr Lilia Potseluyko

Dr Lilia Potseluyko is an Industrial Research Fellow at the Division of Civil Engineering of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She drives the Digital Twins team’s research impact and outputs for Costain and National Highways. Lilia works to integrate the latest academic research with Costain Group Future Road Vision and innovation objectives. She enjoys working in a multidisciplinary team of researchers in Data Science, Automation&Robotics and Smart Materials. At the end of the project, Lilia aims to save Costain Group and National Highways significant money in road inspections and maintenance costs by developing Digital Twin, which will aggregate road data from multiple sources and visualise, predict, and provide insights for road maintenance processes. 

 

 

Dr Alix Marie d’Avigneau

French-born Alix MARIE d’AVIGNEAU is an Industrial Research Fellow at Costain Group, working on the Digital Roads of the Future initiative and specialising in Data Science branch of the project. After receiving a Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of St Andrews in 2016, she completed her PhD in Information Engineering (2016-2020) at the University of Cambridge, as part of the Signal Processing and Communications laboratory. Between 2020 and 2022 she worked as a post-doctoral researcher in single-molecule microscopy for Ward Ober Lab, part of the Centre for Cancer Immunology at the University of Southampton. Her research in generic and efficient statistical tools and methodology has allowed Alix to explore a wide variety of applications, such as changepoint detection, predator-prey models, single-molecule fluorescence microscopy, and most recently, construction and maintenance of roads and infrastructure. 

 

Dr Hussameldin Taha Abdalgadir

Hussameldin M. Taha. is an industrial research fellow at Costain plc based at the University of Cambridge/ UK. Hussameldin obtain his PhD in 2018 from Heriot-Watt university / Scotland /UK in civil engineering. After that Hussameldin worked as a research associate in the University of Bath through the period between 2018 to 2022. His work focused on developing self-sensing cementitious materials which can sense damage and repair by using different extrinsic and intrinsic sensing methods. In addition, Hussameldin has extensive experience in the construction industry particularly in highways construction and pavement materials.

 

 

 

Dr N’zebo Richard Anvo

N’zebo Richard Anvo is an automation and robotics industrial research fellow at Costain Group, working on the Digital Roads project. After receiving his first BEng in Electrical & Electronics at London South Bank University, he received an industrial sponsor for his PhD in Robotics and Non-destructive Testing at London South Bank University. His research interest focuses on robotic maintenance and repair alongside networked embedded sensing and control. He has extensive knowledge and experience in the development of robotic systems that can explore and manipulate objects in extreme environments coupled with the development of complex control systems for mobile robots for in-service inspection and non-destructive testing. Richard’s research tallies the reduction of carbon footprint and is cost-effective with data-driven robotic maintenance and repair. 

 

Research Associates and Fellows

Dr Arsen Abdulali

Arsen Abdulali completed his Ph.D. degree with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea. During his Ph.D., he developed a unified framework that enables haptic interaction with virtual objects. The framework considers both surface properties by modelling vibrotactile feedback induced by the haptic texture, as well as material properties that we experience through the deformation of an object. In 2021, he joined the Bio-inspired Robotics Lab. in the Department of Engineering of the University of Cambridge as a research associate. His research was funded by the Self-Healing Soft Robotics (SHERO) project of the EU Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) program and the focus were on damage detection and localization of soft self-healing robots by using machine and deep-learning techniques. In 2022, Arsen was awarded a three-year fellowship by a Future Roads program funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant. 

 

Dr Jinying Xu

Dr. Jinying Xu’s research is currently focused on the theme of sustainability and data science in smart construction of future roads. She completed her Ph.D. in construction management and technology at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 2021. Before joining the University of Cambridge as a Marie Curie co-funded Future Roads Fellow, she worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at HKU and was the research team leader and then a project manager of a 1-million-pound Innovation and Technology Fund project. Her research track-records cover data science for construction sustainability, smart construction and facility management, construction digital transformation, human-organisation-technology fit, and human-machine augmentation in construction engineering. Dr. Xu is the author of 25 peer-reviewed journal papers, 6 book chapters and 13 conference papers till September 2022. 

 

 

Dr Varun Reja Kumar

Dr Varun is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Future Roads Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He recently obtained his joint PhD from IIT Madras, India, and UTS, Australia, where he studied the use of computer vision for monitoring construction projects. His research area focuses on Automation in Construction, Digital Twins, and Construction Management. Prior to his current position, he was awarded the prestigious Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) at IIT Madras and received the UTS President's Scholarship (UTSP) and Collaborative International Research Scholarship (CIRS) at the University of Technology Sydney. He has rich on-field experience in project execution as a senior engineer, having worked in the industry with the Indian construction giant L&T. He is proficient in software applications like Revit, AutoCAD, Recap, and Rhino, and has a developing computer vision skillset. 

 

 

Dr Munkhbaatar Buuveibaatar

Dr Munkhbaatar Buuveibaatar is currently a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Future Roads Fellow at the Division of Civil Engineering of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Before joining the current position, after his Ph.D., he gained substantial experience in operating and managing highway asset data and information management systems/databases as a postdoctoral researcher at the Korean Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT). Particularly, he is experienced in project management and co-investigated in developing and prototyping a GIS-based road (workers) safety management web and mobile system application for national highways.Munkhbaatar has particular research interests and focuses on conceptualising and implementing smart road management in the highways industry. 

 

 

Dr Linjun Lu

Dr Linjun Lu is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Future Roads Fellow, working in the Future Roads Programme. In this fellowship, his research focuses on improving the trustworthiness of digital twins for road infrastructure inspection and maintenance. Before his current position, he received his PhD in civil engineering from West Virginia University. His research interests focus on structural health monitoring, intelligent sensing and construction automation, infrastructure computer vision and machine learning, and intelligent transportation systems

 

 

 

 

Dr Mengtian Yin

Dr Mengtian Yin is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Future Roads Fellow, working in the Future Roads Programme. His research project focuses on the conceptualization and implementation of the minimum viable products (MVP) of highway digital twins, with product models and process models created and validated. He recently obtained his PhD in Real Estate and Construction at the University of Hong Kong. His PhD research was centered on the development of AI-driven Natural Language Interfaces (NLIs) for efficient data retrieval from Building Information Models (BIMs).  In Hong Kong, Dr. Yin was the technical director of the AutoBIM project and worked closely with governmental and private companies. Currently, his research work has been published in top peer-reviewed journals (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=H2jn02YAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao) and has been awarded three Chinese invention patents.

 

 

Dr Yuandong Pan

Dr Yuandong Pan currently holds the position of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Future Roads Fellow at the University of Cambridge. His research interests encompass the creation of geometric digital twins from multi-modal data sources, including point clouds, images, thermal images, and ground penetrating radar data. Dr Pan's expertise lies in developing automated methods for generating digital twins for different facilities, significantly reducing human labour. He earned his joint Ph.D. from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, where he specialized in creating information-rich digital twins of indoor environments. His research is primarily focused on automatic methods for constructing digital twins from point cloud data and images.

 

 

 

Dr Kai Fung Chu

Dr Kai-Fung Chu is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in the Department of Engineering, the University of Cambridge. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from The University of Hong Kong. Prior to joining the University of Cambridge, he was a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and a research fellow of the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University. His research interests include artificial intelligence, optimization, autonomous vehicles, and intelligent transportation systems. 

 

 

 

Dr Chapa Hewa Pelendage

Dr Chapa Hewa Pelendage is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in the Department of Engineering, the University of Cambridge. Chapa received her bachelor’s and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. During her PhD, she developed cognitive frameworks for socially interactive robots in domestic and social domains.In 2023 she won the prestigious Marie Curie FutureRoads fellowship to continue her research in Robotics in a Civil Engineering domain to improve roads in the future. In the FutureRoads project, she is developing a multi-agent system based on sensor fusion to improve the safety of heavy machines and workers. She further develops simulations to represent situation-aware human-machine collaborative systems in this context. Her research interests include bio-inspired robots, cognitive robotics, soft robots, and collaborative AI.

 

 

Dr Abbas Solouki

Dr. Abbas Solouki is an MSCA Future Roads Fellow at Cambridge University, specializing in the field of pavement engineering and sustainable infrastructure. With a strong focus on geopolymer binders, ultra-low carbon alternative concrete, and material characterization, Dr. Solouki is at the forefront of developing smart and resilient pavement solutions. His expertise also extends to high-performance materials for pavements and bitumen rheology. He completed his Ph.D. in Pavement Engineering at the University of Bologna. During his Ph.D. studies, he was honored as a Marie Curie Fellow and had the exceptional opportunity to pursue an industrial Ph.D., combining work and study. Throughout his career, Dr. Solouki has undertaken significant projects focused on sustainable practices in pavement engineering. His notable contributions include the development of geopolymer paving blocks and semi-flexible pavements through the recycling of clay and silt waste. 

 

Dr Ze Zhou Wang

Dr. Wang is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the University of Cambridge. Prior to Cambridge, he earned both a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a doctorate from the National University of Singapore and was a visiting researcher at MIT. Dr. Wang’s research, at the intersection of infrastructure sensing, computational modelling, numerical simulation, data science, artificial intelligence, and reliability analysis, aims to transform the assessment of civil infrastructures. His current project consolidates both historical performance data and continuous monitoring data to advance the understanding of how climate, traffic, and natural hazards interactively impact England's pavement infrastructure. In his previous research, he developed computational techniques to interpret sensor data to improve safety control in geotechnical excavations and leveraged machine/deep learning to advance geotechnical reliability analysis and engineering geology applications. 

 

Dr Yue Xie

Dr. Yue Xie is a Marie Curie Future Roads Fellow at the University of Cambridge, specializing in AI and multi-agent systems for future road automation. She earned her Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Adelaide in 2021 and has experience as a Postdoctoral Fellow at CSIRO and the University of Adelaide. Her research spans AI, bio-inspired optimization, mining engineering, public health, and soft robotics. With over 15 peer-reviewed papers, she actively contributes as a reviewer and guest editor for international journals. Her current focus is on integrating AI and information theory for vehicle-road coordination.

 

 

 

  Dr Judith Fauth 

Judith Fauth is Marie-Sklodowska-Curie postdoc fellow at the University of Cambridge since 2024. Before she joined her current position, she was postdoctoral researcher at the Technische Universität Wien in Vienna and researcher in the research project iECO at RIB Software GmbH in Germany. Judith completed several research stays abroad such as in the USA (University of Southern California), Italy (Fraunhofer Italia), and Israel (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology). She obtained her doctorate in engineering from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar from the department of construction engineering and management in 2021. Judith’s research interest is on the digitalization of building permits. She published numerous scientific journal and conference articles on the topic. Judith is member of the management committee of the European Network for Digital Building Permits (EUnet4DBP) where she chairs the scientific committee of the Digital Building Permit Conference 2024 in Barcelona.  

 

 Dr Fengqiao Zhang

Dr Fengqiao Zhang is a Maria Skłodowska-Curie Future Roads Fellow at the University of Cambridge. She received her PhD degree in Civil Engineering at Delft University of Technology in 2022. Before joining the UOC, he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands) from 2022 to 2023. She has participated the project funded by Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) as a co-lead, working on evaluation various monitoring technologies for road health monitoring. Dr Zhang has written well-recognized publications regarding acoustic emission monitoring, concrete crack kinematics, concrete shear failure assessment, probabilistic analysis of monitoring data. She also serves as a reviewer for high-impact international journals. Dr Zhang was a recipient of Honourable Student Paper Awards (2022) and excellent full scholarship from Delft Research Initiatives Mobility and Infrastructures (DIMI) (2022).

 

 

Dr Shirin Malihi

Before joining the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Future Roads Fellow, Shirin worked at University of Edinburgh as research Associate in a Horizon-2020 BIM Project. Her PhD of Photogrammetry and Geomatics was supported on ‘large-scale building reconstruction and enrichment using drone photogrammetry’ by Young Scientist Award of DAAD in Stuttgart and Braunschweig. She has different experiences as senior engineer, manager and developer in national and state organizations in Iran and Germany and also in Industry; she received award of the best engineering development in aerial photogrammetry. She was Principle Investigator and co- Principle Investigator in 3 academic projects, and consultant of two national projects. 

 

 

Dr Junxiang Zhu

Before joining the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Future Roads Fellow, Junxiang worked at Curtin University for 5 years as research assistant, research fellow, lecturer, and senior lecturer, where he managed and delivered courses relating to digital construction and involved in the development of the new Virtual Design and Construction course. He has won a teaching excellence award at Curtin and is an associate fellow of Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). He completed his PhD in Construction Management at Curtin in 2019 on the topic of integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) for smart infrastructure management. His recent work includes the development of a graphical representation of BIM information which supports efficient query of interconnected asset information. 

 

 

Dr Khashayar Kazemzadeh

Dr Khashayar Kazemzadeh is a MSCA Future Roads Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Development within the Division of Civil Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He earned his Ph.D. in transportation engineering from Lund University, Sweden. During his doctoral studies, Khashayar focused on evaluating the level of service for e-bike rides, particularly concerning interactions between e-bike riders and pedestrians. Following the completion of his Ph.D., he pursued a two-year postdoctoral research tenure at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. In July 2023, Khashayar joined the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds as a visiting research fellow for a six-month period. During this time, his research efforts were concentrated on quantifying barriers to the adoption of Mobility as a Service in the UK.

 

 

Dr Jie Liu

Before becoming a Marie Curie co-funded Future Roads Fellow at the University of Cambridge, he worked at Kunming University of Science and Technology for two years. He earned a Ph.D. degree from Southwest Jiaotong University and was a Ph.D. visiting student at the University of Maryland. Dr Liu is an investigator in several projects with research topics centred around transport resilience and reliability. He is the first/corresponding author of 22 peer-reviewed journal papers and 13 conference papers, with several selected as "Editor’s choice" and best papers. Dr Liu serves as a reviewer for 13 international journals and is a member of the editorial board for two journals. In Cambridge, Dr Liu will evaluate the impacts of climate change on transport performance and propose effective models and methods to mitigate the negative impacts caused by various climatic events. He aims to contribute to building a reliable, resilient, and sustainable transport system, enhancing the reliability, efficiency, and safety of our daily travel.

 

Dr Xiang Wang

Dr Xiang Wang obtained his PhD at the Delft University of Technology with his PhD thesis on Development of Distributed Fibre Optic Sensing for Structural Health Monitoring. During his PhD research, he published 4 journal papers on the topic of sensors and sensing methods for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), 3 international conference papers and 1 invited article for the magazine of PhotonicsNL. He was the winner of many international events. Before he was appointed as the Marie Curie Fellow at the Future Roads project at the University of Cambridge, he was a postdoctoral researcher funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) at the non-destructive testing laboratory at the Delft University of Technology and was appointed as a postdoctoral fellow funded by Research Talent Hub for Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) at the department of electronic and information engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

 

 

Dr Zhaojie Sun

Dr Zhaojie Sun received his Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in 2012. After that, he continued his study in HIT and got his Master degree in Transportation Engineering in 2014. Then, he obtained his PhD degree in Pavement Engineering from Delft University of Technology in 2022 and worked as a Postdoc Researcher in the same section for about two years. Since 2024, he joined the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Future Roads Fellow. Dr Sun has the expertise of pavement structure dynamic analysis, pavement structural quality evaluation, tire-pavement interaction, and pavement material performance evaluation.

 

 

 

Dr Zizhen Xu 

Dr Zizhen Xu is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Future Roads Fellow at the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He received his PhD in Transportation Resilience in 2022, his MSc in Energy and Environment in 2019 from City University of Hong Kong, and his BEng in Environmental Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology at Weihai in 2017. His PhD research focused on the disaster resilience of urban public transportation systems. Prior to joining the University of Cambridge, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Energy and Environment at City University of Hong Kong. His recent work includes the resilience of interconnected systems such as multimodal transportation networks and industrial symbiosis networks.

 

 

 

Dr Shuyan Li

Shuyan Li is a research associate working with Ioannis Brilakis. Her role is to lead a work package of BIM2TWIN project, funded by European Commission H2020. In this project, she is applying 3D object detection to building point clouds and using the outcome for construction progress measurement and quality control. She is broadly interested in computer vision and machine learning. Her current research focuses on representation learning, point cloud processing and transfer learning. In Jan. 2022, she got her doctor’s degree in the Department of Automation at Tsinghua University. Please see her bio website and google scholar for more details.

 

 

 

Dr Alwyn Mathew

Dr Alwyn Mathew is a Research Associate sponsored by BIM2WIN, Horizon 2020 (EU research and innovation program) funded project on developing 3D mobile mapping solutions for large-scale infrastructure assets. Prior to this, Dr Mathew was a post-doctoral research assistant at the University of Dundee, developing advanced 3D vision systems for endoscopy devices. He holds a Computer Science and Engineering doctoral degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Patna. Dr Mathew's expertise spans digital twin technologies, 3D reconstruction, laser scanning, and photogrammetry.

 

 

 

 

Dr Soheila Kookalani

Dr Soheila Kookalani is a postdoctoral research associate at Cambridge University, where she is working on the “Reuse of Structural Steel in Construction (RESTOR)” project. She brings a diverse skill set to her research endeavors with backgrounds in architecture, civil engineering, and computer science. She completed her Ph.D. at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, specializing in machine learning-based computing and generative models for structural design and optimization. She strives to integrate cutting-edge technologies into the field, driven by a passion for sustainable construction practices.

 

 

 

Dr Mudan Wang

Dr Mudan Wang is a Research Associate in Digital Twin Construction sponsored by DigitAl and physical incrEmental renovation packaGes/systems enhancing envIronmental and energetic behaviour and use of Resources (AEGIR). She is working on automatically generating operation phase geometrical digital twins models of buildings to be renovated based on machine learning and AI technique. She completed her PhD on Construction Management at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) with UNSW Scientia scholarship. Her research interests include digital twin, 3D reconstruction, laser scanning, and prefabrication construction. 

 

 

 

Dr Hamidreza Alavi

Dr Hamidreza Alavi is a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, where he is actively involved in two cutting-edge projects. The first project, 'OMICRON,' aims to revolutionize the maintenance, renewal, and upgrading of roads through the implementation of robotized technologies and intelligent decision support tools. In the second project, 'AEGIR,' he contributes to the development of digitAl and physical incrEmental renovation packaGes/systems that enhance environmental and energetic behaviour while optimizing resource utilization. Dr. Alavi holds a PhD in Construction Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and has previously served as an Associate Professor at UPC's Department of Project and Construction Engineering (DPCE). His research topics focus on BIM, Digital Twin, Artificial Intelligence, Facility Management, Data Integration, Augmented Reality, Mobile applications, and Decision support systems.

 

 

Dr Guangming Wang

Dr Guangming Wang is a Research Associate working with Prof. Ioannis Brilakis. His role is to lead a work package for the AEGIR project, funded by the European Commission, and assist some parts of BIM2TWIN and OMICRON projects. In these projects, he is applying SLAM, point cloud registration, multi-sensor fusion, Nerf, semantic segmentation, etc. technologies to build high-density and quality point clouds for 3D mapping, digital-twin model generation, construction quality control, etc. He is broadly interested in computer vision and robotic technologies and the application of these technologies. His current research focuses on localization, mapping, multi-sensor fusion, Nerf-based SLAM, point cloud processing, and 3D visual learning. In June 2023, he got his PhD degree in the Department of Automation at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He visited the Department of Computer Science at ETH for one year as a Research Fellow. 

 

 

Dr Ya Wen

Ya Wen is a Research Associate working with Prof Ioannis Brilakis and Dr Mahendrini Ariyachandra. Her role is to lead the UOC work package for the project – Enabling Innovative Space-Driven Services for Energy Efficient Buildings and Climate Resilient Cities (BUILDSPACE), which is sponsored by European Union Agency for the Space Programme. Within this project, Dr Wen focuses on utilizing Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to automate the creation of geometrical digital twin models derived from building point clouds. The constructed Digital Twins will contribute to the decision-making for energy demand predication, urban heat, and urban flood analysis. Dr Wen holds a PhD in Real Estate and Construction Department in University of Hong Kong. And her PhD research focuses on the semantic knowledge modelling for facilities and asset management based on the OWL method.  

 

 

PhD Students

Zhiqi HU

Ms Zhiqi Hu is a PhD Student in Engineering at the Construction Information Technology group of the Laing O'Rourke Centre on a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Studentship. Zhiqi holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Automation from Zhejiang University & a Master's Degree in Intelligent Building from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where she gained several awards including the Outstanding Student Award. Her work experience includes IT, Venture Capital, and Real Estate companies. Her research project for the PhD focuses on updating model geometry from registered point cloud and image datasets. 

 

 

Jialei Ding

Ms Jialei Ding is a PhD student in Infrastructure Digitalisation and Gamification at the Construction Information Technology group. Her PhD is in partnership with Loclab Gmbh in Germany and funded through the CBIM training network. Jialei's research focuses on creating geometric digital twins of existing roads using videogrammetry, in combination with game technologies. Jialei holds a BEng in Civil Engineering from The University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Transport from London Imperial College. 

 

 

 

Viktor Drobnyi

Viktor Drobnyi is a PhD Student in Engineering and an ESR in the CBIM project sponsored by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie foundation. Viktor holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Innopolis University and a Master's Degree in Informatics with a major in Computer Vision from the Technical University of Munich. He has previously worked as a computer vision engineer at RoadAR. Viktor's PhD research is focused on the automation of infrastructure object detection of buildings on raw sensor data, including point cloud data & image data. 

 

 

 

 

Diana Davletshina

Diana Davletshina is a PhD student within EPSRC Industrial CASE studentship at the Department of Engineering in partnership with National Highways and co-sponsored by Costain.  Diana's research focuses on automating the process of generating digital twins of roads using existing large-scale visual and spatial datasets to reduce costs and enable performance optimisation, failure prediction and future scenario modelling. Diana holds a Master's degree in Data Science from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Innopolis University. 

 

 

 

 

Haritha Jayasinghe

Haritha Jayasinghe is a member of the 3rd cohort of Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Resilience in a Changing World (FIBE2) CDT, a 1+3 year MRes and PhD programme. Haritha's project is focused on the digitization of industrial facilities, and it is conducted in partnership with AVEVA and BP. This project aims to facilitate the automated creation of digital twins of industrial assets using point cloud scans, in order to assist industrial facility owners to manage operations of complex facilities. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from The University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, specializing in Computer Science & Engineering. 

 

 

 

Percy Lam

Percy Lam is an MRes + PhD student at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment. His PhD research focuses on the construction and maintenance of a digital twin for highway networks. Percy graduated from the University of Cambridge with MEng and MA in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering in 2016. His professional experience includes geotechnical and construction engineering on the expansion of the Hong Kong International Airport.  

 

 

 

Rui Kang

Rui Kang is a PhD student in Digital Roads of the Future (DRF) research group, sponsored by CSC Cambridge International Scholarship. Her research focuses on using machine learning methods to optimise road maintenance planning on the basis of digital twins. Her project is in collaboration with National Highway and Trimble. Rui graduated from Southeast University in China with a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering and a Bachelor’s Degree in Project Management. 

 

 

 

 

Fergus Mok

Fergus Mok is enrolled in the 1+3 MRes/PhD programme of the FIBE2 CDT, currently in his Master year. His research focuses on integrating legacy data sources from National Highways with the road digital twin through data science techniques. Fergus graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2022 with an MEng and BA specialising in Information and Computer Engineering. His undergraduate final year research project involved using computer vision to automatically detect road defects from imagery and point clouds data.

 

 

 

Peihang (Hank) Luo

Peihang (Hank) Luo is an MRes + PhD student at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment (FIBE2 CDT). Peihang’s research focuses on the visualisation and human-information interaction of the road metaverse (a system of road digital twins) and the digital road infrastructure system. Peihang is part of the Digital Roads of the Future Initiative and is sponsored by Bentley Systems, National Highways and Costain. Peihang graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2022 with a BA & MEng degree in Engineering (specialising in Information and Computer Engineering, Electrical and Information Sciences, and Instrumentation and Control). Peihang’s research interests lie in the human-computer interaction design of computer systems, especially with the application of natural language interactions and Large Language Models (LLMs).