Group Excel at International Conference

The Laing O’Rourke Centre's Construction Information Technology (CIT) research group published five papers and brought home both major awards from the 16th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE) earlier this year.

Held from 6-8 July 2016 in Osaka, Japan, the conference focused on applications of information and communications technology to civil, building, and environmental engineering.  Over 250 papers were accepted for publication in the conference proceedings, and nearly 300 scholars and industry representatives attended the three-day event.

Third-year PhD student Ioannis Anagnostopoulos, pictured left, earned the Best Student Paper award.  His paper, Object Boundaries and Room Detection in As-Is BIM Models from Point Cloud Data, focused on simplifying object modelling from point cloud data for the accurate creation of as-is building information models (BIMs) while enriching them with room detection. The proposed method utilises geometric and density parameters to achieve the aforementioned goal.  Dr. Michael Belsky and Dr. Ioannis Brilakis, also of the CIT Lab, were the co-authors of the paper.

Second-year PhD student Steven Vick, see right, was bestowed the Best Student Presentation award for his talk entitled A Review of Linear Transportation Construction Progress Monitoring Techniques.  The fifteen minute presentation covered the state of practice and existing research on automated construction progress monitoring. 

Steven's research aims are to address inefficiencies in current practice by proposing an automated method for conducting model-based progress estimates using aerial imagery on transportation projects in remote and dangerous locations.  Dr. Ioannis Brilakis co-authored the paper.

Other CIT members presenting papers at the conference included fourth-year PhD student Ms. Stefania Radopoulou, third-year PhD student Ms. Marianna Kopsida, and second-year PhD student Mr. Philipp Hüthwohl.

All the above papers can be seen in ICCCBE2016, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering, July 6th - 8th, Osaka, Japan, ISBN 978-4-9907371-2-2

Additional Background Information:

Ioannis Anagnostopoulos received his BEng-MEng in Civil Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2013 with a major in Transportation Engineering and Construction Management. His research interests are focused on automated 3D modelling of point clouds for the accurate depiction of the as-built conditions. Part of his research was conducted at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

Steven Vick is a Major in the United States Air Force.  He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Loyola Marymount University and a Master’s Degree in Construction and Engineering Management from Stanford University. He has ten years' experience as a civil engineering officer in the United States Air Force. Most recently, Steve was an Assistant Professor of civil engineering at the United States Air Force Academy. His research is focused on the use of computer vision techniques to enhance civil infrastructure progress monitoring at remote and dangerous locations.