June 2020<\/strong> – The paper titled “Participatory sensing and digital twin city: updating virtual city models for enhanced risk-informed decision-making” by Youngjib Ham<\/a> and Jaeyoon Kim, Ph.D. student, has received the 2020 Best Paper Award from the Journal of Management in Engineering, one of the most prestigious journals of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This paper proposes a new framework to bring crowdsourced visual data-based reality information into a three-dimensional virtual city for model updates with interactive and immersive visualization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n February 2020<\/strong> – Zofia Rybkowski<\/a> delivered a talk on “Seeking truth: the luminous power of serious games and simulation<\/a>” at the latest edition of TEDx TAMU. In her talk, Rybkowski speaks to her personal transformation from bench scientist to academic researcher and educator of architecture and construction management at Texas A&M University. She shares how serious games and simulations can serve a similar (though more lighthearted) role in controlled experimentation, as a way of seeking truth in the sometimes confusing and contradictory world of project management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n November 2019<\/strong> – Amir Behzadan’s paper titled “Multi-dimensional sequence alignment for context-aware human action analysis of body-sensor data” has received the Best Paper Award of the 4th International Conference on Civil and Building Engineering Informatics (ICCBEI 2019). This paper presented a bioinformatics-inspired approach to classifying human time-motion signals collected by wearable sensors. ICCBEI 2019 was held in Sendai, Japan on November 7-8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n September 2019<\/strong> – We are pleased to announce that Manish Dixit<\/a> is the recipient of a major research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to explore the use of virtual reality, eye tracking, and electroencephalography data to train the future workforce to work in unfamiliar environments, including desolate hard to reach places such as deep space, low Earth orbit, deep ocean, and polar regions. Dixit will lead this 3-year project with collaborators from Visualization, Aerospace Engineering, and Psychological and Brain Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n June 2019<\/strong> – Ryan Ahn’s paper titled “Saliency detection analysis of pedestrians’ physiological responses to assess adverse built environment features” has received the Best Paper Award of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering (I3CE) that was hosted by Georgia Tech in Atlanta (June 17-19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n June 2019<\/strong> – We are pleased to announce that Ryan Ahn is the recipient of one of the eight university-wide X-Grants in the 2019 cycle. This project seeks to create smarter and more connected cities for independent mobility and healthy aging of older adults. Ahn and his team will construct a digital twin city (DTC) model with physiological and visual sensing data. This DTC model will be leveraged to design and simulate stress-aware interventions to promote older adults’ mobility and healthy behaviors (e.g., identify the least stressful first-and-last mile trip path to access transit).<\/p>\n\n\n\n March 2019<\/strong> – Athanasios Chassiakos (Professor of Civil Engineering) and Stylianos Karatzas (Ph.D. Candidate) visited the construction science department and gave talks on “Optimization research in civil engineering and construction management”, and “Business process analysis and STAMP (systems-theoretic accident model and processes) for building energy management”. They also met with several construction science faculty members and students to discuss future partnership opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n December 2018<\/strong> – Seven construction science faculty members have received a total of five Texas A&M Triads for Transformation (T3) research grants. The T3 program<\/a> is designed to accelerate opportunities for interdisciplinary research and scholarship that impact the state, nation, and the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n November 2018<\/strong> – During a visit by the Army Futures Command (AFC) to Texas A&M University, Amir Behzadan showcased his team’s work on designing and testing artificial intelligence (AI) computing systems for real time ground asset detection and localization in drone footage, with applications in disaster response, urban informatics, and geospatial mapping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n September 2018<\/strong> – Patrick Suermann<\/a> was in Denver with the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) reviewing Leidos International’s plan for working with Parsons as the Prime Sub on $355M of construction, demolition, and consolidation for the Antarctica Infrastructure Modernization for Science (AIMS) project at the South Pole. Starting in FY19, this project will help take American presence in Antarctica to the next level needed to handle the invigorated research we accomplish there through the NSF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n May 2018<\/strong> – Sarel Lavy<\/a> will be a visiting scholar in the School of Built Environment at the Liverpool John Moores University. This position is regarded as a significant accolade and recognition of the scholar’s prominence in the field, and was offered to Lavy in recognition of his major contributions to student learning. Lavy will spend the fall semester in the U.K as part of this appointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n April 2018<\/strong> – Eric Du delivered a talk on “Vibrations, the common language of internet of things (loTs)” at the latest edition of TEDx TAMU. Du’s work focuses on smart information technologies for the next generation infrastructure systems, and aims to tackle engineering problems of significance to industry and society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n March 2018<\/strong> – Four COSC faculty members have received Texas A&M Triads for Transformation (T3) research grants. The T3 program<\/a> is designed to accelerate opportunities for interdisciplinary research and scholarship that impact the state, nation, and the world. Selected T3 projects with COSC faculty involvement are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n During this inaugural year of the T3 program, 100 innovative interdisciplinary projects were randomly selected for funding. There will be approximately $3 million invested annually in T3 projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n March 2018<\/strong> – The Workshop on “Wearable and Mobile Computing for Construction and the Built Environment” was successfully held on March 4 during the 2018 IEEE Body Sensor Networks (BSN) Conference in Las Vegas. Four faculty members from Texas A&M Construction Science Department (Professors Behzadan, Ahn, Du, and Ham<\/a>) organized and hosted speakers from several universities including the University of Michigan, Northeastern University, and the City University of Hong Kong in this year’s workshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n March 2018<\/strong> – The Departments of Construction Science and Architecture hosted Rick Rundell, Senior Director of Technology Centers at Autodesk. Autodesk Technology Centers (ATCs) consist of facilities in San Francisco, Boston, Toronto, and the UK where Autodesk collaborates with industry, academic, and entrepreneurial communities to speculate, validate and test ideas about the future of making. A multidisciplinary team from Texas A&M University led by Professors Behzadan and Kalantar will travel to Boston later this year for a research residence project in Autodesk’s BUILD Space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n March 2018<\/strong> – The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has selected Ryan Ahn and Eric Du as Outstanding Reviewers for the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. In addition, Youngjib Ham was selected as an Outstanding Reviewer for the Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)<\/b><\/p>\n January 2021 to December 2023<\/span><\/p>\n PI: Youngjib Ham<\/span><\/p>\n This research will advance fundamental knowledge in smart construction.\u00a0 Workers in construction often struggle with the cognitive data overload that emerges when they are required to simultaneously attend to multiple sensory stimuli.\u00a0 To increase performance and reduce work-related stress, this research creates a new sensory system capable of augmenting spatial awareness and performance of workers in construction workplaces.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n\n\n U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)<\/b><\/p>\n October 2020 to September 2023<\/span><\/p>\n Co-PI: Youngjib Ham<\/span><\/p>\n This project develops, refines, and researches cutting-edge affordable cyber-physical systems (CPS) that span both physical and virtual worlds, pushing frontiers in undergraduate education and building theory for STEM education.\u00a0 The human-centric CPS will allow contextualized active learning leveraging embodied cognition, and introduce students to smart infrastructure sensing using smartphones, cameras, and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n\n\n U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)<\/b><\/p>\n October 2020 to September 2023<\/span><\/p>\n Co-PI: Dr. Amir Behzadan<\/span><\/p>\n This project provides new knowledge to remove implicit bias and misconceptions against combat veterans and prepare them for interviewing for civilian positions in the future workforce. This goal is achieved by quantifying measures of moment-to-moment stress based on vocalizations, visual expressions, and physiological reactivity. The resulting personalized training system can assist veterans in effectively engaging with the interviewer and coping with stress during the interview.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n\n\n U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)<\/b><\/p>\n September 2020 to August 2023<\/span><\/p>\n PI: Ryan Ahn<\/span><\/p>\n This research project will construct a virtual reality (VR) training system that detects a trainee’s risk habituation, and provides direct, negative sensory feedback during simulated accidents.\u00a0 In collaboration with Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) Infrastructure Training & Safety Institute, this training system will be evaluated in a series of experiments involving road construction workers, who are repeatedly exposed to struck-by hazards in highway work zones.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n\n\n National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), Transportation Research Board (TRB), National Academy of Science<\/b><\/p>\n July 2020 to March 2022<\/span><\/p>\n PI: David Jeong, Co-PI: Kunhee (KC) Choi<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n This research will identify project-related risks that are associated with significant cost impacts and affect the accuracy of early cost estimates compared to actual construction costs.\u00a0 The research will define contingency factor ranges for significant risks and address how project owners can better track the costs associated with risks to refine these contingency factors as needed and to develop additional factors in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n\n\n U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)<\/b><\/p>\n July 2020 to June 2021<\/span><\/p>\n PI: Youngjib Ham<\/span><\/p>\n This research project is based on the development of the integrated analysis of low-level image features together with high-level semantic models, enabling robust scene understanding and risk prediction in complex environments.\u00a0 The technology automatically encodes the context of potential disaster risk into machine vision algorithms to identify the elements at risk, and assess the degree of vulnerability.\u00a0 Results help reduce the impacts of disasters.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n\n\n U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)<\/b><\/p>\n June 2020 to July 2023<\/span><\/p>\n PI: Kunhee (KC) Choi<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n This research project creates a unified data-driven algorithmic framework for autonomously predicting mobility and safety impacts of highway rehabilitation by harnessing artificial intelligence (AI). The research team proposes three annual Advanced Transportation Infrastructure Informatics Institutes to catalyze an international collaboration where the best infrastructure mobility and safety analysis practices are synergistically integrated in alignment with the NSF Big Ideas of \u2018Harnessing the Data Revolution\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n\n\n Texas Sea Grant (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)<\/b><\/p>\n February 2020 to January 2022<\/span><\/p>\n PI: Amir Behzadan<\/span><\/p>\n This research project augments flood management practices in Texas coastal communities through citizen science, artificial intelligence (AI), decision science, and cyberinfrastructure. The team will develop a mobile app that takes crowdsourced data, calculates flood risk, and estimates floodwater depth at the street-level. Generated data are then incorporated in a CyberGIS spatial decision support system (SDSS) to assist in decision-making.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n\n\n Construction Industry Institute (CII)<\/b><\/p>\n January 2020 to December 2022<\/span><\/p>\n PI: David Jeong<\/span><\/p>\n This research project will investigate whether there is a measurable increase in project success rates using I2PD and other related integrated delivery methods as compared to traditional delivery methods. Findings will confirm whether the findings of CII RT341 are consistent with the actual results obtained from live projects that apply some or all of the principles and methods of I2PD.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n\n\n Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)<\/b><\/p>\n November 2019 to October 2021<\/span><\/p>\n Co-PI: Youngjib Ham<\/span><\/p>\n This research project will address key challenges of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) operations for visual monitoring in suboptimal conditions (e.g., wind, rain, mist, smoke, and ambient lighting). The outcome of this study can provide guidance for UAS flight operations in suboptimal conditions, and recommend settings, procedures and workflows to ensure data quality collected by UAS for highway mapping, bridge inspection, crash site data collection, and real-time traffic monitoring.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n\n\n US Federal Highway Administration (through ICF International, Inc.)<\/b><\/p>\n November 2019 to July 2021<\/span><\/p>\n Co-PI: Phil Lewis<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n The objective of this project is to develop materials and resources to inform and support current and future users of the FHWA’s INVEST tool.\u00a0 The training materials will be developed as a stand-alone semester-long course and will include training modules to provide more opportunities for the INVEST curriculum to be incorporated into multiple course disciplines.\u00a0 Marketing materials will be developed to support outreach to universities and colleges.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n\n\n U.S. Department of Transportation (through the Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health)<\/b><\/p>\nZofia Rybkowski Speaks at TEDx TAMU<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Research article by construction science faculty receives Best Paper Award<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Manish Dixit receives NSF grant to use VR, eye tracking, and EEG data to train the future workforce<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Research article by construction science faculty receives Best Paper Award<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Ryan Ahn receives Texas A&M X Grant<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
COSC hosts researchers from University of Patras<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Several COSC faculty members receive T3 grants<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Amir Behzadan’s AI research showcased at the Center for Infrastructure Renewal (CIR)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Patrick Suermann joins a panel of NSF experts on Antarctica project<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Sarel Lavy receives honorary appointment in the U.K.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Eric Du speaks at TEDx TAMU<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Four construction science faculty members received T3 grants<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Workshop on wearable and mobile computing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Visit by the Senior Director of Autodesk Technology Centers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Three COSC professors selected as 2017 ASCE Outstanding Reviewers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Current Projects and Grants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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