Title: AI-Enabled Digital Twins for Sustainable Infrastructure: Smart Buildings, Heritage Conservation, and Hydropower System
Abstract:
AI-enabled digital twins are dynamic, data-driven virtual representations of physical assets that integrate sensors, IoT systems, real-time monitoring, and advanced analytics to simulate, predict, and optimize infrastructure performance throughout its lifecycle. When combined with Artificial Intelligence, digital twins evolve into intelligent decision-support systems capable of risk forecasting, adaptive learning, and performance optimization. This study explores their application in smart buildings, heritage infrastructure, and hydropower systems. In buildings, AI-driven digital twins enhance energy efficiency, operational resilience, and carbon reduction through predictive maintenance and system optimization. For heritage assets, they support structural health assessment, environmental impact simulation, and minimally invasive conservation strategies. In hydropower infrastructure, digital twins enable real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, optimized water resource management, and improved safety through early warning mechanisms. Overall, AI-enabled digital twins provide a transformative framework for smart and sustainable infrastructure management, promoting resilience, efficiency, and low-carbon development.
Speaker Bio:
Dr Weiwei Chen is an Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction (BSSC), University College London, specialising in Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Digital Twins. She earned her PhD in Civil Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where she was awarded a prestigious postgraduate scholarship. In 2018, Dr Chen expanded her research through an overseas research opportunity at Carnegie Mellon University, supported by a research award. In 2021, she served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Construction Information Technology lab at the University of Cambridge under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship.
Dr Chen's research encompasses key areas such as BIM, Digital Twins, the Internet of Things, 3D Reconstruction, Information Interoperability, Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), and Facility Management across roads, bridges, buildings, and other infrastructure. She currently serves as Deputy Director of Research at the departmental level and contributes to the MSc Digital Engineering Program as Deputy Program Leader at UCL's BSSC. As Principal Investigator, Dr Chen manages three ongoing projects funded by Horizon Europe, UKRI, and UCL.