Month: August 2024

RIIS Hub is very pleased to welcome Audtech as a new industry partner. 

Audtech is an innovative start-up company, operating at the cutting edge of connected data and AI innovation across complex infrastructure system clients. It strives to initiate government and industry change by delivering benefits aligned to the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT), and where new innovation can improve infrastructure performance, stability and recovery following disaster situations.

Making sense of the ‘big data’ from system sensors in a highly complex system is, …complex!

That’s where RIIS Hub research, and our talented team members come in.

We’re very pleased to introduce new RIIS Hub Chief Investigator, Dr Huadong Mo (UNSW Canberra) who will lead the Audtech research collaboration.
Dr Mo’s has a depth of expertise in exploring ways to enhance the resilience, performance and security of complex systems with learning-based algorithms, primarily in the emerging fields of power and energy systems, cyber-physical systems and manufacturing systems.

Previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, and with academic institutions in China and Hong Kong, Dr Mo joined UNSW Canberra 2019. He is currently the convener of the Systems Engineering Discipline under the School of Systems and Computing. His skills and experience in data collection and analysis, revealing patterns of system evolution against uncertainties, is well aligned to addressing Audtech’s focus on urban planning and infrastructure prognostics and health monitoring of other system.

Learn more about Dr Mo here:

We’re also pleased to introduce our Partner Investigator on the collaboration, UNSW alum and infrastructure/climate disaster specialist Dr James Ciyu Qin, from Audtech.

Dr Qin has a research background relating to process control and system optimisation and modelling for large scale systems, including power systems. He specialises in enhancing the resilience, performance and security of complex systems through robust optimisation techniques, and by informing preventive approaches that minimise the risk of system failure, and increase infrastructure resilience.

Learn more about Dr Qin here:

Both will work on the ‘Building resilience to cyber-physical power systems (CPPS) under climate-related disasters’ RIIS Hub project, involving UNSW Canberra and UNSW Sydney team members.
In welcoming Audtech as a new industry partner, as well as new colleagues, RIIS Hub Director Professor Nasser Khalili said, “applying RIIS Hub scientific expertise to help avoid, or better respond to, infrastructure failure when catastrophe happens. I’m especially pleased to be working closely with our academic and industry peers at Audtech to enhance data management and systems, and as a result, better serve and ensure the safety of people in our community”.

An insightful workshop was organized by GRID@UNSW and RIIS in collaboration with the Next-Gen Architectural Manufacturing group at UNSW, delving into the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Deep Learning (DL), and Large Language Models (LLM) for semantic enrichment of geospatial data, intelligent queries and complex analytics.

The session kicked off with and insightful plenary by Rob Atkinson from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), describing Digital Twins as a “systems of systems” connected by OGC APIs to enable cross-domain interoperability and enhance complex problem solving.

The session provided PhD students with a platform to engage in discussions and updates on the latest developments. Presenters highlighted how AI tools are poised to significantly enhance their respective research areas, considering the diverse backgrounds of the attendees. Jack Yafei Sun presented his PhD work exploring information extraction for domain knowledge graph construction and Saeed Heidary presented graph-structured information management systems in construction. Jidnyasa Patil described her Scan-to-BIM DL approach and Yu Gao examined Intelligent lifecycle management of construction and demolition waste in complex environments, focusing on integrating multimodal LLM and agents. Binjie Xu explored the use of multimodal LLM to monitor mental matigue of plant and machinery operators and Mahdi Soheyil Fard discussed AI-integrated solutions for decarbonizing the building industry.

For those interested in more details, the presentations can be accessed at grid.unsw.edu.au/presentations.

Presenter	Title	Video Link
Rob Atkinson (OGC)	Building blocks for digital twins	https://youtu.be/OqMko40ju4Y
Jack Yafei Sun	Information Extraction for Domain Knowledge Graph Construction (a tunnel maintenance use case)	https://youtu.be/rAyjs0oW70E
Saeed Heidary	Graph-Structured Information Management System in Construction	https://youtu.be/Nl8ge_Hbaa
Jidnyasa Patil	Scan-to-BIM: A DL approach	https://youtu.be/o_92ytyxKV8
Yu Gao:	Lifecycle management of construction and demolition waste: Integrating Multimodal LLM and agents	https://youtu.be/M_rV5SqFiLA
Binjie Xu:	Use of Multimodal LLM to monitor mental fatigue of plant and machinery operators	https://youtu.be/CKcUe7naarg
Mahdi Soheyil Fard	AI-integrated solutions for decarbonizing the building Industry (a problem statement)	https://youtu.be/ihzS5o9yykU
Discussion		https://youtu.be/8CtmVRBgibM

 

PhD student Saeed Khalaj is part way through a three-month internship with Sydney-based Covaris, a leading engineering and technology consultancy which works with clients to solve maintenance engineering and asset management challenges.

A self described ‘ knowledge company’, generating innovation through applied and fundamental research, the Covaris internship opportunity is the result of the relationship forged by membership of The Asset Institute. The Asset Institute is also a RIIS Hub industry partner.

Introducing RIIS Hub Higher Degree Research student Saeed Khalaj

• Based in RIIS Hub’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT) node, as part of Prof Tommy Chan’s team. Saeed began his PhD at the school of Mechanical, Medical, and Process Engineering, QUT in December 2022. His academic qualifications span Civil and Geotechnical Engineering. He published six papers in peer-reviewed journals that were cited 129 times in Google Scholar.
• Saeed’s thesis topic is ‘Degradation Modelling and Maintenance Strategies for Railway Surface Defects Through a Machine Learning Approach’. This research project aims to combine machine learning approaches and engineering knowledge to develop a degradation model quantifying uncertainty sources, which will result in optimal maintenance and inspection strategies for railway track surfaces.
• Saeed has presented different levels of his Ph.D. project progress in symposiums and was awarded the HDR Excellence award at the School of Mechanical, Medical, and Process Engineering, QUT, in November 2023.

All aboard!: Saeed shares internship insights

• The internship at Covaris is allowing me to work closely with the Covaris team in Sydney, specifically with its data science group. After performing literature surveys to investigate failure modes and inspection techniques in renewable energy, I am developing models to predict fault arrivals due to different system conditions.
• Key learnings so far: Working with real-world data is challenging! However, the collaborative environment at Covaris really helps us all to work as a team to better understand and address challenges, and deliver meaningful insights and results. Although we are working with industrial datasets, taking into account the engineering perspective to analyse the results is crucial at Covaris. This leads to delivering meaningful and practical solutions for the clients.

Some of the innovative solutions to keep data insights ‘on track’

Saeed has been very involved in the development of the Bayesian statistics capability at Covaris, and is applying it to two client case studies covering fixed plant and mobile fleet.

• Group meetings with the Covaris’ data team and industry experts are important- the ideas sharing has helped solve some of the data challenges we initially faced. Happily, ‘unstructured’ data and limited access to plant expertise are no longer barriers to research progress.
• Where raw data sources to inform the research were challenging, we implemented a Bayesian statistics approach (a theory in the field of statistics based on the Bayesian interpretation of probability, where probability expresses a degree of belief in an event) to test correlations and drivers of reactive maintenance.

RIIS Hub: delivering on wide-ranging education and training experiences

RIIS Hub is training to a cohort of highly competent and motivated professionals through research and development programs, carried out in partnership with participants from all sectors of the infrastructure industry. Internships are a part of this approach, and enable RIIS Hub research insights and practical solutions to directly address infrastructure challenges facing industry. Internships also enable researchers to experience ‘real world’ research and development (R&D) activities related to their research.

Prof. Nasser Khalili, RIIS Hub Director, is pleased that the Asset Institute membership is already connecting RIIS researchers to a community of research, industry and infrastructure/asset management experts, and spurring student learning opportunities.

“There is real value to being immersed in a working environment, with all of its very unique opportunities and challenges. It allows students to stretch their experiences and apply their knowledge to solve asset management and infrastructure problems, as well as build close connections with industry.

About Covaris

• Covaris (Australia) delivers asset management solutions to Australia and the world. Its clients reflect a range of areas including asset systems establishment, asset systems renewal, auditing and assessment, policies and standards, training and education, new technologies and software, and research projects to solve complex problems.
• Based in Sydney, it applies practical and fundamental research to develop innovation to support their clients to optimise cost, risk and performance as they manage their assets.

Covaris Managing Director Bob Platfoot recently shared that Covaris’ primary goal, since the company’s inception more than 24 years ago, is, “to help organisations and people in the discipline of asset management”.

Saeed’s internship experience certainly delivers on this, and we thank Covaris, and the Asset Institute, for their highly collaborative approach.