Our newest member to our RIIS hub is Amir Fila.
Amir will be supervised by Associate Professor Jagannath Aryal and Professor Abbas Rajabifard and working closely with our Industry partner Woolpert.
A
mir’s thesis topic is “Investigating advanced methods for point cloud segmentation and processing to support near-real-time infrastructure and asset modelling, management, maintenance, and resilience.”
More on Amir can be found here
The International Association for Structural Control and Monitoring (IASCM) accelerates the advancement of the science and practice of structural control and monitoring. Its Board comprises 17 academic leaders from around the world, representing academic institutions contributing to advancing civil infrastructure systems in the USA, Japan, Europe, Chine, Korea, India and Australasia.
RIIS Hub Lead Investigator Professor Bijan Samali, Western Sydney University, is a Board Member representing the IASCM Australasia Panel.
During a recent update, Professor Samali’s highlighted RIIS Hub’s research to the Board, overviewed its five research themes and explained the Hub’s role in transforming advanced manufacturing, service and infrastructure engineering in Australia.
In doing so, Professor Samali further establishes RIIS Hub research and achievements as among the best in class in Australasia, and the world when it comes to advancing technologies that can accurately measure, monitor, control and predict structural behaviour, as well as improve the safety and durability of civil infrastructure and systems.
During his address, Professor Samali gave particular attention to RIIS innovation in the area of structural health monitoring, with a focus on RIIS Hub Research Theme 4: Infrastructure Health Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance.
The sub-theme covers the development of new, automated data-extraction and real time performance evaluation methods to monitor external loads, along with the development innovative techniques to predict the structural response of infrastructure and large complex structures. This closely aligns with the IASCM’s charter to find solutions that address the ‘wide ranging challenges associated with highly complex, large-scale civil structures’ in the USA and beyond.
The international recognition that comes as a result elevates the awareness and recognition of RIIS Hub science and engineering achievements among academics and institutions, as well as opening the door to closer engagement with the wider IASCM membership, which represents a diverse and interdisciplinary community of researchers engaged in advancing the state-of-art in structural control and monitoring technologies.
Professor Samali is passionate about improving building safety for the well-being of people and communities, adding after the address: “We need resilient buildings. Earthquakes do not kill people, buildings do!”.
Learn more about Professor Bijan Samali and his wide-ranging scientific and engineering achievements: https://riis.org.au/people/bijan-samali/
USA: University of Michigan, University of Southern California, Columbia University
UK: University of Sheffield
Switzerland: ETH Zürich
Poland: Institute of Fundamental Technological Research
Ethiopia: Addis Abba University
India: Indian Institute of Science
Mainland China: Harbin Institute of Technology
Hong Kong: Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Japan: University of Tokyo, Kyoto University
South Korea: Seoul National University
Singapore: National University of Singapore
Australia: Western Sydney University
RIIS Hub’s research and insights – related to improving the resilience of Australia’s Road and Rail infrastructure – reached a global audience at the 8th International Conference on Road and Rail Infrastructure conference in Croatia (CETRA 2024).
CETRA 2024 is a forum for connecting scientific and industry representatives, enabling discussion, dialogue and the exchange of ideas to solve issues associated with the road and rail sector.
Professor Nasser Khalili, RIIS Hub Director, gave the Keynote lecture, providing insights associated with developing ‘A Constitutive Model for Hydro-Mechanical Analysis of Granular Materials Subject to Cyclic Loading’.
The CETRA conference has established itself as a venue where scientific and professional information from the field of road and rail infrastructure is exchanged. The idea on linking research organisations and economic operators has been the guiding concept for the realisation of this conference. Conferences of this kind are undoubtedly a proper place for bringing closer together the economy and university operators, and for facilitating communication and establishing greater confidence that might result in cooperation on new projects, especially those that contribute to greater competition. Lectures organised in the scope of the conference are based on interesting technical solutions and on new knowledge from the field of transport infrastructure as gained on already realised projects, projects currently at the planning stage, and those now under construction, in all parts of the world. In addition to authors from the academic community, lectures were also presented by practical authors, the idea being to ensure the best possible synergy between the theory and practice.
Although the transport needs of nations around the world differ in detail, there is much benefit to be derived by sharing research findings and practical experience. CETRA Conference aims to provide a forum for dialogue on important issues across all disciplines and aspects of the road and rail sectors. The main gaps to be filled are those between researchers and practitioners in design, construction, maintenance, and management of transport infrastructure systems, especially regarding an increased need for sustainable and resilient transport systems – with minimum environmental impacts and able to withstand disruption and absorb disturbance by adapting to changing conditions, including climate change. CETRA 2024 attracted many papers and presentations from 39 countries and 136 institutions (from that 64 universities). More than 149 papers (from 208 submitted) were presented at the conference and are grouped together in the proceedings entitled Road and Rail Infrastructure Viii. The papers are conveniently divided into twelve chapters and one chapter regarding PhD students with extended abstracts.
Mahdi Zakerzadeh also had his paper “Experimental Investigation on the Effect of Crumb Rubber on the Mechanical Behaviour of Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA)” accepted for presentation to the program on Day 3 Friday 17th June supported by his Supervisor Dr Babak Shahbodagh
The utilisation of crumb rubber through a dry process addresses the challenges of tyre recycling and promotes environmental sustainability. This study aimed to investigate the mechanical behaviour of the Crumb Rubber Stone Mastic Asphalt (CR-SMA) mixture. The response surface methodology (RSM) is adopted to explore the impact of independent variables, such as binder content, Crumb Rubber (CR) content, processing time, and CR size, on the variables controlling the mechanical response of the mixture. To comprehensively evaluate the data, the moisture susceptibility, resilient modulus, and fracture energy of the asphalt mixtures are studied using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The study successfully achieved an optimum CR-SMA mixture design by enhancing resistance to moisture damage, resilient modulus, and fracture energy, contributing to an improved understanding of the mechanical performance criteria. A quadratic polynomial model aligned with experimental results is proposed, providing reliable predictions of the material performance with an acceptable level of accuracy. These findings offer a valuable roadmap for future strategies in construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation, particularly within the domain of rubberised SMA pavements. Keywords: Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA), Recycled tyre rubber, Response Surface Methodology (RSM), Dry-process, Rubberised asphalt mixture.
This special session is organised to encourage PhD students to present their work to colleagues from the scientific and professional sectors. It provides an excellent opportunity for students to share their research ideas and methodologies with other students, to receive comments from experts from other fields of research, and to connect to a network that can be of great help to their profession. Session chairmen will be carefully selected to provide students support, guidance and advice in their research efforts.
On 28th MArch 2024, GRID@UNSW and RIIS in cooperation with ISPRS Student Consortium convened DIGITAL TWINS WORKSHOP: 3D SPATIAL CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES. Researchers from Europe and Australia shared the lessons learned and elaborated on innovative solutions.
The online stream attracted over 230 registrations from over 50 countries – we thank those who joined in the middle of the night on the other side of the world, and for those who missed the proceedings we have provided online access to the presentations.
We are pleased to share the rich discussions and the presentations from the workshop here in the attached document and a playlist of the workshop can be accessed on YouTube.
Here are the individual presentations:
Once again, thanks for joining us for the workshop and contributing to the discussions.
For upcoming events, please follow RIIS, UNSW@GRID, and ISPRS Student Consortium
A year after formation, the RIIS Hub team has gathered in person in Sydney to share milestone progress across the Hub’s five Research Themes and supporting projects.
Opening the event, RIIS Hub Director Professor Nasser Khalili welcomed team members from UNSW Sydney, University of Western Sydney, QUT, University of Melbourne at this first in-person gathering of the growing team, and set the scene for the project updates that followed.
“We are firing on all cylinders, with ninety percent of RIIS Hub projects having started, or about to start, with the support of 22 world-leading professors, 4 post-doctoral fellows, 19 PhD students, multiple partners and the support and collaboration of many others,” Prof. Khalili shared.
Industry partners play a key role in ensuring RIIS Hub projects directly address and solve pressing infrastructure maintenance and industry health and safety challenges, and many were represented in person in the room, or joined via video link. Prof. Khalili encouraging industry that if a research project could benefit an organisation, or people have an interest or ideas for a project presented, to “let us know”, and that their involvement would be “wonderful”.
Throughout the day, RIIS research hub members shared the progress status of projects and research underway or at scoping stage; starting with the problem to be solved, and the potential of science and innovation to transform advanced manufacturing, service, and infrastructure engineering in Australia.
The collaborative, future-focused environment, unique to RIIS Hub was on full display, with the event enabling many team members to meet in person for the first time or reconnect in a dynamic forum for information sharing and learning.
Dr Binghao Li (UNSW) alluded to the RIIS Hub purpose by explaining that teams were working towards, “productive, connected, sustainable and smart infrastructure solutions”.
Also attended by industry partners, the event elevated multiple key challenges being addressed by RIIS associated with maintaining and improving wide-ranging public infrastructure in Australia.
‘Thinking big’ with the audience of science and industry innovators, Professor Wei Gao challenged and reminded that “brave ideas” from the team and partners will improve our world.
Projects overviewed, speed-dating style, were wide-reaching and inherently practical. Topics being addressed by research and system evolution covered corrosion, cleaning and maintenance solutions for infrastructure, along predictive structural integrity solutions and challenges, as well as new ways to address issues associated with aging and/or water-based environments for bridges, buildings, pylons and transport systems. Better health and safety solutions for people working on mine sites were overviewed, as well as new ways to deliver cost- and energy-efficiency to workplaces and homes based on sensor collectors and smarter energy and time-saving solutions and other smart systems.
Multiple RIIS Hub projects harness intelligent systems. The application of cutting edge innovation, including nano sensors, automation, predictive computational modelling, computer generated 3D and enhanced imagery, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are a feature of many projects, and Prof. Khalili warmly introduced Dr Mohsen Mousavi on the day as the Hub’s “AI guru”.
Chief Investigator Dr Babak Shahbodagh (UNSW) shared that data and physics is informing testing models of some AI frameworks, and that ‘real world’ data is training the system along with complex science, thereby making them “more efficient than existing systems”, and hinting at the computational complexity behind the early advances.
Fundamental scientific discoveries made in some projects will be able to be applied and leveraged in others, as the information is widely shared across Hub researchers, teams and Research Themes.
A presentation featuring industry partner representative James Linke, Director, Financial Manager, Chief Controller of GEOAI, about how they are working with RIIS researchers on a landmark 
(airport infrastructure) project in Australia was a highlight of the day. Research discovery and application, partner collaborations and client/commercial perspectives was shared as a case study with a ‘win-win-win’ outcome across multiple stakeholders. Closing the session, Mr Linke thanked RIIS team “for a great opportunity to be part of something that’s going to change the industry”.
The value of the collective idea sharing and digging deep into the science in-person was apparent during highly engaging Q&A sessions, especially on the ‘hot topic’ of ‘digital twinning’. RIIS Hub may be able to shape a consistent definition in a fast-moving technology-driven landscape.
Theme overviews follow, noting more information about RIIS Hub, our team, partners and research can be found on our website: www.riis.org.au.
Theme 1 https://riis.org.au/research/ubiquitous-sensing-intelligent-and-adaptive-systems/
Theme 2 https://riis.org.au/research/data-collection-security-and-integration/
Theme 3 https://riis.org.au/research/modelling-simulations-and-prognostics/
Theme 4 https://riis.org.au/research/infrastructure-health-monitoring-and-predictive-maintenance/
Theme 5 https://riis.org.au/research/spatial-data-infrastructures-digital-twin-and-decision-support/
FINAL 14th March Combined Presentation PART 1
FINAL 14th March Combined Presentation PART 2
RIIS Event Photographer – Sina Akhyani
In celebration of World Engineering Day on 4 March, I would like to share my experience studying and working in the Engineering Field for the past 6 years of my career.
Since embarking on my career in Engineering, I have found myself continuously learning concepts and fundamentals. Through creativity and innovation, I have been able to apply these principles to solve critical problems. I chose to be an engineer because, regardless of specialization, I believe we impact society and shape the world around us.
As an engineer working across multiple disciplines, my focus at the RIIS hub is translating fundamental knowledge on nanotechnology-enabled sensors for monitoring mine health and safety. The outcome of this project is expected to have significant implications for safer mining and establishing more technologically advanced settings in the mining environment.
By leveraging engineers’ skills and their innovation, I believe Australia can future-proof its urban, resource, and energy infrastructure while advancing sustainability goals and ensuring a prosperous and resilient future for generations to come. In this context, engineers are making critical contributions in Australia’s sustainable growth within a range of disciplines such as renewable energy solutions, water management, conservation, transportation infrastructure, and resilient infrastructure design.
In a key description, I would define sustainability as the forward-moving pursuit of prosperity for both present and future generations, achieved through the harmonious integration of environmental preservation, economic vitality, and societal well-being.
Specific to my project in RIIS hub, we aim to improve sustainable growth mining sector by advancing occupational health and safety monitoring technologies. Currently, there are several nanosensors under development in our laboratories for sensing critical gases in the mining industry, specifically for health and safety monitoring of mining workers.
Active engagement with industry has provided me with a deeper understanding of real-world challenges and the necessity to develop innovative solutions that meet industry needs in a sustainable and cost-effective manner.
Interdisciplinary collaboration and extensive teamwork are key components of most engineering endeavors, which many people might not be aware of. This fosters creativity and innovation, enriching engineers’ experience and knowledge.
UNSW RIIS student Sana Shahoveisi was awarded the prestigious Steven Prize for the best paper at the 6th Australasian Conference of Computational Mechanics (ACCM-2023). ACCM provides an international platform for the exchange and dissemination of recent findings on a diverse range of advanced topics within Computational Mechanics. The 6th ACCM took place in Melbourne, Australia, in December 2023.
Sana delivered a presentation on her computational framework addressing the critical issues of modelling flaws and defect propagation, with a specific emphasis on fracturing in porous media. The paper titled “Hydro-Mechanical Fully Coupled Phase-Field Modelling of Fracture in Porous Media” provides a comprehensive study for simulating dynamic fractures. The focus is on addressing the challenges associated with crack width estimation in this context. The model is able to capture dynamic crack propagation by incorporating the kinetic energy in the coupled hydro-mechanical-damage equations. This research contributes to advancing our understanding of fractures in porous media through a comprehensive and innovative approach. 
This research has been conducted under the supervision of Lead CI Professor Nasser Khalili, CI Babak Shahbodagh, CI Mohammad Vahab, and Dr Sascha Eisenträger
The 15th Workshop was a great success! It was held from 23rd to 24th November 2023, at Townsville and hosted by Rockfield Technologies and James Cook University (JCU). Many thanks for the organising committee led by Dr Govinda Pandey, CEO of Rockfield Technologies as the Chair and A/Prof Rabin Tuladhar as the Co-chair. DBI and EngAnalysis were Gold Sponsors and Monash University were Silver Sponsors of the Workshop.
The theme of the 15th ANSHM Workshop was Infrastructure Digitisation for Net Zero Transition with Day 1 as The Smart Infrastructure Summit 2023 and the 2nd Day as ANSHM Workshop. Dr Govinda Pandey, the Chair of the 15th ANSHM Workshop made the following statement which summarised well the success of these two days of event:
The summit successfully brought together Australia’s leading thought leaders, researchers, service providers, and key users of infrastructure monitoring technologies. With over 120 delegates representing more than 30 organisations in attendance, including nearly 50 participants who travelled from various parts of the country to Townsville, the event’s substantial turnout underscores its significance and relevance. The key highlight of the event is the resounding emphasis throughout the summit on the pivotal role that technology can and must play in ensuring a decarbonised future.
On Day 1, the Workshop was opened with the Welcoming Speeches by Cr Jenny Hill, Mayor of Townsville City Council and Prof Jenny Seddon, Deputy CV Research of JCU and Professor Tommy Chan (Lead CI RIIS Hub Executive) whose speech served partly as a welcoming speech by introducing ANSHM gave his visions and directions for SHM and ANSHM.
Keynote Speakers:
All the presentations were very insightful covering SHM applications to roads, houses, buildings, ports and energy infrastructure and the views of the speakers on how SHM could help achieve Net Zero in 2050.
There were two panel discussions on the first day with details as follows:
Panel Discussion 1: Navigating Asset Management Challenges with Ageing Infrastructure: Opportunities and Barriers in Embracing Transformative Digital Technologies
Panellists: Nigel Powers (ARRB) / Dr Torill Pape (TMR) / Peter Prasad (ARTC) / Kathy Noonan (Energy Queensland)
Facilitator: Prof Jianchun Li (UTS)
Panel Discussion 2: Collaboration Catalyst: Bridging Gaps and Overcoming Barriers.
Pitches on Industry by Dr Torill Pape (TMR) and Bill Weston (Queensland Rail) 
Towards a Purposeful Industry-University-Government Collaboration
Panellists: Prof Hong Guan (Griffith) / Mario Martini (CSIRO) / Dr Denise Hodge (JourneyTech) / Greg Bruce (Townsville City Council)
Facilitator: Dr Ulrike Dackermann
The two panel discussions gave many insights for both the University and Industry attendees for collaboration oppertunities to deal with practical issues on asset management using SHM technologies.
Day 2, Prof Ron White, Dean – College of Science and Engineering gave the welcome speech. Keynote Session, presented by the following Keynote Speakers:
Followed by a panel discussion:
Panellists: Dr Robert J Heywood (TMR), A/Prof. Colin Caprani (Monash), Dr David Lo Jacono (Jacobs), Dr Desiree Nortje (Transurban)
Facilitator: Dr Govinda Pandey
After the Keynote Session, there was the traditional workshop presentations (24) arranged into two parallel sessions.
Please click the link for the event booklet giving you more details on the 15th ANSHM Workshop, serving as a memento of the memorable summit for those who attended the Summit, and serving as an information booklet for those who had not attended.
Ensiyeh Javaherian Pour was honoured as the runner-up in the Three-Minute Thesis presentation at the Information Resilience Ph.D. School, a two-day event held at the University of Melbourne from October 30th to 31st. This event was organised by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIRES), Australian Research Council (ARC) (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centre. Ensiyeh is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration (CSDILA) at the University of Melbourne, under the supervision of Dr. Behnam Atazadeh, Prof. Abbas Rajabifard, and Dr. Soheil Sabri, as part of the ARC Research Hub for Resilient and Intelligent Infrastructure Systems (RIIS)
Masoud Kamali was recognized as a runner-up in the data literacy competition during the two-day Information Resilience Ph.D. School held at the University of Melbourne from October 30 to 31. This event was hosted by the Centre for Information Resilience), an Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centre. Currently, Masoud is pursuing his PhD at the University of Melbourne in the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration (CSDILA). He is supervised by Dr. Behnam Atazadeh, Dr. Yiqun (Benny) Chen, and Prof. Abbas Rajabifard, as part of the ARC Research Hub for Resilient and Intelligent Infrastructure Systems (RIIS)
