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Léon van Berlo is an Architectural Engineer and a highly accomplished entrepreneur with extensive experience in the construction industry, Building Information Modelling (BIM), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). With a foundation in carpentry and architectural engineering, Léon has cultivated a diverse skill set that spans various fields.

From a young age, Léon displayed an entrepreneurial spirit, initiating ventures in industries ranging from bicycle brands to publishing companies. Simultaneously, he pursued a career in construction, focusing on the use of automation to improve industry processes. His expertise in collaborative design and engineering allowed him to make significant advancements in his field. While working at the Dutch national innovation institute, Léon identified the potential of open-source solutions for the construction sector. As a result, he spearheaded the development of the open-source BIM server initiative, which has since made a considerable impact on the industry. Additionally, Léon has published numerous tools, papers, and articles on digitalisation and automation, further solidifying his position as an industry expert.

Throughout his career, Léon has actively contributed to the development of open standards in both BIM and GIS. His dedication to collaboration and sharing knowledge has helped shape the way these sectors operate today. In 2019, Léon joined buildingSMART International, a leading organisation  in the promotion of open standards for BIM, as their Technical Director. In this role, he continues to drive advancements in automation, helping the construction industry become more productive, efficient, and sustainable.

Léon van Berlo's achievements showcase his passion for the construction industry, and his expertise in automation, BIM, and GIS has significantly impacted the sector. As a thought leader and industry influencer, Léon continues to make waves with his cutting-edge insights and innovative solutions.

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Prof. Bock's research activities center since 45 years on robotic construction as design, prefabrication, on site robotics, robotic building maintenance and recycling. His notion of robotic ambience empower elderly for independent life, work and mobility. He studied at the University of Stuttgart, IIT in Chicago and the University of Tokyo. At the CNRS in France he established first European construction robotics commission in Europe. In 1989 he became professor for automation in construction management at the civil engineering faculty of Karlsruhe University before becoming chair professor for building realization and robotics in 1997 at TU Munich. He is the cofounder and director of IAARC, Asian Habitat Society etc. and advices international ministries and academies. In 2017 he obtained the DFG Seibold award for 45 years pioneering research in construction robotics. He co/authored about 535 articles in English, French, Japanese, Russian and German and holds various honorary professorships, doctorship, fellowship, visiting and special assigned professorships, is involved in editing several journals “Automation in Construction”, “Innovation in Construction”, “Construction Robotics” etc., publishes the world wide first book series on “Construction Robotics” with Cambridge University Press since 2015 and edits a special edition on active healthy aging at Journal of Population Aging of Oxford University Press in spring 2020. 

Visit Prof. Bock's homepage at www.rod.de to explore his extensive contributions to the field of construction robotics and automation.

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Robotics and Digital Twins

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Pending

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Dr. Renate Fruchter is the founding director of the Project Based Learning Laboratory (PBL Lab), lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Senior Research Engineer thrust leader of “Collaboration Technologies” at the Center for Integrated Facilities Engineering (CIFE), at Stanford. She received her Civil Engineering Diploma from the Institute for Civil Engineering, Bucharest, Romania. She received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Her R&D focuses on collaboration technologies in support of cross-disciplinary, geographically distributed teamwork in education and corporate settings. Over the years her research team developed and deployed innovative collaboration technologies for virtual team building, synchronous and asynchronous knowledge capture, sharing and re-use, project memory, corporate memory, and mobile solutions for global teamwork and e-Learning. She is a designer of physical and virtual interactive learning and workspaces. She studies the relation between technology-people-place-process. These studies focus on the impact of technology on learning, engagement, knowledge work productivity, emergent work practices and processes, team dynamics, and assessment. She is the developer of the innovative "Architecture, Engineering, Construction (AEC) Global Teamwork" course launched in 1993 engaging university and industry partners worldwide. Her latest projects focus on: (1) big data analytics and visualization towards harmonizing occupant well-being and building sustainable performance; and (2) accelerating creativity and engagement in global teamwork through VR, AI, and parametric modeling.

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Timo is intrigued by the working processes of construction, engineering, and architectural professionals and how they design the complex engineering systems that keep our societies ticking, moving, and thriving. While he is in awe of how engineers are able to deal with the complexity of their designs, he tries to provide managerial and technical solutions that improve how they work. He believes in the digitalization of the industry in the sense that computational tools have the potential to allow engineers to design significantly different than they were able before – individually, but more importantly together in integrated engineering efforts. To develop such tools, it is important to consider both technical and social factors working in close collaboration with practitioners.

Timo received a Ph.D. from Stanford University where he was a student at the Center for Integrated Facility Management. His work has been published in Advanced Engineering Informatics, the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Building Research and Information, Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, Design Studies, or ITCON. He is the handling editor of Advanced Engineering Informatics where we explore the science of engineering knowledge formulation with computational methods and Engineering, Construction, and Architectural Management where we would like to explore how to best manage collaborative and integrated engineering projects.

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AI and Knowledge Engineering

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Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Manfred Krafczyk is a renowned professor and head of the Institute for Computational Modeling in Civil Engineering at TU Braunschweig in Germany. He started his academic journey with a Physics Diploma from TU Dortmund in 1991 and earned his Ph.D. in Engineering in 1995. He became a professor after completing his professorial thesis at TU München in 2001.

Prof. Krafczyk has had a significant career in academia. He began with a scholarship from Siemens AG, followed by a postdoctoral position at TU Dortmund. He then worked as an Assistant Professor at TU München before his current role at TU Braunschweig starting in 2001.

As a respected figure in the scientific community, Prof. Krafczyk's insights into complex fluid dynamics and engineering simulations are invaluable. His work paves the way for innovative approaches in various engineering applications, from building energy simulation to biomedical flow modeling.

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Robotics and Digital Twins

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Professor Ma Zhiliang, a prominent academic in the field of civil engineering, currently holds the prestigious position of Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at Tsinghua University's Department of Civil Engineering. His journey in academia began with a Bachelor of Engineering from Tsinghua University (1981-1986), followed by postgraduate studies in Japan at Nagoya University, where he earned a Master's (1987-1989) and a Doctorate (1989-1992) in Engineering.

Prof. Ma's career has been marked by significant contributions to the field of civil engineering, especially in the realms of Building Information Modelling (BIM), Intelligent Construction Technology, and Information Management in Construction Enterprises. His academic prowess is evident in the range of courses he has taught, spanning both undergraduate and graduate levels, with a focus on Civil Engineering CAD Technology, Engineering Computer-Aided Design, and Object-Oriented Design Methods.

An influential figure in his field, Prof. Ma has been involved in numerous pivotal research projects, including several focusing on BIM applications for prefabricated concrete buildings and the advancement of construction automation technologies. His work in these areas has not only enriched academic discourse but also significantly impacted practical methodologies in civil engineering. Prof. Ma's dedication to education and research continues to shape the future of civil engineering technology and practices.

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Ardeshir Mahdavi is an internationally recognized authority in Building Science. He conducts research in building physics, building ecology, computational building modelling, and human ecology. Prior to his current affiliation at the Faculty of Civil Engineering Sciences, Graz University of Technology, professor Mahdavi held positions at the Carnegie Mellon University, Technical University of Vienna, and National University of Singapore. Professor Mahdavi has published over 700 scientific papers and has supervised over 65 doctoral students. Professor Mahdavi is a frequent keynote speaker at international scientific conferences. He is the recipient of the prestigious IBPSA Distinguished Achievements Awards.

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Translantic Perspectives

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Prof. Gerhard Schmitt is Professor emeritus of Information Architecture at ETH Zurich and Founding Director of the Singapore-ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability. From 2008 to 2017 he was Senior Vice President for ETH Global. As Vice President Planning and Logistics and member of the ETH Board from 1998 to 2008, he initiated the projects ETH World, Neptun, Science City and the Singapore-ETH Centre. Between 1992 and 1998, Gerhard Schmitt was Professor of Architecture and Computer Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) at ETH Zurich. His research and teaching areas are Cooling Cities, Citizen Design Science, Responsive Cities, the simulation and visualization of cities, and spatially distributed collaborative design in massive open online courses. He was born in Mainz in 1953 and received his Dipl.- Ing. degree in Architecture from TU Munich. After studying at the University of California in Los Angeles and Berkeley, he graduated as a Master of Architecture in 1981. He completed his doctorate at the Technical University of Munich in 1983 on the topic of energy and architecture; taking into account computer simulations as decision-making aids in the design process. Following a one-year research and teaching stay at the University of Manitoba in Canada, he became Assistant Professor in 1984 and Associate Professor of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1987. After moving to ETH Zurich in 1988, he started with the development of systematic CAAD research, teaching and infrastructure. In research, he led Swiss National Science projects in artificial design intelligence and computer-aided communication to create intelligent design aids. In cooperation with industry and practice, he and his team created programs for graphical learning systems and integrated simulations of new buildings. From 1989-1996 he headed the Computer Science Commission of ETH Zurich. He was visiting professor at Harvard University, TU Delft and Leuven. In 1994, he was elected Dean of the ETH department of architecture. He presided the Swiss Computer Graphics Association and became chairman of the visiting committee of the Graduate School of Design of Harvard University from 2004 to 2007. From 2010 to 2015, he led the Simulation Platform at the ETH Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, starting in 2015 the Responsive Cities Scenario and in 2018 the Cooling Singapore Project.

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Dr. Žiga Turk (1962) is Professor in Construction Informatics and Documentation and Vice-Dean at the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering at the University of Ljubljana. Originally a structural engineer, he has M.Sc. in computer science and PhD in technical sciences.

His academic interests include construction informatics, construction information technology, computer integrated construction, sustainable construction, theoretical basis of process and product modelling and building information management (BIM), engineering communication and the related aspects of technology and philosophy. He studies modern forms of learning, knowledge transfer, internet science and responsible researching. He published over 50 papers in scientific journals, delivered 20 keynote and invited lectures and over 140 reviewed conference papers.

He had an important role in eight EU framework projects. He is the founding editor of international scientific journal ITcon, Associate Editor of Automation in Construction and editorial board member of a few other international journals. In his public duties he was twice minister in the Government of Slovenia, Secretary General of the Reflection Group on the Future of Europe at the European Council, carried out an interim evaluation of Framework 7 and Horizon 2020 Programme and chaired a High Level Group about the future of European academic networking (GEANT).

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European Research

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Dr. Alain Zarli is Managing Partner at R2M Solution and Secretary General of ECTP, the European Construction Technology Platform. He was formerly Head of the “Innovation Numérique pour la Construction” division at the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB) in the “Technologies de l’Information et Diffusion du Savoir” department (Sophia-Antipolis - FRANCE), and European Affairs manager in CSTB.

His main fields of interest are Information and Communication Technologies (including programming languages and compilation, semantic modelling, rule-based languages and knowledge-based systems, distributed architectures, software components, and technologies for smart constructions) and their broad application to the Built environment and the Construction industry, in particular BIM and Digital Twin technologies. He has been the Project Coordinator of various European collaborative FP5, FP6, FP7 and H2020 projects.

He is in support since a long time of ECTP initiatives (the E2B cPPP, the “Energy & Efficient Buildings”, “Active Ageing & Design”, “Infrastructures & Mobility” and “Digital Built Environment” Committees) in roadmapping and impact assessment, and is now responsible of the Built4People Partnership under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme too. He has been acting as expert for the review of various European R&D projects on behalf of the European Commission and has been participating in the European Commission Advisory group for ICT Infrastructure for energy-efficient buildings and neighbourhoods for carbon-neutral cities. He has been acting as leader of the “Open Data” Action Group in the European Innovation Partnership Smart Cities and Communities (EIP SCC), and has contributed as expert to the EIP SCC Operational Implementation Plan, in particular in the “Sustainable District and Built Environment” Action Cluster. He is the organiser and board member of various conferences in the past and present, including IEEE/ICE, CIB W78, ECPPM, as well as the series of ECTP conferences.

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European Research

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