Research

My research applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to civil and structural engineering, with a focus on building intelligent, data-driven systems for monitoring and protecting infrastructure.

Research interests

• Agentic AI & large language models for autonomous infrastructure monitoring
• Vision-based structural health monitoring — damage detection, displacement measurement, semantic segmentation
• Data-driven structural dynamics & blast simulation with graph neural networks and Transformers
• Infrastructure digital twins from UAV imagery, sensing, and FEM
• ML surrogate modelling for high-fidelity engineering simulation and design optimisation
• Graph & diffusion learning — clustering, affinity learning, anomaly detection

Grants

As Chief Investigator I have secured nearly A$2 million in competitive research funding.

• ARC DECRA — Next-Generation Agentic AI System for Intelligent Infrastructure Monitoring — DECRA Fellow (sole Chief Investigator), 2026–2028 — A$510,000
• National Road Safety Action Grant (Dept. of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts) — AI-Assisted Design of Sustainable Road Barriers for Improved Road Safety — Chief Investigator, 2025–2027 — A$641,436
• ARC Linkage Grant — Damage Detection and Quantification using Infrastructure Digital Twins — Chief Investigator, 2024–2027 — A$415,380
• CSIRO Next Generation AI Graduate Program (with WA Police) — Effective and Ethical Use of AI and Data Science in Law Enforcement — Lead Chief Investigator, 2025–2029 — A$350,000
• Curtin Trailblazer EMCR Grant — AI-Empowered Multi-Modality Digital Twin for Reclaimers — Lead Chief Investigator, 2025–2026 — A$20,000

Awards & honors

• 2026 — ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), Australian Research Council
• 2025 — Curtin Trailblazer Early-Career Researcher (EMCR) Grant
• 2024 — Curtin Academy iSoLT Teaching Innovation Grant
• 2023 — Third Prize, 3rd International Competition for Structural Health Monitoring (IC-SHM 2022), among 70+ global teams
• 2020 — Chancellor’s Commendation, PhD graduation, Curtin University
• 2017 — Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, Curtin University
• 2016 — MPhil Graduation Commendation, Department of Computing, Curtin University

Academic service

• Session Chair — Special session Emerging AI Methods for Structural Engineering, 2nd International Conference on Engineering Structures (ICES2026), Brisbane, 1–4 December 2026
• Guest Editor — Buildings (Special Issue: AI-Powered Structural Health Monitoring, 2025); Mathematics (Special Issue: Advances in Deep Learning, Computer Vision, and Engineering Applications, 2024–2026)
• Editorial Board Member (Early Career) — Urban Lifeline, 2024–2026
• Organising Committee — Inaugural International Conference on Infrastructural Monitoring and Protection (CIMP1, 2025)
• Reviewer — 30+ journals across AI, machine learning, structural health monitoring, and structural engineering since 2016, including 91 verified reviews for Elsevier journals (Measurement, Automation in Construction, Engineering Structures, Advanced Engineering Informatics, and others)

Supervision

• Currently supervising four PhD students and two research associates on applied AI for structural engineering and structural health monitoring
• Two PhD completions as co-supervisor (2024 and 2025), both on time
• Supervised five Honours students and 10+ Advanced Science, Capstone, and Master’s research projects in AI/ML