Loughborough University launches new Centre for Doctoral Training on AI for the Built Environment

A female construction worker examines digital plans.

Loughborough University is creating a new Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) focused on addressing the challenges and opportunities of Artificial Intelligence for the Built Environment (AI4BE).

The AI4BE CDT will be led by Professor Liz Varga CBE and aims to attract co-funding by industry to train researchers in using AI to address the full lifecycle of the built environment, including design, construction, operation and decommissioning. AI solutions are burgeoning in this field, but current applications are often isolated from one another and vague about how they solve desired outcomes in the built environment.

Research within the CDT will explore key topics responding to industry, government and societal challenges such as decarbonisation, future buildings, resilient infrastructure, automation and robotics, data centre growth, digitally informed services and governance, circular materials, algorithmic and data uncertainty, and responsible AI.

The centre will act as a hub for interdisciplinary collaboration and systems thinking, bringing together supervisors and students from the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering; the Business School; and the School of Computer Science.

Centre Director, Professor Liz Varga.

Centre Director, Professor Liz Varga joins the University as a Professor of Complex Systems. Her work examines infrastructure and the built environment, with interests in resilience, sustainable innovation and decarbonisation.

Professor Varga brings a wealth of experience to the role of Centre Director as a contributor to several national and international initiatives. Her prior work includes acting as project manager for the development of international standard ISO 22372 on infrastructure resilience, preceded by her technical leadership on work with United Nations. She is also a Commissioner with the National Preparedness Commission, a member of the UKCRIC Executive and serves on the governing board of the Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure.

The new Centre will drive forward understanding of the future role of AI, in alignment with the University’s overall research aims and Loughborough Business School’s research theme ‘Digital futures and responsible AI’.

Professor Varga will now begin work with colleagues across the University to establish the CDT and prepare for its first cohort of doctoral researchers.

Learn more about the AI4BE CDT