The participants of the DTADD project have engaged in several international conferences this summer. The first one was the 9th European Congress on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering (ECCOMAS 2024), Lisbon, Portugal, where the experience researcher (ER), Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios, and both supervisors, Prof. Vagelis Plevris and Prof. Maria Nogal, organized the mini symposium “MS006.- Development and Applications of Computational Methods for Digital Twins”. Furthermore, the ER presented an important part of the work conducted during the DTADD project with the conference paper “Towards the Creation of Synthetic Bridge Digital Twins What-If Scenarios: Study Case and Calibration”. The two sessions of the MS were chaired by the ER and his colleague, Dr. Rafael Ramirez Alvarez de Lara.
The second major event of this summer for the DTADD project took place in the 2024 European City of Science, Katowice, Poland, where the ER attended the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF2024). As part of this conference, 3500 participants discussed the latest scientific achievements, the arts, and their impact on society. The attendance to ESOF2024 by the ER was partly financed by a Marie Curie Alumni Association Micro Grant.
A special session was organized by the ER and the main supervisor of the DTADD project, along with our colleagues Prof. Awais Ahmed and Dr. Mohamed El Amine Ben Seghier, at the 1st International Conference on Net-Zero Built Environment: Innovations in Materials, Structures, and Management Practices (Net-Zero Future 2024), Oslo, Norway. The SS on “Computational Methods and Digital Twins in the Engineering of Sustainable Buildings, Cities, and Urban Structures” was chaired by Prof. Vagelis Plevris and two papers from DTADD participants were presented: “Exploring the Predictive Performance of Simple Regression Models and ANN in 2D Truss Analysis” (produced in collaboration with Prof. Usama Ebead) and “Advancing Sustainability Through Structural Optimization: Innovations in Material Efficiency and Environmental Impact Reduction” (written together with Abdulaziz Almutairi).
Another major milestone of the DTADD project was achieved this summer when the ER attended the 12th International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS 2024), Copenhagen, Denmark. There, the work titled “Human Role in Existing Bridge Digital Twin Frameworks, Towards Industry 5.0” was presented, along with a second paper produced in collaboration with our colleagues Dr. Mohamed El Amine Ben Seghier and Prof. Jian Dai titled: “Advanced Framework for Degradation Modeling of Operating Structures”. The ER also participated in the Ramboll Evening Reception, at the Ramboll Head Office where he had the opportunity to explore the Virtual Reality technology currently on use by this major company.
Finally, the ER attended the last conference of the DTADD project organized in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. During his participation at the 2nd RILEM International Conference on Earthen Construction (ICEC2024) the ER presented the work “First Findings on the Mechanical Analysis of Cob Using a Discontinuity Layout Optimization (DLO) Approach” and attended the RILEM General Meeting of the Technical Committees:
During this IDM Colloquium session, Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios presented his professional journey and the recent research outcomes produced during the MSCA period at the Coordinator Institution, Oslo Metropolitan University, and ICCROM fellowships on the topic of digital twins, anomaly detection algorithms, and Industry 5.0 principles and enabling technologies.
Amid the Colloquium it was also discussed how the novel Industry 5.0 paradigm aligns with the IDM section vision and the section's role in supporting the architecture, engineering, construction, management, operation, and conservation/decommissioning industry in preparing to embrace Industry 5.0 principles and enabling technologies.
ICCROM Heritage-Based Climate Action Conference and Sapienza Seminars
01/04/2024
As part of the distinguished ICCROM Fellowship held by the Experienced Researcher of the DTADD project, Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios, he has attended two relevant and insightful events on previous weeks.
The first one was the online conference organized by ICCROM, titled “Heritage-Based Climate Action” where the results of the recently finished pioneering capacity development project, Net Zero: Heritage for Climate Action launched by ICCROM's First Aid and Resilience (FAR) programme, were presented and discussed. The discussion turned around five heritage study cases:
Jodhpur, India.
Kasese, Uganda.
Rashid, Egypt.
Ubatuba, Brazil.
Tuti Island, Sudan.
The second event consisted in a couple of seminars organized by the Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, at Sapienza University of Rome, where Prof. Raimondo Betti from the Department of Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics, Columbia University, discussed his research experience and results on highly relevant topics for the DTADD project such as Structural Health Monitoring and Machine Learning.
The two seminars were titled:
Vibration monitoring as a tool for rapid damage assessment in bridges.
Monitoring the structural health and estimating the remaining strength of main cables of existing suspension bridges.
The participants of the roundtable addressed the topics of cultural heritage preservation under human and natural risk scenarios. “Since the Hague Convention of 1954, at the end of World War II, awareness of the need to preserve cultural heritage has continued to grow. Today, it is evident to the scientific community involved in research related to all aspects of Cultural Heritage that, alongside the work of investigation, it is essential to develop a parallel activity of protection, preservation, and dissemination of the cultural significance of research, with active involvement of local communities”.
The discussion turned around the two presented study cases:
Arslantepe, in Turkey.
Palmira, in Syria.
End of the Year Miscellaneous
29/12/2023
A series of key activities were completed over the past two months by the members of the DTADD project. Here is a summary report:
The ER successfully completed the envisaged training program at the Host Institution, Oslo Metropolitan University, established in the Career Development Plan by attending the following courses provided by the RCN:
The ER and the Main Supervisor participated in various activities as part of a research visit at University of Qatar in Doha, Qatar, that helped to enhance their networking and plan for the remaining activities of the DTADD fellowship.
Call for Abstracts! ECCOMAS 2024 Conference Mini Symposium: MS006 Development and Applications of Computational Methods for Digital Twins
03/10/2023
Digital twins are virtual representations of physical objects, systems, or processes that allow for real-time monitoring, analysis, and simulation. Essentially, they are digital replicas used to model and optimize the behavior and performance of the physical asset. Regardless of challenges and limitations in their full deployment and implementation in real practice, there seems to be only one school of thought and a consensus toward the future adoption of Digital Twins for design, construction, management, operation, and decommissioning of assets among the scientific community and practitioners. Current research gaps in the practical development and implementation of Digital Twins are mainly related to:
Lack of interoperability among the different proprietary and open-source software used along the Digital Twin model generation pipeline.
Performance improvement of currently available anomaly detection, location, description, and prognosis algorithms.
The direction for the creation of macro-digital twins that integrate Digital Twins of individual assets.
Furthermore, future potential developments on this topic are related to the implementation of Industry 5.0 concepts and ideas within Digital Twin frameworks such as sustainability, human-centrism, and resilience. Contributions aiming at tackling any of these issues by means of novel developments and applications of computational methods are welcome to participate in this mini symposium. Either basic methodologies, scientific developments and/or industrial applications are equally accepted.
8th CISM-ECCOMAS Advanced School on Scientific Machine Learning in Design Optimization
As part of the training activities of the DTADD project, the Experienced Researcher, Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios, completed this advanced course where the following topics detailing basic theory of machine learning concepts where covered:
Geometry representation.
Model order reduction.
Optimization.
Uncertainty quantification.
OsloMet University Transportation Summit
13/09/2023
This week, the Department of Built Environment at Oslo Metropolitan University, hosted the "OsloMet Transportation Summit", where key American and Norwegian architecture, construction, engineering, management, and operation (AECM&O) industry stakeholders gathered to learn and discuss about innovative design, construction, and maintenance approaches of road and rail infrastructure.
The Experienced Researcher of the DTADD project, Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios, attended the event and acquired new insights, which will inform and guide the future work of the DTADD project, on:
Infrastructure owner requirements.
Infrastructure standards.
Infrastructure industry recent developments and needs.
Among the different participants of the summit were representatives from:
ERASMUS+ Staff Mobility Grant and Academic Leadership Course
20/08/2023
The Experienced Researcher of the DTADD project, Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios, has been awarded an ERASMUS+ Staff Mobility Grant. This complementary EU funding provided him a contribution to cover costs for travel and subsistence during a week abroad, where he completed the training course: Academic Leadership.
Where does your university stand? What is the role of the leader?
People-centered leadership.
Communication and feedback.
This training also allowed him to participate in several cultural immersion activities with other international participants of the course in Timisoara, Romania, European Capital of Culture 2023.
JCSS Workshop on Risk Acceptance Criteria in Civil Engineering Decision Making
The aims of the workshop were to gather different stakeholders (regulators, public authorities, planners, designers, owners and operators infrastructures as well as leading experts from industry and academia) to agree on the actions needed to establish and act in accordance with an adequate rationale on safety management within civil engineering and on the allocation of responsibilities for implementing these. The topics discussed during the workshop were:
Risk acceptance - overview and regulatory context.
Decision theoretical concepts.
Notional reliability-based criteria.
F-N criteria.
Qualitative approaches.
Cases with large epistemic uncertainties.
Risk aversion.
This was a very informative event that would help the DTADD project towards the achievement of its second Research and Innovation Objective: to develop an anomaly detection algorithm-informed open-source decision-making tool, to assess the need for bridge intervention while explicitly considering the bridge's cultural heritage value.
COMPDYN and UNCECOMP Conferences
29/06/2023
The Digital Twin (DT) concept, as understood nowadays, appeared in the early 2000s as an attempt to create virtual replicas of physical assets, such as bridges, that can be used to examine, monitor and manage their performance. Up to this day, it has been successfully applied in the fields of aeronautics, manufacturing, medicine, and more recently, in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. The DT of a bridge requires the creation of a virtual replica of the real-life asset, along with the connection and feedback of information channel between the two of them. This connection is currently achieved through the generation of real-time data by the placement of sensors in the real bridge and the application of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) techniques to analyze such data. This connection could result in a complex, time-consuming, and expensive process which would hinder the creation of DT prototypes for development purposes in the bridge engineering field.
Although the creation of synthetic benchmark datasets for the validation of novel damage detection approaches has been attempted in the past, such alternatives are not easily findable or accessible. Thus, a synthetic data generation framework that can produce FAIR benchmark databases that are based on Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Re-use, which could be used in the prototyping of bridge DTs was proposed. Moreover, uncertainty types, sources, and quantification approaches involved in the synthetic data generation methodologies and tools of the intended framework were studied.
This work also highlights the benefits and drawbacks of implementing synthetic data for these purposes and points out tentative future improvements in the field. Check the full papers by following the DOI link provided in the Publications page of this website!
Call for Abstracts! IABMAS 2024 Conference Special Session: SS 35 Digital Twins and Industry 5.0: Towards a Sustainable Bridge Maintenance, Safety, and Management Holistic Approach
05/06/2023
Regardless of the challenges and limitations in the full deployment of Digital Twins and their implementation in real practice, there seems to be only one school of thought and a consensus toward their future adoption for design, construction, management, operation, and decommissioning of bridges among the scientific community and practitioners. Future potential developments on this topic are related to the implementation of Industry 5.0 concepts and ideas within Digital Twin frameworks such as sustainability, human-centrism, and resilience. Contributions of novel developments and applications on these topics are welcome to participate. Papers on theories, methods, algorithms, and applications are all welcome.
SHM for Integrity Management of Civil Structures and Infrastructures Course
04/06/2023
One of the Research and Innovation Objectives (R&IO) of the DTADD fellowship is to build digital twin (DT) models of heritage/conventional bridges to assess and identify the highest performing anomaly detection algorithm (ADA) for damage and/or significant decay detection. An important step towards its achievement consists on the acqusition of novel knowledge and insights in the field. Thus, last week the Experienced Researcher (ER) of the DTADD project, Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios, attended the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) for Integrity Management of Civil Structures and Infrastructures Course offered at Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
The highlights of the course content consisted of:
Basic concepts of SHM and its applications.
Knowledge of data management procedures (acquisition, signal pro-cessing, treatment of uncertainties).
Knowledge on data driven and model-based methods for damage identification.
Concepts of value of information analysis with specific reference to monitoring information.
In this event, Big Data related questions were presented and discussed among a community of speakers, workshops facilitators and experts working on the field. The topics of the conference included: eHealth, eGovernment, Edtech, Digital Transformation, Big Data, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Privacy, GDPR, Compliance, Data Governance, Trends, Innovation, Data Science, Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, The Internet of Things, Edge Analytics, Data lake, Blockchain, Open Data, Smart Cities, Quantum Computing, Edge Computing, and Cloud Computing.
The stands showcasing companies and products at the conference were of relevance for the DTADD project as well, specially the work done by Jotne Connect, a Norwegian firm leader in data solutions based on open standards in the areas of Defense, Aeronautics, Space and Built Environment. The formal gathering took place at the facilities of the Norwegian Business School, and after that, an informal reunion took place at the offices of Xplorico, at the Rebel building (place of the DTADD project office as well).
Panoramic view of sunny Oslo from the Xplorico offices at Rebel building.
DTADD Publications Webpage
07/04/2023
To comply with Open Science Practices and by following the recommendations established in the HE Programme Guide and in Article 17 of the MSCA Model Grant Agreement, all publications and databases generated during the DTADD project will be made publicly available and open access.
In the DTADD Publications webpage you can find information about all the material produced and the corresponding Digital Object Identifiers (DOI), from where you can get access to the full publications and databases. All DTADD publications generated are grouped in the following categories:
Call for papers! Research Topic on: Methods and Applications in Computational Methods in Structural Engineering
13/03/2023
This series aims to highlight the latest numerical techniques and methods used to investigate fundamental questions in computational methods in structural engineering research. Review articles or opinions on methodologies or applications including the advantages and limitations of each are welcome. This Topic includes technologies and up-to-date methods which help advance science.
This Research Topic welcomes:
Original Research: Reporting on primary and unpublished studies. Original Research may also encompass confirming studies and disconfirming results which allow hypothesis elimination, reformulation and/or report on the non-reproducibility of previously published results.
Methods: Describing either new or existing methods that are significantly improved or adapted for specific purposes. These manuscripts may include primary (original) data.
Perspective or General Commentaries on methods and protocols relevant to computational structural engineering research.
Reviews and mini-reviews of topical methods and protocols highlighting the important future directions of the field.
The experience researcher (ER) of the DTADD project, Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios, participates as lead editor of this Research Topic, together with Dr. Manolis S. Georgioudakis and Dr. Yang Song, as co-editors, and Samuel Ruiz Capel, as topic coordinator, published by Frontiers in Built Environment.
If you want to get your work published on this Research Topic, click the image for more information:
Co-Creation MOOC
05/03/2023
The aim of the DTADD research project is to get the relevant knowledge actors and end-users Statens Vegvesen, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, and Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, involved in the research project at an early stage during a co-design workshop to discuss the benefits and the challenges of the R&IO of the fellowship, at an intermediate stage during a second co-creation workshop to participate in the developing of an adequate and effective implementation of the proposed tools and finally, at the end of the project during a co-assessment activities workshop in order to test the implemented tool and provide feedback with regards to further improvement steps of the DTADD developed tools.
Therefore, the experience researcher (ER) of the DTADD project, Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios, has completed the Co/Design MOOC provided by the Politecnico di Milano on its online platform POK.
Call for papers! Special Issue on: Fault Detection, Diagnosis and Maintenance on Intelligent Transportation System
30/01/2023
The monitoring and management of traffic structures is an important part of the modern traffic system. Modern and efficient road/rail infrastructure operations require regular monitoring and timely maintenance. By their nature, these are multidisciplinary challenges that require collaboration among different disciplines to develop and implement innovative solutions. In recent years, the development of sensing, the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, digitalization, visualization, and digital twins have provided novel solutions for the fault detection and diagnosis of existing transportation structures, which has ultimately led to improved management, sustainability, and extended life of such key infrastructure assets. This Special Issue aims to provide a unique platform to publish state-of-the-art methods and applications for monitoring traffic structures. Both original research articles and reviews are welcome.
The experience researcher (ER) of the DTADD project, Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios, participates as editor of this special issue, together with Dr. Yang Song and Dr. Xiaojun Wei, published by Sensors.
If you want to get your work published on this Special Issue, click the image for more information:
Certificate of Excellence issued by Elsevier Researcher Academy upon completion of the Research Design online course.
This course consisted of two modules. The first module dealt with the concept of serendipity and how to enhance the chances of serendipitous research discovery. 5 tips are suggested to achieve this:
Nurture a prepared mind that can recognize serendipitous opportunities.
Pursue multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects and interactions.
Create opportunities for casual collisions.
Embrace Failure and nurture a culture of experimentation.
Develop a psychologically safe environment.
The content of the second module was dedicated to identifying research gaps. A research gaps are defined as "problems that have not been addressed or answered in previous studies, books or reports" and are the center of any research, thus, adequately identifying a research gap and performing new work to cover it, leads to the advance of knowledge in a scientific field.
Peer Review Excellence Training Course
05/12/2022
The experience researcher (ER), Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios, has completed the Peer Review Excellence training course provided by IOP Publishing. This was a comprehensive online course for researchers in the physical sciences. It consisted of three units (peer review fundamentals, writing an excellent report and peer review ethics), each with an end-of-unit assessment. He passed all three assessments and qualified for a fast-tracked IOP Trusted Reviewer status (a certification only given to the top 15 % of IOP peer reviewers).
This online course was part of the training activities on horizontal and transferable skills envisaged within the Career Development Plan prepared by the ER in agreement with both supervisors of the DTADD fellowship, Prof. Vagelis Plevris and Prof. Maria Nogal. All the experience, skills and knowledge obtained during the DTADD fellowship will help the ER to become a leading international expert on the conservation of structures with cultural heritage value and will contribute to achieving his goal of becoming an independent researcher and securing a tenure track position.
Digital badge for Peer Review Excellence Graduates.
Structural Engineering Research Group (SERG) Seminar 2022
01/12/2022
The 2022 edition of the
Structural Engineering Research Group (SERG)
Seminar at OsloMet provided the opportunity for the
Experienced Researcher, Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios,
to present the DTADD project to his colleagues.
His presentation covered the key facts of the fellowship, its context, the research proposal
and objectives. During this seminar, it was also possible to highlight the main aspects of the
open science philosophy that would be adopted on this project. Furthermore, the 2022 SERG Seminar
was a good opportunity to show to the Research Group members the dissemination and communication
tools that will be used to engage the public at large along the DTADD project duration.
Prof. Vagelis Plevris, Main Supervisor of the DTADD fellowship, also participated during the Seminar.
His contribution consisted in providing general information about the Marie Curie funding programs,
their application process and requirements. Moreover, he presented the successful story of the DTADD
project in a motivational way and encourage the participants of the 2022 SERG Seminar to participate
in the coming calls.
2022 SERG dinner.
This important Seminar was organized by Prof. Aase Reyes
and by the PhD student Samuel Ruiz.
The slides of the DTADD presentation at the SERG Seminar can be downloaded here.
2022 TKD Day
30/11/2022
The Experienced Researcher, Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Rios,
and the Main Supervisor, Prof. Vagelis Plevris,
of the DTADD project participated
in the annual TKD Day of the Faculty of Technology, Arts and Design (TKD), at
Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet). During this event they had the opportunity
to listen to the inspirational presentation of Prof. Robin Teigland who is a
Professor of Strategy, Management of Digitalization, in the Entrepreneurship and
Strategy Division at Chalmers University of Technology, a Fellow of the Royal Swedish
Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Director of Ocean Data Factory Sweden and an
impact entrepreneur under the Peniche Ocean Watch Initiative.
Dr. Robin Teigland during her presentation at the 2022 TKD Day at OsloMet.
The TKD Day presentation and discussion that followed, turned around the topics of
sustainability and digitalization and our role as Faculty members and researchers in this
transformation. An interesting study case about the ocean as a source and case of
transformative change was presented and the discussion panel debated about how can research
contribute to the ongoing digital transformation in a sustainable way.
Furthermore, both members of the DTADD project had a good opportunity during this event
to do networking, connect with other members of the Faculty, discuss with them some of the
aspects that this recently started Marie Curie project will entail and also interact in a more
informal way during the traditional Norwegian Julebord
organized by the TKD Faculty for its members.
2022 TKD Julebord.
DTADD Fellowship Kick off!
25/11/2022
The DTADD project has officially started on November 1st, 2022. Among the different activities involved, the communication
and dissemination of the project itself play a paramount role on its success (and entire work package, WP3, is devoted to this end!).
All dissemination, exploitation and communication activities of this fellowship will be based on relevant EU
policies/guidelines.
The plan for the dissemination and exploitation activities, including communication activities of the DTADD fellowship has as main target audiences
the academic/scientific community, bridge operation and management practitioners as well as the public at large.
A key milestone of the DTADD project appears at the end of its first month, when the task of developing the official website
of the project would have to be completed (if you are reading this article on this website, that means that this task has been completed and Deliverable 3.2
of the fellowship has been made available!). Besides from communicating and disseminating all the activities of the fellowship in its website, a series
of official profiles have also been created in all of the following major social media channels:
If you are interested in bridge and structural engineering, artificial intelligence, assets management, digital twins and in knowing
more about all the progress and news of the DTADD fellowship, make sure you subscribe, follow and bookmark all of its official communication and dissemination
channels!
