Built Infrastructure is the foundation of economic and societal development. Economic recovery and future growth require sustainable infrastructure build up. Join MIT faculty speakers and startups to explore the challenges and opportunities on how we can advance humanity’s common progress by understanding, building and operating the infrastructure to support our growing society and achieve shared prosperity. This webinar will be followed by an ILP Members only webinar on April 1. More information coming soon!
Mr. David Martin joined Corporate Relations on August 15, 2018 as Program Director for the ILP. Martin comes to OCR with deep and broad knowledge and expertise in program management, innovation, commercial and government contracting, and strategic planning. In his most recent position at Altran (Burlington, MA) as the VP Programs, Dave had many major accomplishments including leading an innovation team to develop new technology in the beverage-filling industry, and managing client-facing relations supporting sales and execution of projects. Before that, he was at Windmill International as VP, Product Development, R&D. There he spearheaded the move into new markets for an innovative satellite communications product including through the SBIR program where he secured funding and sponsorship. Martin also leveraged other government programs collaborating with the DoD and congressional contacts. He began his career in the US Air Force as an Active Duty Captain and served for 10 years as an Acquisition Manager, Scientist, Test Director, and finally as Executive Officer in the Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications Systems in the Pentagon. Martin also served in the US Air Force Reserves before joining Windmill. Mr. Martin earned his B.S., Physics from MIT, and his M.S., Systems Management from the University of Denver. He also earned a Certificate in Information Systems at the University of Denver.
Zegras is Professor of Transportation and Urban Planning in the Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, where he teaches integrated land use-transportation planning, transportation finance, and field-based/client-based workshops. He has co-taught urban design and planning studios in Beijing, Boston, Cartagena (Colombia), Guadalajara (Mexico), Mexico City, and Santiago de Chile. He is the Lead Principal Investigator for the Future Urban Mobility research group, sponsored by the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, and is MIT Lead of Transportation Systems under the MIT Portugal Program.
His research spans three inter-related areas critical to tackling metropolitan mobility challenges: (1) Human Behavior: understanding the dynamic relationships between human behavior and the built, social, and natural environments; (2) Digitalization: leveraging new technologies to deepen our understanding of relevant dynamics, offer new ways to interact with individuals, and enhance people’s engagement in mobility-related data collection and planning processes; and, (3) Strategic Planning: devising new techniques for supporting mobility planning, aiming to understand how they can ultimately improve the design, finance, and implementation of innovative mobility policies and interventions.
He has consulted widely for a diverse range of organizations, including the International Energy Agency, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Canadian, German, US, and Peruvian Governments, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. He serves on the Boston BRT Study Group and the MIT Transportation and Parking Committee. Prior to becoming a Professor, he worked for the International Institute for Energy Conservation in Washington, DC and Santiago de Chile and for MIT’s Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. Zegras holds a BA in Economics and Spanish from Tufts University, a Master in City Planning and a Master of Science in Transportation from MIT and a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning, also from MIT.
Franz-Josef Ulm is Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at MIT. A structural engineer by training he joined MIT in 1999, where he is responsible for Materials and Structures. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering, of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Resilience is the time it takes to bring a system after an extreme event to the same or higher performance. This requires that architects, engineers and builders, go beyond our comfort zone of classical design tools. Physics-based Molecular-Dynamics inspired engineering tools permit just this: implementing, into our design practice, the critical link between damage inventory of structural and non-structural elements to extreme events: storms, fire, flooding… This damage inventory serves as input for Life-Cycle Cost Analysis that permit evaluating the return of investment of structural resilience enhancement such as shear walls, sprinkler systems and so on, at building, community and city scale. Through a number of applications, we show that this new approach of quantitative physics-based engineering resilience, resilience of buildings and infrastructure is a key lever for the sustainable development of our societies.
Umberto Fugiglando is a Research Manager at the Senseable City Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a multidisciplinary research group that studies the interface between cities, people, and technologies. He has been leading projects on data science applied to smart cities initiatives with a focus on human driving behavior and mobility patterns in cities. Moreover, he develops and maintains partnerships between cities, companies and foundations that support the group's research agenda, contributing in the fields of smart and connected cities, urban mobility and innovative urban technology. Additionally, he has served as an External Expert for the European Commission, working with policy makers on the future of mobility. Umberto’s background is in Applied Mathematics and Engineering, and he has studied in Italy, Sweden, Canada and US.
The real-time city is now real! The increasing deployment of sensors and hand-held electronics in recent years is opening a new approach to the study of the built environment. Digital technologies are radically changing the way we understand, design, and ultimately live cities. This is having an impact at different scales – from the single building to the scale of the metropolis. Umberto will address these issues from a critical point of view through some of the latest projects by the Senseable City Lab, a multi-disciplinary research group at MIT that is developing research in many cities across the globe.
OpenSpace: Your jobsite, fully captured. Just tap record and go.
Jeevan Kalanithi is CEO of OpenSpace, a technologist, and an entrepreneur. His background is in artificial intelligence, software and hardware engineering, and design. His first startup shipped two generations of a consumer electronic product into national retail. This company was acquired by North America's largest drone company at that time, 3D Robotics (also known as 3DR), in 2014. At 3DR, Jeevan served as VP Product, Chief Product Officer, and President. At 3DR, Jeevan helped build the team that launched Solo, 3DR’s prosumer and enterprise-grade drone. Solo did $45M in revenue in its first two quarters. Site Scan, 3DR’s SaaS-based survey, mapping, and inspection software product, launched in 2016 in partnership with Autodesk and is now 3DR's flagship product. After 3DR, Jeevan joined Lux Capital, a $3B fund, as an EIR (Entrepreneur-in-Residence). He began working on the OpenSpace concept at that time with his co-founders, Mike Fleischman and Philip DeCamp, whom he met at MIT: both completed computer vision Ph.D.'s there. Mike founded a company based on his computer vision work; this company became one of Twitter's largest acquisitions before it IPO'd. OpenSpace officially launched in the summer of 2018. Jeevan completed his bachelor’s degree at Stanford and his MS at MIT, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.
Hosta Labs: Automated digital structural assessment
Henriette Fleischmann is Co-founder & COO of Hosta Labs, and met Co-founder and CEO Rachelle Villalon at MIT where they shared a passion for AI and solving enterprise problems. Henriette received her MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management and has worked in top tier consulting, managing multi-million $ projects for Fortune 100 companies on process optimization, strategy development, and restructuring for more than 12 years.
Envelope City: Visualize the rules that shape your city
Cindy McLaughlin is CEO of Envelope, a real estate acquisitions analysis company that uses zoning- and AI-driven software to search for, visualize, and run scenarios on urban real estate value potential. Prior to Envelope, Cindy held CEO and President roles in a range of technology companies, from services-tech to technology for prisoners. Cindy has an MBA from MIT/Sloan, serves on the boards of the Brooklyn Heights Association and the Brooklyn Children's Museum, and spent 2 years in Congo as a Water/Sanitation volunteer for the US Peace Corps.
AirWorks: Automatically turning aerial data into maps and engineering plans
David Morczinek is the Co-Founder and CEO of AirWorks where he spearheads the development of AirWorks’ autonomous drafting technology to advance the application of aerial intelligence and transform the engineering and construction industries. Previously David had a successful career with Airbus in both France and Spain, where he led the first delivery and completion of Airbus’ newest aircraft, and secured contracts for $275M. David holds an MBA from MIT Sloan, as well as M.S. in aerospace engineering from Hamburg University of Technology.
Caitlin Mueller is a researcher, designer, and educator working at the interface of architecture and structural engineering. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Building Technology Program, where she leads the Digital Structures research group and co-directs the Structural Design Lab.
As a researcher, Mueller focuses on developing new computational methods and tools for synthesizing architectural and structural intentions in early-stage design. She also works in the field of digital fabrication, with a focus on linking high structural performance with new methods of architectural making. In addition to her digital work, she conducts research on the nature of collaboration between architects and engineers from a historical perspective. Mueller also aims for interdisciplinary learning and integration in her teaching efforts, which include subjects in structural design and computational methods.
Professor Caitlin Mueller leads the Digital Structures group. The Digital Structures research group works at the interface of architecture, structural engineering, and computation. They focus on the synthetic integration of creative and technical goals in the design and fabrication of buildings, bridges, and other large-scale structures, using emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital fabrication. With an emphasis on building performance and the reduction of operational and embodied carbon emissions in the built environment, this research offers new opportunities for a sustainable future empowered by new architectural geometries, structural materials, and construction methods.
Brandon Clifford is a time-traveler who develops creative approaches to the world’s most pressing problems. He identifies contemporary blind-spots by mining ancient knowledge that holds resonance with topics of today. Brandon is the director of Matter Design and associate professor at MIT. Brandon received his Master of Architecture from Princeton University and his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Georgia Tech. As a designer and researcher, Clifford has received recognition with prizes such as the American Academy in Rome Prize, a TED Fellowship, the SOM Prize, and the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects & Designers. Clifford is dedicated to re-imagining the role of the architect. His speculative work continues to provoke new directions for the digital era.
As an architect and researcher, I address contemporary challenges by developing approaches that are distinctly different from standard modes of practice in the building industry. The contemporary division between how things are conceived and how they are made produces blind spots that neither design nor construction can respond to in isolation—from recycling building materials, to supply chain transportation, and the energy of assembly, critical topics are outside the conventional scope of the architect. But there are examples in the historical past when master builders produced enduring architectures by merging designing and making in order to address broad concerns such as the material supply chain, technology, resources, and energy. My research leverages abandoned but relevant knowledge from our past to transform our contemporary architectural practices into viable and smarter alternatives for our future.
Professor Buyukozturk’s research focuses on mechanics and design of structures and innovative materials. His work includes behavior and design of concrete structures, integrity assessment of reinforced/prestressed nuclear containment systems, durability of materials, earthquake engineering, interface fracture mechanics, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites in structural rehabilitation, and structural assessment and nondestructive testing (NDT). His recent research focus also includes multi-scale analysis of multi-layer material systems using molecular dynamics (MD).
In this talk I will present some recent developments in my laboratory, Lab for Infrastructure Science and Sustainability (LISS) in the field of infrastructure sustainability. I will cover the topics of sensing and monitoring as well as innovations in sustainable concrete material development for resilient and sustainable infrastructure design and rehabilitation of existing ageing systems. Novel sensing technologies including vision-based sensing with motion magnification, and data driven dynamic characterization of structures with applications to bridges and tall buildings will be described. Concepts of building and neighborhood level assessments of fragility towards designing smart cities will be addressed. Finally, multiscale mechanics based cementitious material development and repurposing waste plastic into concrete manufacturing for global sustainability will be outlined. These developments, from multidisciplinary multi- team projects, representing cutting-edge research encompass elements of computation, material science, sensing technologies, data analytics and algorithmic developments.