Research talk by Dr. Lu Zhang from the Florida International University

Time: 9:30pm-10:30pm, 14 May. 2019

Room & Place: 306 room, Tongji Building Block A

Visitor: Dr. Lu Zhang

INFORMATION

Host: Prof Yongkui Li

Host department: Department of Construction Management and Real Estate

Schedule: 45mins talk +15mins Q&A

Abstract

A report published by the National Research Council of the National Academies has identified the research on understanding and quantifying the value of infrastructure systems to the stakeholders as a “national imperative”. Moreover, it emphasized the importance of analyzing how this value is impacted by the various planning, design, construction, and operation decisions. However, there is still a lack of understanding and formalized modeling of what different stakeholders value (e.g., energy conservation, safety, cost saving) in infrastructure systems and how to quantify the value (i.e., worth) of infrastructure systems based on these stakeholder values.

This talk will introduce a Building Information Modeling (BIM)-integrated, value-sensitive decision support system that aims to predict and analyze the value of a building infrastructure to its stakeholders. The prototype system is grounded on three main pillars: (1) a comprehensive understanding of what different stakeholders value in different contexts (e.g., building types), (2) an innovative axiology (theory of value)-based mathematical model that quantifies and aggregates the value of a building based on stakeholder values (e.g., energy conservation, safety, cost saving), and (3) a BIM integrator that enables the extension, extraction, and filtration of information from an existing building information model. The key intellectual contributions of this research are offering a new way for conceptualizing and reasoning about the value of a building from a holistic and multidimensional sense, and proposing a new method for incorporating the human element in engineering decision making by accounting for stakeholder values. From a practical perspective, this research could facilitate value-sensitive decision making by embodying stakeholder values into project planning and design towards better synergy between human values and the built environment. It could also promote transparency and consistency in building system decision making by providing the knowledge on the links between the planning and design decisions and the value that a building adds to the stakeholders.

Bio

Dr. Lu Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Moss School of Construction, Infrastructure and Sustainability at Florida International University. She earned her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with a specialization in Construction Management from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds a Master of Engineering degree in Construction Management from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Management degree in Construction Management from Tongji University, China. Dr. Zhang’s research interests include sustainable building and infrastructure systems, disaster resilient built environment, human-building interactions, human-centered value analysis, building and civil information modeling, semantic information modeling, and smart building and infrastructure monitoring and analysis. Her research work is funded by National Science Foundation, Florida Department of Transportation, and Natural Hazards Center.