Area Chair Profiles
Alessandro Carbonari – Area Chair for Data Acquisition, Analysis, Sensing, Simulation, & Resilience
Alessandro Carbonari is an Associate Professor at Università Politecnica delle Marche (Ancona, Italy). He has been carrying out research on intelligent and automated systems for construction, advanced systems for construction site management, active systems for optimal energy management of buildings, reduced-order modelling for prediction of the dynamic behaviour of buildings. Since 2004 he has joined several EU funded projects as a researcher, C-TIDE (“Changeable Thermal Inertia Dry Enclosures”), SEAM4US (“Sustainable energy management for underground stations”) MARTE Project (“MArche Regione TEchnical assistance for healthcare buildings Energy retrofit”), ENCORE (“ENergy aware BIM Cloud Platform in a COst-effective Building REnovation Context) and projects funded by the local Government, PRIN project “Technologies and framework for real-time safety management in construction sites” and PRIN project “A Distributed Digital Collaboration Framework for Small and Medium-Sized Engineering and Construction Enterprises”. He was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC – www.iaarc.org ) and as Chair of the “Data Sensing and Analysis” Technical Committee of the European Council on Computing in Construction – EC3 (https://ec-3.org/ ).
He currently serves as the chair of the EC3 Data Sensing and Analysis Technical Committee
Shabtai Isaac – Area Chair for Data Sensing and Acquisition
Shabtai Isaac is an Senior Lecturer of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. He holds a Ph.D. (2011) from the Department of Civil Engineering at the Technion, Haifa, Israel. His primary research interests are in design management, construction management, and construction safety. Dr. Isaac is a member of the board of directors of the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC). He received the Olenick Award (2008) and the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering Award (2011) at the Technion for his research, as well as awards in 2011 and 2012 for teaching at the Technion and at Ben-Gurion University. He has published papers in the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (ASCE), Construction Management and Economics and Automation in Construction.
He currently serves as the chair of the EC3 Data Sensing & Analysis Committee.
Pieter Pauwels – Area Chair for Data Integration Methods
Pieter Pauwels is an Associate Professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Department of the Built Environment. He previously worked at the Dept. of Architecture and Urban Planning at Ghent University (2008-2019). His work and interests are in information system support for the building life-cycle (architectural design, construction, building operation). With a lot of experience and knowledge in computer science and software development, he is involved in a number of industry-oriented research projects on topics affiliated to AI in construction, design thinking, Building Information Modelling (BIM), Linked Building Data (LBD), Linked Data in Architecture and Construction (LDAC), and Semantic Web technologies.
He currently serves as the treasurer for the EC3 Board of Directors.
Dimitrios Rovas – Area Chair for Energy Modelling & Monitoring
Dimitrios Rovas is currently a Lecturer in Building Simulation and Optimisation, at The Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources at University College London. His research interests are in the areas of building physics, smart buildings, design and simulation of building energy management systems, building simulation, building information modelling and development of middleware and data integration platforms for data access and analytical processing of sensor information. He was the academic manager of the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings. Currently, he is the programme leader for the MSc in Smart Buildings and Digital Engineering.
Dr. Rovas received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens; he received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the area of reduced-basis and finite-element methods, working under the supervision of Prof. Anthony T. Patera. He was research associate at the Laboratory for Numerical Analysis of the University of Paris VI, France (UPMC). He held Assistant Professor positions in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and in the Department of Production Engineering and Management at the Technical University of Crete, Greece. From 2013-2015 he was a member of the Systems Integration Group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics in Germany.
He currently serves as the secretary for the EC3 Board of Directors.
Eleni Papadonikolaki – Area Chair for Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology
Eleni Papadonikolaki is an Associate Professor in Digital Innovation and Management at the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management at University College London (UCL). Dr. Papadonikolaki is teaching at postgraduate and executive levels and leads the newly-launched MSc in Digital Engineering Management (DEM).
Her research interests lie at the intersection of management, social science, and digital economy. She is a steering board member and part-time researcher at the Construction Blockchain Consortium (CBC). She is a Partner at Digital Outlook.
Prior to joining academia Eleni worked as architect and design manager on a number of complex, international and varying-scale projects in Greece, the Netherlands, Oman and United Arab Emirates. She is an alumna of TU Delft, Netherlands and NTUA, Greece.
Dr. Laura Maftei – Area Chair for Virtual and Augmented Reality
Laura Maftei is a lecturer at the University of Reading. Her research draws a broader trajectory around the use and application of digital technology to design and construction.
It focuses on the use, integration and implications of digital technology (virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), building information modelling (BIM) etc.) across construction design practice. It also focuses on how the technology may be incorporated into teaching while accounting for innovative teaching methods.
Dr. Maftei completed her PhD on the use of digital technology for design practice within the School of the Built Environment at the University of Reading, where she continues to be involved in both research and teaching around the use of digital technologies in the practices of built environment professionals.
Yiannis Xenidis – Area Chair for Education, Policy, and Standardisation
Yiannis Xenidis received his PhD from the department of Civil Engineering in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) wherefrom he had, previously, graduated. Currently, he is a faculty member (Associate Professor) at the department of Civil Engineering in AUTH, while he has taught at the department of Spatial Planning and Development in AUTH during 2005 – 2008, and the school of Science and Technology in the Hellenic Open University.
He is a member of the European Council for Computing in Construction (EC3), the Task Group 1.08 – Design Requirements for Infrastructure Resilience, International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE), European Association On Quality Control of Bridges and Structures (EuroStruct), Project Management Institute (PMI), the Society of Risk Analysis (SRA), and the International Association for Life-Cycle Civil Engineering (iaLcce).
He has professional experience as a constructor of public works and private projects and as a consultant of civil engineering projects.
His current research interests and teaching activities include: Implementation of Building Information Modeling in Construction and Maintenance of Infrastructure, Resilience of Infrastructure Systems, Risk Analysis and Decision-Making Theory, Infrastructure Investments and Development, Cost and Schedule Management in Civil Engineering Works, Project Management, and Construction Management.
He currently serves as the vice-chair for the EC3 Education Technical Committee.
Raido Puust – Area Chair for Product & Process Modelling
Raido Puust is Professor of BIM, TalTech, School of Engineering, Estonia. He earned his PhD from Tallinn University of Technology and current job positions include both, lecturing/research at university and civil engineering consultancy at private sector. His current expertise is concentrated on building information modelling workflows for buildings as well as for infrastructure. Long-term background in professional design and analysis software has gave a good insight into presently available tools and workflows for student/engineer/designer and such knowledge is also transferred to the audience in his lectures/seminars/trainings.
He currently serves as the secretary for the EC3 Modelling and Standards Committee.