Updated: November 20, 2021
The international workshop of smart infrastructure development towards smart city was successfully held on 20 Nov. 2021. The one-day online workshop was jointly organized by Shantou University, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Research Institute for Land and Space (RILS)). Prof. Shuilong SHEN and Dr. Zhen-Yu YIN kindly served as the chairs of the workshop, and Dr. Pei WANG, Dr. Linshuang ZHAO and Dr. Ning ZHANG worked as conference secretaries.
The workshop began with Prof. Shuilong SHEN’s opening speech. Sixteen influential professors in related fields from Singapore, France, Hong Kong, Macau, and Shantou were invited to share their cutting-edge research on the future development of smart infrastructures in cities. This workshop attracted more than 200 audiences all over the world and raised waves of heated and interesting discussion.
On the recent development of AI-related geological investigation, Prof. Jian Chu from Nanyang Technological University and Prof. Yu Wang from City University of Hong Kong introduced their excellent works on 3D geological model and smart geotechnical site investigation, respectively. A 3D geological model and a web-sharing system were established for geological information sharing in infrastructure construction in cities. Prof. Limin Zhang gave an expressive report on AI-powered landslide identification and prediction method, which demonstrated the great potential of AI in advancing landslide identification, susceptibility assessment, forecasting, and path prediction.
Referring to structure monitoring and modelling, Prof. Jian-Hua Yin from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University shared his latest research on the automatic monitoring of old stonewalls and large trees in Hong Kong using PolyU optical fiber sensing technology. This study demonstrated the feasibility of application of optical fiber sensing technology for monitoring dynamic deflections of trees and deformations of stonewalls. Moreover, the technology is also able to provide service life monitoring and early warning of important geotechnical structures. Prof. Gang Wang from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology reported the large-Scale numerical simulations on site-city interaction of super-tall buildings. Prof. Wanhuan Zhou in Macou University presented a deformation analysis of immersed tunnel by using physical-informed machine learning method.
As for geomaterial-related research, Prof. Jidong Zhao from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Dr. Pei Wang presented their fantastic research on granular material modelling by using advanced numerical method. Prof. Jianfeng Wang from City University of Hong Kong described a smart modelling method of sands using X-ray micro-CT, DEM, and machine learning method. Prof. Jianfu Shao in Université de Lille shared his insight on the contribution of micromechanics and machine-learning to modeling and design of smart cement-based materials. The combination of ML and micromechanical models provides a powerful tool to understand relationships between micro-structures and macroscopic properties of geomaterial.
In the city planning and optimization, Prof. Xiaoli Ding in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Director of RILS) first shared an impressive idea of Elevated Cities, and then exampled with two cases of PolyU campus and Hung Hom Green Deck. The Elevated City can tackle the land supply problem in ultra-large cities like Hong Kong. Dr. Zhen-Yu Yin from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University gave a presentation on the practice of optimization theory in geotechnical engineering. The optimization theory was applied to intelligently select models using laboratory or in-situ measurements, which are significantly important for the safety of the infrastructure construction.
In the aspect of safety and maintenance of city infrastructures, Prof. Pierre-Yves Hicher from Ecole Centale de Nantes discussed the indicators of instability in granular slopes and analyzed different models of failure that developed in granular materials. This research provided an explicit interpretation on the mechanism of slopes failure. Prof. Francois Nicot in Université Savoie Mont-Blanc also exhibited am outstanding presentation on a multiscale approach in rockfall and snow avalanche mitigation. A promising road is open toward efficient analysis and mitigation of mass-driven natural hazards. Dr. Chengxiang Zhuge from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University gave a report on the battery swap stations deployment for shared electric vehicles using trajectory data, which provide an effective method for the design of the charging infrastructures of electric vehicles.
At the end of the workshop, Prof. Shuilong Shen introduced a new programme on the smart city interdisciplinary in Shantou University. In the near future, the smart city interdisciplinary is going to create a joint laboratory or international cooperation platform and launch an international journal with the theme of smart city management or construction. The workshop ended with Dr. Zhen-Yu Yin’s closing remarks in which he thanked all the speakers and audiences on behalf the organization committee.