On May 7, 2024, the “Innovation Base of Earthquake Engineering Comprehensive Simulation” 126th and 127th “Lecture Room” was successfully held. The keynote speakers were Professor Cancan Yang from McMaster University in Canada and Professor Yizhi Liu from Syracuse University in the United States. Professor Cancan Yang delivered a special report titled "Advancing Low-Damage Design for Precast Concrete Structures" online, while Professor Yizhi Liu delivered a special report titled "Worker-Centric Human-Robot Co-Adaptation In Construction" online.
The lecture was hosted and introduced by Professor Zhenning Ba and Associate Professor Fangbo Wang from the School of Civil Engineering at Tianjin University, the inviting hosts for the presentations. In her report, Professor Cancan Yang mainly discussed strategies for enhancing the seismic resilience of precast concrete structures, and introduced a novel hybrid, post-tensioned precast segmental pier aimed at balancing energy dissipation and enhancing self-centering capabilities. Professor Yizhi Liu, on the other hand, mainly discussed the use of cutting-edge techniques in computer vision, artificial intelligence, physiological sensing, and robot behavior adaptation to develop human-centered co-adaptation mechanisms for safe and efficient human-robot collaboration in the construction industry.
Following the presentations, Professor Cancan Yang and Professor Yizhi Liu engaged in lively discussions with Professor Zhenning Ba, Associate Professor Fangbo Wang and other attendees, and took a group photo to commemorate the event.
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Fig.1. Lecture by Professor Cancan Yang |
Fig.2. Lecture by Professor Yizhi Liu |
According to statistics, the lecture attracted a total of 151 teachers and students from Tianjin University, Henan University of Technology, North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Nanjing Forestry University, and Suzhou University of Science and Technology. The effect of the lecture was remarkable. Teachers and students responded enthusiastically to the lecture and looked forward to bringing more wonderful lectures to the broad masses of teachers and students.
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Fig.3. Group photo of experts and students |
Fig.4. Composition of attendees |
Introduction to Professor Cancan Yang:
Dr. Cancan Yang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at McMaster University. She earned her PhD degree from University at Buffalo in 2019. Her research is dedicated to addressing the urgent challenges faced by bridge engineering in the context of climate change, emerging transportation technologies, and the need for sustainable infrastructure development. In the context of extreme events, she strives for minimizing the socio-economic impacts of disasters on bridges through damage mitigation and quick recovery. Her research is anchored in a deep understanding of material behaviour and structural mechanics, enhanced by her expertise in conducting both laboratory and insitu testing, computational simulations, and data analytics. She applies her research findings towards extending the service life of bridges, developing innovative design and analysis tools, improving hazard mitigation techniques, and advancing accelerated bridge construction.
Since joining McMaster in October 2019, Yang has supervised 12 graduate students, including 6 PhD and 6 master’s students, and secured over CAD$2.2 million in research funding from external sources. Her collaborative efforts extend to a diverse range of industry partners, including public, private, and non-profit organizations such as the Ministry of Transportation in Ontario, the City of Toronto, Nova Scotia Public Works, Steelcon Ltd., FACCA Ltd., the Ontario Good Roads Association, and WSP. As of now, her research group has published 20 papers in Structural Engineering journals and developed practical engineering tools, including software, digital archives, and visualization platforms, now utilized by her industry partners.
Introduction to Professor Yizhi Liu:
Dr. Yizhi Liu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Syracuse University. His research focuses on addressing critical challenges in the civil and construction industry, including labor shortage, stagnant productivity, and safety issues, through innovation in advanced technology, such as robotics, wearable sensing, and immersive technologies. Dr. Liu’s work has primarily been in developing and implementing robotics and automated solutions for the construction industry, with a focus on human-centered worker-robot co-adaptation. He has established intelligent and adaptative mechanisms for workers and robots, enabling robots to adjust their performance based on perceptions of workers' movements and physiological and psychological states. These studies represent key insights regarding the safe and effective implementation of construction robotics and contribute to a technological revolution in the industry. Dr. Liu has published over 25 research papers in top-tier journals and conferences in the fields of automation and robotics in civil engineering. His research has been featured in national magazines such as the Inverse scientific magazine. Additionally, his research has been selected as the cover image in the Journal “Computer-aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering.” He is the Guest Editor for the Journal “Frontiers in Robotics and AI”. He has served as a reviewer for top journals and conferences in construction and civil engineering. He is also a committee member of the ASCE Global Center for Excellence in Computing and ASCE Data Sensing, and Analysis (DSA). Dr. Yizhi Liu has received several awards, including the (1) Gordon D. Kissinger Graduate Research Fellowship, (2) Robert W. Graham Endowed Graduate Fellowship, (3) Borda Graduate Scholarship Award, (4) Top 20Teams in the 2021 Nittany AI Challenge, and (5) Future Faculty Immersive Teaching Assistantship.
(Corresponding: Zhuofan Wu)
