Recent news

Professor Pan served as a Session Chair for the 3rd China-Canada Symposium on Structural & Earthquake Engineering (CCSSEE) in Vancouver, Canada. Professor Pan delivered an invited speech about “Large language model-driven AI agents for smart inspection and construction: preliminary studies”.

Professor Pan served as a Session Chair for the “CV-Enhanced SHM” technical session at the 16th International Workshop on Advanced Smart Materials and Smart Structures Technology (ANCRiSST) in Hong Kong SAR. Professor Pan delivered an invited speech about “Computer vision-based structural damage inspection and health monitoring: recent studies”.

Professor Pan served as a Session Chair for the “Computer Vision for Civil Engineering” technical session at the 3rd Annual Symposium of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in Civil Engineering in Harbin, China. Professor Pan delivered a keynote presentation about “Computer vision-based structural damage inspection: past, present, and future”.

Professor Pan was awarded the “Young Engineer Merit Award” by the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) Symposium Tokyo 2025 in Tokyo, Japan. Professor Pan served as a Session Chair for the “AI for Construction” technical session and presented a research talk titled “Autonomous building indoor inspection using AI and unmanned aerial vehicles” at the IABSE.

The group’s recent review article titled “A review of recent advances in data driven computer vision methods for structural damage evaluation: algorithms, applications, challenges, and future opportunities” has been published in Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering. This paper provides a comprehensive discussion of theories and applications, compliance with codes and guidelines, and future opportunities on Multimodal Vision Language Models, vision-enhanced multi-sensor fusion, and vision-equipped mobile inspection.

Professor Pan joined the Early-Career Editorial Board of the Smart Construction Journal.

The collaborative project about Large-scale shake table tests on a controlled rocking high-rise building has been completed at the International Joint Research Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering (ILEE) in Shanghai. The project is led by the research teams at UBC (Dr. Tony Yang) and Tongji University (Dr. Yiqiu Lu), while other research teams at the University of Canterbury (Dr. Geoff Rodgers), South China University of Technology (Dr. Shuang Hou), and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Dr. Xiao Pan) contributed to the design and instrumentation of the project. In this project, Professor Pan led a team to investigate large language models, computer vision, 3D point clouds, and gyroscope technologies for high-precision measurement of the high-rise structure.

The paper titled “Assessment of out-of-plane structural defects using parallel laser line scanning system” was awarded the “Structural Excellence Award” by The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE).

The research teams at the Smart Infrastructure and Construction Research Cluster (SICRC) at UBC secured a major research grant (CAD$8.3 million) titled “Accelerated code implementation of high-performance energy efficient and carbon-neutral modular buildings”, funded by National Resources Canada (NRCan) and National Research Council Canada (NRC). As a Co-Applicant, Professor Pan led a team to develop and validate large language models for sensor-based monitoring of modular buildings.

Professor Pan joined the Smart Infrastructure and Construction Research Cluster (SICRC) at UBC as an Affiliated Board Member. The SICRC comprises elite researchers and leading industrial partners in Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Construction Management, to catalyze interdisciplinary research on smart infrastructure technologies.

Professor Pan received the Mitacs Globalink Research Award to conduct collaborative research between UBC and Imperial College London.

The UBC Smart Structures Research Group secured the Mitacs Accelerate Fund titled “Smart Automated AI-Driven Digital Construction using 5G network”, funded by Mitacs and Rogers Communication (top 3 telecom company in Canada). As a Co-Applicant, Professor Pan led a team to develop computer vision and point cloud techniques for construction site monitoring.