Professor Jennifer Schooling, former director of the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC), reflects on the remarkable journey of CSIC over the past decade as she steps down to assume a new role as Professor of Digital Innovation and Connected Places at Anglia Ruskin University. She states that from the early stages of research and experimentation with digital sensing tools to the development of digital twins, CSIC has played a pivotal role in shaping the smart infrastructure and construction industry.
Dr Schooling highlights the challenges of bridging the gap between research funding and industry adoption, emphasising the invaluable contributions of workshops that brought together technology companies, consultants, contractors, and clients. The collaborative efforts with industry partners, supported by CSIC's Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) funding, led to transformative progress in understanding and utilizing new sensing systems.
The journey involved addressing challenges such as taking a 'whole life' view of built environment assets and deploying sensors to gather historical data. Flagship projects, including monitoring the 400-year-old St Mary Abchurch during tunnelling and 150-year-old masonry bridges with Network Rail, provided valuable insights for construction projects and asset management.
CSIC's work extended beyond individual assets to understanding infrastructure systems as a whole, optimising performance based on a range of criteria and stakeholder needs. The emphasis on whole-life value-based approaches and futureproofing, including the Line of Sight project, addressed emerging challenges posed by climate change.
The challenges of managing data across the lifespan of assets led to the development of position papers, such as Smart Infrastructure, highlighting the potential of a data-centric approach. Dr Schooling acknowledges the ongoing role of CSIC's community of academics and industry partners in exploring cutting-edge solutions for resource-efficient, low-carbon, and equitable outcomes in the evolving landscape of infrastructure, construction, and city management.
In conclusion, Dr Schooling expresses gratitude to current and past colleagues at CSIC for their exemplary research and commitment, emphasising the continued importance of their work in advancing the industry.
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