From Monday 19 January to Friday 23 January 2026, CTTU and TBM DiGS 2026 took place at Monash University in Melbourne, bringing together the international community in digital tunnelling and underground engineering.

• The week began on Monday (19 January) with the student competition, where three teams from the Digital Engineering group at Durham University participated. Huamei Zhu and Zehao Ye received the Sustainability Award for their work.

• On Tuesday (20 January), the programme marked the 40th anniversary of Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology (TUST), offering an opportunity to reflect on the journal’s development and impact.

• Wednesday (21 January) featured delivery of a Digital Engineering course and a visit to the Victorian Tunnelling Centre, highlighting innovation and training in underground construction.

• The conference officially opened on Thursday (22 January), with presentations on cutting-edge research, including work on training-free tunnel segmentation using large vision models for inspection with minimal data.

• The week concluded on Friday (23 January) with a keynote lecture on recent advances in Digital Twins, focusing on meshless methods for improved accuracy and uncertainty handling.

The event showcased strong international collaboration and left a lasting impression of Monash University and vibrant Melbourne.

Professor Jelena Ninic delivered a keynote at the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) at the conference on Managing Existing Structures Conference, where she presented research in the session “The Use of Digital Tools to Maintain Existing Structures.”

Her presentation, titled “Machine Learning and Computer Vision as Enablers for Automation of Inspection of Structures,” showcased recent work from the Digital Engineering Group at the Durham University Department of Engineering. The research demonstrated how automation in structural inspection and analysis can be significantly advanced by leveraging and augmenting powerful foundation and large vision models, enabling high levels of accuracy even with minimal data requirements.

The session was followed by a highly engaging panel discussion with Jan Winkler and Matthew Petticrew, chaired by Alex Carter. The discussion provided insightful perspectives from both academia and industry and fostered a lively exchange on the future of digital tools for managing existing structures.s.

Professor Jelena Ninic delivered  a lecture in the Structures Research Group Seminar Series at the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering.

Her lecture, titled “From Data Through Modelling to Decisions: Advancing Towards Prescriptive Digital Twins,” focused on the development of next-generation digital tools that integrate data and models to enable intelligent, real-time decision-making for infrastructure systems.

Professor Ninic presented her group’s latest work on digital model reconstruction and simulation integration, showcasing research initiated through her Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (SATBIM) and continued by her current Marie Curie Fellows (Hoang-)Giang Bui, Hassan (Milad) Liravi, and Huamei Zhu on predictive digital twins.

Her presentation highlighted the group’s advances in meshless and hybrid numerical methods, including Isogeometric Analysis (IGA), CutFEM, and the Singular Boundary Method (SBM), to address key challenges in soil–structure interaction, excavation modelling, and the assessment of buried infrastructure.

Professor Ninic expressed her gratitude to Professor Fehmi Cirak and the Cambridge team for their kind invitation and stimulating exchange of ideas.

As of 1 October, Professor Jelena Ninic has joined Durham University as Professor of Digital Engineering.

Professor Ninic leads the Digital Engineering Group, comprising Huamei, (Hoang-)Giang, Hassan (Milad), Yi, Jianyu, Kamil, Zehao, and Yunping. The group’s research focuses on developing next-generation Digital Twin technologies for infrastructure systems — combining computational modelling, data analytics, and artificial intelligence to support safer, smarter, and more sustainable engineering solutions.

Building on a strong foundation of interdisciplinary collaboration, the group aims to advance fundamental understanding of digital methods while expanding their application across the built environment, from tunnelling and geotechnics to asset management and resilience.

Professor Ninic’s appointment marks an important step in strengthening Durham’s capabilities in digitalisation, innovation, and cross-disciplinary engineering research, supporting the University’s broader strategic vision to integrate digital technologies across engineering education and practice.

We are delighted to share that the UKACM–GACM Autumn School 2025 has been successfully completed!

The four-day programme, brought together more than 400 registered participants from across the world for an in-depth training experience on open-source codes for high-performance computing.

The school was jointly organised by the UK Association for Computational Mechanics (UKACM) and the German Association for Computational Mechanics (GACM). As UKACM President, Professor Jelena Ninic had the pleasure of opening the event, which she co-organised together with Dr Alex Popp (GACM Executive Committee member) and her Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellows (Hoang-)Giang Bui and Hassan (Milad) Liravi.

Throughout the week, participants engaged with world-class researchers through lectures, tutorials, and hands-on sessions, gaining practical experience with some of the most advanced computational tools available.

 Programme Highlights:

🔹 Day 1: Introduction to the Spectral/hp Element Method with #Nektar++, excellently delivered by Dr Mohsen Lahooti, Prof. Chris Cantwell, Dr Guglielmo Vivarelli, Dr Kaloyan K., and Víctor Ballester Ribó, with tutorial support from Dr Henrik Wüstenberg, Ted Stokes, Junjie Ye, and Harry D.

🔹 Days 2–3: Intensive training sessions on #4C and #QUEENS, led by researchers from Technical University of Munich (Gil Robalo Rei, Christoph Schmidt), Bundeswehr University (Matthias Mayr, Sebastian Brandstäter), and Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon (Georg Hammerl, Ingo Scheider).

🔹 Day 4: Lectures and hands-on practice on #OpenFOAM, delivered by UK researchers Dr Chandan Bose (University of Birmingham) and Dr Emad Tandis (Aston University).

This collaborative initiative between UKACM and GACM provided a unique opportunity to strengthen international links, promote open-source code development, and support the next generation of computational mechanics researchers.

Professor Jelena Ninic, President of the UK Association for Computational Mechanics (UKACM) delivered the opening plenary lecture at the ECCOMAS EURO:TUN 2025 Conference in TU Vienna, Asutria. 

Her lecture, titled “Towards Prescriptive Digital Twins for Tunnelling,” presented recent advances in digital engineering and outlined future directions for the development and application of prescriptive digital twins in underground construction.

The session was introduced by Professor Günther Meschke, Professor Ninic’s PhD supervisor and long-time mentor, marking a particularly proud moment in her professional journey. In her plenary, Professor Ninic reflected on the formative influence of the EURO:TUN conference series, which she has attended five times,  in shaping her research trajectory, before showcasing the latest work from her Digital Engineering Group and announcing the team’s next major research initiative.

In addition to the plenary lecture, Professor Ninic co-organised a minisymposium on DigitalTwins for Tunnelling, together with Professor Günther Meschke, Associate Professor Qianbing Zhang, and Associate Professor Valentina Villa. The minisymposium featured 11 high-quality contributions highlighting current progress and challenges in digital twin technologies for tunnelling applications.

Research from the Digital Engineering Group was prominently featured, with presentations by (Hoang-)Giang Bui, Hassan (Milad) Liravi, Huamei Zhu, and Zehao Ye from Professor Ninic’s group, reflecting the strong engagement of early-career researchers in advancing the field.

On 16 July 2025, we were delighted to host Prof. Quanbing Zhang at the University of Birmingham for an inspiring seminar on “Sustainable and Resilient Underground Infrastructure.” His talk reflected on the evolution of underground space technologies and highlighted the growing role of sustainability and digital innovation in shaping the future of our field.

As current Associate Editor of Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology (TUST), it was a particular pleasure to welcome Prof. Zhang and reflect together on the journal’s legacy—he shared key milestones and publication volumes of TUST since its founding in 1976. With four members of the TUST Editorial Board based at Birmingham, including former Editor-in-Chief Prof. Chris Rogers and myself, our connection to the journal’s academic leadership remains strong.

Prof. Zhang also had the opportunity to tour the National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF)—a world-class hub for applied underground infrastructure research—and engage with colleagues and researchers, including Dr. Daniel Boddice and our Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellows: Dr. Giang Bui, Dr. Milad Liravi, and Dr. Huamei Zhu.

We are grateful to Prof. Zhang for his visit and look forward to continuing the dialogue at the Underground Space 50 Years & TUST 40 Years Celebration during the CTTU & TBM DiGs 2026 conference in Melbourne, where I will be giving a keynote on “Automation in Digital Modelling and Assessment for Optimised Design and Operation of Buried Infrastructure.”

The 32nd International Workshop on Intelligent Computing in Engineering (EG-ICE 2025), held this week at the University of Strathclyde, was a vibrant and inspiring forum for digital engineering research and collaboration.

Our team made a strong contribution to the workshop:

🔹 Yunping delivered an excellent first conference presentation on her paper titled “A conditional diffusion model for bridge point cloud repair.” Her work attracted attention for its novel approach and technical depth.

📄 Read the full paper

🔹 Amanda presented her impactful work “Digitalisation platform for modelling TBM tunnel construction: enhancing interoperability and collaboration,” co-authored with Qianbing Zhang. The presentation highlighted advances in integrated digital workflows for tunnelling projects.

📄 Read the full paper

The event was also an excellent opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and explore future collaborations. It was a pleasure to catch up with Prof. Christian Koch, whose mentorship during my Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship has been instrumental in shaping my academic path.

The workshop was filled with engaging discussions, new ideas, and a strong sense of community. Members of our DigitalEngineering team, including Zehao Ye and Juan Camilo Avendaño, were also in attaining, adding to the lively exchange of expertise and enthusiasm.

This week, we joined the global celebration of International Women in Engineering Day, shining a spotlight on the inspiring women shaping the future of engineering.  This is a great opportunity to highlight two brilliant engineers whose achievements and journeys we are proud to celebrate.

Dr. Amanda Huang, former PhD student and now Lecturer in Construction Management, returned to visit us and presented her outstanding research on digital twins for underground infrastructure. Amanda’s personal and professional growth has been remarkable, and it was a true pleasure to reconnect, reflect on her journey, and explore opportunities for future collaboration. We are incredibly proud of all she has achieved.

We also had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Huamei Zhu, an accomplished researcher from Monash University, who joined us this week as a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Birmingham. As she embarks on this exciting new chapter, we are thrilled to support her as part of our Digital Engineering group and look forward to the impactful research ahead.

At the University of Birmingham, we are committed to mentoring and empowering the next generation of women engineers, and we are proud to celebrate their successes this week and every week.

This week, the Digital Engineering team from the University of Birmingham proudly took part in the 2nd Olympiad in Engineering Science, hosted by the University of Stavanger.

Our researchers presented two innovative contributions at the forefront of AI-driven infrastructure assessment:

🔹 Kamil Altinay introduced a novel approach in his talk “Less is More: Dataset Optimisation for Enhanced Automated Sewer Damage Detection.” His research highlighted how smaller, carefully curated datasets can outperform large, noisy datasets—paving the way for more robust and efficient asset maintenance strategies.

🔹 Zehao Ye showcased collaborative work on “Automated Damage Report Generation via Panoptic Segmentation of Ultra-High-Resolution Tunnel Images,” a project developed in partnership with Qi Li (Fuzhou University), Giuseppe Desiderio, and Prof Valentina Villa (Politecnico di Torino). This work explores how advanced image analysis can automate and enhance tunnel inspection processes.

We extend our sincere thanks to Prof. Dimitrios Pavlou and Prof. Hojjat Adeli for organizing this inspiring and forward-looking event. The Olympiad continues to be a vital platform for uniting diverse engineering disciplines to shape the future of data-driven research.

The 2025 UK Association for Computational Mechanics (UKACM) Conference, held at Queen Mary University of London, has been hailed as a resounding success — the best-attended UKACM meeting to date. Hosted impeccably by Dr Wei Tan and Dr Emilio Martínez Pañeda, the conference brought together leading researchers from over 60 universities to share cutting-edge developments in computational mechanics.

Among the standout moments was the Minisymposium on “Advanced Numerical and Data-Driven Methods in Ground Engineering”, which emerged as the largest of the meeting with 16 high-quality contributions. Highlights included a keynote lecture by Dr Zhiwei Gao and an invited talk by Dr Alexandros Petalas.

The Digital Engineering team from the School of Engineering, University of Birmingham had a strong presence and showcased our work:

• (Hoang-)Giang Bui presented a new substepping procedure for robust constitutive modelling of soils. Read the preprint

• Hassan Liravi introduced an innovative meshless approach for optimizing buried structures to reduce vibration impact in elastic media — a talk made even more memorable by real-life vibrations from the London Underground! Read the full paper

With delegates from across the UK and beyond, the University of Birmingham ranked third in terms of delegate numbers and played a key role in shaping the technical programme by co-organising three Minisymposia — a testament to the university’s growing impact in computational mechanics.

Special thanks go to Dr Mingchao Liu and Dr Chandan Bose for their role in co-organising Minisymposia alongside the Birmingham team.

This year also marked a milestone me, as she took on her first term as President of UKACM, actively supporting the coordination of this landmark event.

The UKACM community now looks ahead to UKACM 2026, which will be hosted at the University of Liverpool by Dr Xue Zhang.

We were delighted to host Dr François-Xavier Bécot from MATELYS – Research Lab for a fascinating lecture titled "From Microscopic to Multi-Scale Dissipation in Poro-Elastic Materials: Characterisation, Modelling, and Implementation."

Dr Bécot shared state-of-the-art research on noise abatement technologies, exploring the complex behaviour of poro-elastic materials and their role in multi-scale energy dissipation. His insights into characterisation techniques, modelling strategies, and practical implementation sparked engaging discussions among researchers from acoustics, material science, and structural dynamics.

A big thank you to FX for his inspiring talk and for sharing his expertise with our community. We look forward to future collaborations in this exciting area of research!

It was a pleasure to host Dr. Giorgia Giardina form TU Delft for her insightful talk on "Use of Remote Sensing Techniques in Post-Earthquake Reconnaissance Missions."

This was was a fascinating deep dive into how modern technology is transforming disaster response.

Dr. Giardina presented innovative methods for rapid post-earthquake damage assessment using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, demonstrating how remote sensing can complement field investigations when safety and accessibility are major concerns. The discussion highlighted the challenges of integrating diverse data sources and the potential of these techniques to improve urban resilience and emergency response strategies.

Following the talk, we had a productive discussion, exchanging ideas on the future of remote sensing in structural assessment, disaster mitigation, and infrastructure monitoring

A huge thank you to Dr. Giardina for an engaging and thought-provoking presentation that sparked great discussions and new ideas!

We are delighted to announce that Ali Gamra has successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Real-Time Assessment of Tunnelling-Induced Damage to Structures within the Building Information Modelling Framework" at the University of Nottingham!

Ali’s research has made a significant contribution to the integration of BIM and real-time damage assessment in tunneling, advancing digital engineering solutions for infrastructure resilience.

A special thank you to the examiners Dr Georgia Giardina from TU Delft and Prof Alec Marshall from the University of Nottingham, co-supervisors, and collaborators who have supported this research and contributed to its success.

Our Digital Engineering team from the School of Engineering, University of Birmingham had a strong presence at DTE2025 and AICOMAS2025, hosted at Arts et Métiers. Contributing to the Minisymposium on Data-Driven Methods and Digital Twin Applications in Geotechnical and Ground Engineering, we presented three exciting research talks:

🔹 Digital Twin for Damage Modelling of Tunnel Linings – Presented by Jelena Ninic, with contributions from Zehao Ye, (Hoang-)Giang Bui, Valentina Villa, and Paola Alice Rosa Cavallaro.

🔹 Bayesian Optimisation of Underground Railway Tunnels Using a Surrogate Model – Presented by Hassan Liravi, in collaboration with Javad Fakhraei.

🔹 Surrogate Modeling for Interactive Subrectangular Tunnel Track Design using the Cut Finite Element Method – Presented by (Hoang-)Giang Bui, in collaboration with Ba Trung Cao, Tai-Tien Nguyen, Van-Vi Pham, and Ngoc Anh Do.

It was a fantastic opportunity to exchange ideas, discuss the future of digital twins and data-driven modeling, and engage with leading experts in the field. Many thanks to the organizers and all participants for an inspiring and productive conference!

We are thrilled to share the success of our Minisymposium on Data-Driven Methods and Digital Twin Applications in Geotechnical and Ground Engineering, held at DTE2025 and the AICOMAS Conference!

Co-organized with colleagues Dr. Ba Trung Cao and Prof. Günther Meschke (Ruhr University Bochum), and Dr. Hassan Liravi and Dr. (Hoang-)Giang Bui (University of Birmingham), our MS005 session featured cutting-edge research and insightful discussions.

🔹 Keynote Highlights:

✅ Prof. Brian Sheil (University of Cambridge) – Digital Twins for underground engineering

✅ Prof. Pin Zhang (National University of Singapore) – Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) in geotechnics

🔹 Technical Sessions:

With 15 contributed talks across three engaging sessions, we explored:

✔ Surrogate modeling and adaptive sampling for improved data efficiency

✔ Digital Twin workflows under uncertainty

✔ Automation in digital twin generation

✔ Inverse analysis and real-world applications in underground engineering

Thrilled to share that our paper has been featured in Engineering Structures (Vol. 321, Europe) for its innovation, originality, findings, and quality!

This work, led by Manuela Cabrera-Duran during her PhD under the supervision of Walid Tizani and myself, has already received multiple accolades, including:

🏆 Best Conference Paper Awards at UKACM 2022 & ICCCBE 2022

🏆 IStructE Midlands Research Award 2023

📄 Paper Title: Fusion of Experimental and Numerical Data for Development of Extended Hollo-Bolt Component-Based Model

You can download our pare on the following link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141029624014949 

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Huamei Zhu has been awarded a highly competitive Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship for her project M-Twin4US: Maintenance-oriented Digital Twin for Underground Infrastructure. The project will leverage sensing technologies, machine learning, BIM, and simulation to develop innovative solutions for underground infrastructure maintenance.Huamei’s proposal achieved an outstanding 97.6% score, with Excellence rated 5/5 on her very first submission, right after completing her PhD—a remarkable achievement!

In July, Huamei visited the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham to collaborate with our team, preparing a compelling case for her research at the National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF). We are thrilled to support her pioneering work and to see the exciting outcomes of this fellowship.

A huge thank you to our colleagues and partners who supported this successful application: Nicole Metje (co-supervisor), Chris Rogers, Daniel Boddice, Asaad Faramarzi, our partner Brian Sheil from the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, and Severn Trent. Special thanks also to Qianbing Zhang, Huamei’s PhD mentor.

We look forward to seeing Huamei’s project grow and her academic career flourish!

We are delighted to welcome Ksenija Micić to the School of Engineering, University of Birmingham for her research stay. Ksenija is a geologist working on digital and numerical modelling of ground, considering soil variability and uncertainties. Another important piece of the puzzle for our Prescriptive Digital Twins for underground vision.

I’m particularly happy to strengthen collaboration with my old home institution University of Belgrade, Faculty of Civil Engineering, and I’m looking forward to this project and many other to come to transfer knowledge and technologies, and tackle pressing challenges to better design, construct and maintain our infrastructure.

On 1st of January 2025 Jelena started her service as President of the UK Association for Computational Mechanics (UKACM).

In the past years, she served in the UKACM EC as UKACM2022 Conference organiser and Chair, International Association for Computational Mechanics General Council member, and Vice-president. Now, she has taken this new role, with the goal to keep contributing to building and promoting UKACM community.

As president Jelena remis to be part of IACM general council and she becomes ECCOMAS manging board member.  

We have kicked off Giang's prestigious MarieCurie fellowship – TwinSSI on Digital Twin for Soil-Structure Interaction in collaboration with our partners Maidl Tunnelconsultants (Dr. Janosch Stascheit) and Network Rail (Matthew Kirke).

With TwinSSI, we aim to break new ground in integrating digital and advanced numerical models (CutFEM and IGA) and realize a living Digital Twin for soil-structure interaction, focusing on the effects of excavation on existing buildings at the National Buried Infrastructure Facility.

Dr. Hoang Giang Bui has joined the team and has started preparing for the launch of his TwinSSI project: Digital Twin Modelling for Soil-Structure Interaction based on CutFEM and BIM technologies as part of his Marie Curie Fellowship.

The team was impressed to learn about the numerous advances Giang has made in developing multi-physics simulations for structural applications, including isogeometric analysis, the CutFEM method, contact mechanics, constitutive modelling of solids, and plasticity modelling.

We are thrilled to begin this exciting project and look forward to numerous collaborations within the team to deliver an automated, executable digital twin for structures and soil-structure interaction problems.

1st secondment of Marie Curie fellow Hassan Liravi at MATELYS - Research Lab. Fruitful and lively discussions about mitigation of railway induced vibrations and noise within Meta-NOVIB project. 

Simulation methods will be based on SBM (Singular Boundary Method) and MFS (Method of Fundamental Solution) and experiments will rely on the facilities of Network Rail company.

I had the pleasure of opening a seminar lecture series at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Oxford, with my talk, Towards Digital Twins for Ground Engineering. In this lecture, I shared insights into some of my team's recent work, focusing on key enablers of #digital #twins for underground engineering. It was an exciting opportunity to discuss the future of digital transformation in ground engineering with such an engaged audience. The presentation of my talk can be found under this link. 

I have delivered a keynote lecture at the Smart Geotechnics Conference (GESmart), where she presented her team’s latest advancements in Automation in Digital Twin Reconstruction, specifically applied to Underground Infrastructure. The lecture showcased innovative approaches that are helping to reshape the design, construction, and management of underground spaces. Thanks to Ground Engineering Magazine for the invitation to share and explore these groundbreaking developments alongside leading experts in the field.

We were delighted to welcome Huamei Zhu to the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham, alongside the National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF), to collaborate on her Marie Curie fellowship proposal. Huamei deliverd lecture on Data and simulation-driven maintenance for underground infrastructure, a field with tremendous potential for advancing infrastructure resilience and longevity.

We extend our gratitude to the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham for supporting Huamei's visit with a travel grant, and we look forward to a successful outcome for her fellowship proposal in the coming year.

We are thrilled to welcome our Marie Curie fellow, Dr. Hassan Liravi, to the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham. Hassan will be working on the METANovib project, which focuses on creating a Digital Twin for controlling railway-induced noise and vibration in underground tunnels using advanced metamaterials. This ambitious project is being conducted in collaboration with MATELYS - Research Lab and Network Rail.

An expert in computational mechanics, Hassan presented an impressive summary of his PhD work on meshless methods for soil-structure interactions in elastodynamics, highlighting his expertise in this area. My team and I are excited about the future of our work together in developing intelligent, knowledge-rich digital twins.

I had the honor of delivering a keynote lecture at the 7th Annual School of Engineering PGR Symposium at the University of Birmingham. The lecture focused on the transformative role of AI and Digital Modeling in Engineering, showcasing recent advances and their impact on modern engineering practices. The talk highlights  digital modelling for predictive maintenance, design accuracy, risk mitigation, lifecycle management, and data integration, leading to more efficient, safe, and sustainable projects.

 I was invited to present a seminar lecture at KTH on Automation in Reconstruction of Digital Twins for Civil Infrastructure. The talk highlighted how advanced Building Information Modeling (BIM) and computational tools are transforming project planning, design optimization, and maintenance in infrastructure projects.

Covering topics such as automated digital model reconstruction from diverse data, integration of BIM with high-fidelity numerical models, and AI-driven inspection methods, I demonstrated how these tools enable efficient decision-making, cost reduction, and sustainable practices across project life cycles. This lecture underscored the immense potential of digital twins in advancing civil infrastructure.