2025-08-30

Paper Multimodal data fusion for ergonomic assessment of construction workers in visually obstructed environments has been published in the journal Automation in Construction.

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are the leading cause of nonfatal injuries in the construction industry. Ergonomic assessment methods can effectively prevent these disorders. Vision-based ergonomic risk assessment methods are widely applied in construction sites due to their cost-effectiveness and non-invasiveness. However, existing vision-based methods often face challenges in accurately estimating worker pose in real construction sites with visually obstructed environments, such as self-obstruction, object obstruction, and body parts out of view. Additionally, these methods lack consideration of external load factors for ergonomics. To overcome these issues, this paper proposes a multimodal ergonomic assessment method, combining visual data and pressure signals. Multimodal method integrates pressure and visual data in a unified feature space, improving pose estimation results and providing external load metrics for a more comprehensive ergonomic assessment. Field experiments show that the accuracy of pose estimation and risk assessment is enhanced, supporting the safety and health of construction workers.

Note: Automation in Construction is a top journal in the field of engineering technology in the Q1 zone, with an impact factor of 11.5 in 2025. The first author of the paper is Chen Xinyu, a doctoral student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Yu Yantao from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is the corresponding author. The research results were supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key R&D Program of China, the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program, the Early Career Scheme from the Research Grants Council (Hong Kong) , and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation.

2025-08-23

With the support of the National Key Research and Development Program, the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation Project, and the Teaching Reform Project of Tsinghua SIGS, the textbook "Numerical Analysis Experiment" has been published and distributed by Tsinghua University Press. This textbook was edited by myself and jointly compiled by the members of the research group, including Min Yantao, Jiang Xiyuan, He Jiaze, Liu Yi and others.

Numerical computing is a core component in scientific computing and engineering applications, and is widely used in fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, finance, and engineering. It solves practical problems through mathematical models and algorithms, especially when there is no exact solution. Numerical calculation provides an effective approximate solution method. With the rapid development of computer technology, the scale and complexity of numerical computing are constantly increasing, which puts forward higher requirements for computing efficiency and accuracy. Based on this background, we have combined classroom teaching and engineering application experience to compile this textbook in response to actual teaching needs.

This book is a guidebook dedicated to numerical analysis experiments. Through carefully designed experimental projects, it leads readers to deeply understand the basic concepts and methods of numerical analysis, helping them lay a solid foundation and enhance their practical abilities. The content covers the basic principles of numerical calculation, algorithm implementation and practical application cases, aiming to help readers master the core knowledge of numerical analysis and be proficient in conducting numerical calculation experiments using the C# programming language and the Visual Studio platform. This book has distinct features. Its experimental content is highly systematic, the experimental cases are practical, and the experimental environment is user-friendly.

The readership mainly consists of senior undergraduate and graduate students, researchers engaged in scientific computing and engineering applications, as well as university teachers in related fields. It can be used as a teaching reference book or self-study guide.

2025-08-18

Recently, "Urban  Infrastructure Operation and Maintenanc" was officially published and distributed by China Architecture & Building Press as one of the "Series Textbooks for Intelligent Construction Majors in Higher Education Institutions". This textbook was edited by Professor Fang Dongping and co-authored by myself, Fang Weili, Shi Zhongqi, Li Nan, Chen Xuanqi, Liu Wenli and others. It has been selected as a textbook for the "14th Five-Year Plan" of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and a planned textbook by the Expert Committee for Course Textbooks and Teaching Resources of Civil Engineering and Architecture Specialties in Higher Education Institutions.

This textbook focuses on the operation and maintenance stage throughout the entire life cycle of urban infrastructure. It mainly introduces the theories, technologies and practices related to the operation and maintenance of urban infrastructure under the background of intelligence, and elaborates on how to use emerging digital technologies to improve the efficiency and quality of infrastructure operation and maintenance, ensure the safety of urban infrastructure operation and maintenance, and better serve urban residents. It aims to provide readers with a systematic set of learning materials. The textbook is divided into seven chapters, covering the introduction, key common technologies, operation and maintenance management and operation robots, digital energy and environmental management, asset management and value engineering, urban infrastructure resilience, and comprehensive case analysis, among other contents.

This book highlights the cross-integration of multiple disciplines, integrating knowledge from various fields such as intelligent construction, civil engineering, electronic information, and control engineering. It adheres to technological leadership and practical orientation, and through the analysis of real cases, discusses the intelligent operation and maintenance strategies and implementation paths of key infrastructure.

This textbook is not only applicable to the teaching of courses related to "Infrastructure Operation and Maintenance" in higher education institutions, but also can provide a reference for scientific researchers and engineering technicians engaged in infrastructure operation and maintenance management.

Buy books links: https://item.jd.com/10172732966707.html.

2025-08-15

Recently, I was invited to serve as the deputy director of the Sixth Industry-University-Research Working Committee of the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. I feel deeply honored to take up this position and am well aware of the heavy responsibility on my shoulders. In the future, we will adhere to the mission of the society and work together with the colleagues of the committee to jointly promote the innovative development of the discipline of mechanics, facilitate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and the cultivation of talents.

The Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics was established in February 1957 under the joint advocacy and organization of renowned mechanics scholars such as Qian Xuesen, Zhou Peiyuan, Qian Weichang and Guo Yonghuai. It is a national, academic and non-profit social organization, with the China Association for Science and Technology as its supervisory authority. The society is committed to uniting mechanics science and technology workers across the country, conducting academic exchanges, popularizing mechanics knowledge, cultivating mechanics talents, and actively promoting the integration of mechanics science and technology with national economic construction, making contributions to China's socialist modernization drive.

2025-08-11

A natural-language-based approach to intelligent data retrieval and representation for cloud BIM has been cited 200 times on Google Scholar.

As the information from diverse disciplines continues to integrate during the whole life cycle of an Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) project, the BIM (Building Information Model/Modeling) becomes increasingly large. This condition will cause users difficulty in acquiring the information they truly desire on a mobile device with limited space for interaction. The situation will be even worse for personnel without extensive knowledge of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) or for nonexperts of the BIM software. To improve the value of the big data of BIM, an approach to intelligent data retrieval and representation for cloud BIM applications based on natural language processing was proposed. First, strategies for data storage and query acceleration based on the popular cloud-based database were explored to handle the large amount of BIM data. Then, the concepts “keyword” and “constraint” were proposed to capture the key objects and their specifications in a natural-language-based sentence that expresses the requirements of the user. Keywords and constraints can be mapped to IFC entities or properties through the International Framework for Dictionaries (IFD). The relationship between the user's requirement and the IFC-based data model was established by path finding in a graph generated from the IFC schema, enabling data retrieval and analysis. Finally, the analyzed and summarized results of BIM data were represented based on the structure of the retrieved data. A prototype application was developed to validate the proposed approach on the data collected during the construction of the terminal of Kunming Airport, the largest single building in China. The case study illustrated the following: (1) relationships between the user requirements and the data users concerned are established, (2) user-concerned data can be automatically retrieved and aggregated based on the cloud for BIM, and (3) the data are represented in a proper form for a visual view and a comprehensive report. With this approach, users can significantly benefit from requesting for information and the value of BIM will be enhanced.

Note: COMPUTER-AIDED CIVIL AND INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING is a top journal in the field of engineering and technology, with an impact factor of 9.1 in 2025. Teacher Lin Jiarui is the first author of the paper, and I am the corresponding author.