Ming Lu

Biography

Ming Lu, PhD, PEng, is currently Associate Professor of Construction Engineering and Management in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta. Dr Lu graduated his PhD in 2000 from the same CEM program at U of A. He taught at Hong Kong Polytechnic University for 10 years and remained active in research. Dr Lu’s expertise is sought in industry including assisting the general contractor in streamlining field operations in the installation of “Bird’s Nest” steel structure built for Beijing 2008 Olympics. Among all the PhD students Dr Lu graduated based in Hong Kong, two have become professors employed at well recognized universities in US and Australia; one has started up a successful construction IT service company in Beijing, China. In Sept. 2010, Dr. Lu moved back to Alberta and assumed a faculty position in CEM to continue applied research and train graduate students in partnership with Alberta industry. Dr. Lu is widely known in the academic community of construction in project scheduling, surveying-construction integration, and interdisciplinary research for construction management. In the past three years, Dr. Lu and his team have developed a cost-effective, real-time automation solution that significantly increases accuracy and efficiency in tunnelling which can precisely track and position tunnelling equipment in underground space on the fly. Dr. Lu is the recipient of Fiatech 2013 Superior Technical Achievement Recognition (STAR) Award. Fiatech is the world-leading industry-academic consortium representing the largest owner, contractor and technology companies and the major research universities in the US and Canada to promote development and implementation of fully integrated and automated technology for construction industry.

Research Interest

Surveying-computing-construction integration and automation Methodologies and applications of construction operations simulation Enhancements to construction project scheduling Construction logistics optimization Applied photogrammetry for construction engineering Research Currently in Progress Structural analysis to ensure constructability of project schedules or operations simulation in bridge construction Energy infrastructure and facilities engineering and maintenance Visualizing and analyzing effects of geotechnical parameters in infrastructure construction Traffic engineering and modeling integrated with construction engineering in urban settings Modeling of articulated and kinematic equipment systems to facilitate construction engineering Infrastructure service condition assessment by sensor data, pattern recognition and computing on photos.