News


BiLAB receives an NSF Convergence Accelerator grant, 2024.

Professor Semiha Ergan and the collaborating research team received Phase I grant with the project: Slime Mold Inspired Self-Assembling Conveyor System for Flood Response.” Launched in 2019, the NSF Convergence Accelerator builds upon basic research and discovery to accelerate solutions toward societal impact.



BiLAB receives an NSF CIVIC Phase II grant, 2024.

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Professor Semiha Ergan (BiLAB) and collaborating research team (Professor Chen Feng -AI4CE) received a $1 million NSF grant for enhancing building inspections using AI and robotics with the project: SCC-CIVIC-FA Track A: Targeted Micro-retrofits based on Building Envelope Scans using Drones, GPR, and Deep Neural Networks. Check the details here: Tandon News & NSF Award Search



BiLAB participated in NYU Tandon Research Exhibit, 2023 with multiple projects.

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One of them was with robotic scene recognition using Lego-based wall frames. read details here: News article



BiLab participated in the National STEM Day event held on November 8, 2023

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BiLab participated in the National STEM Day event held on November 8, 2023, by providing VR demonstrations to high school students from NYC. This event was organized by C2SMART and ITE MET Section. The event involved interactive activities like career roundtable discussions, work zone design exercises, and hands-on VR experiences. It took place at the C2SMART Center Viz Lab at 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, and was part of a broader initiative to engage students from the Bronx High School of Science with the latest technologies and discussions about careers in STEM fields. For more details about the event and other related news, you can visit the C2SMART page



New members joined Bilab in fall 2023.

Please join me in welcoming Shuo, Heng, and Qi, who joined our team in Fall 2023. Greetings to all!



Bilab received CUSP seed grant.

CUSP Seed Grant Winners 2023. Bilab won the CUSP Seed Grant for urban sustainability.



Beyza Kiper Awarded Urban Doctoral Fellowship.

We are elated to share that Bilab’s PhD candidate, Beyza Kiper, has received the Urban Doctoral Fellowship for 2023-2024. Congratulations, Beyza!



Professor Ergan has received the 2023 Distinguished Teacher Award! Congratulations!

2023 Tandon Faculty Awards. It’s honor to announce that Dr. Ergan received the 2023 Tandon Faculty Award! She has been teaching 5 years enthusiastically.



biLAB receives DOE EROBOT prize.

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biLAB unites forces with ai4ce in DOE’s EROBOT competition and wins PhaseI prize! The NYU Tandon team, NYU E-ROBOT, led by our graduate students: @Dan Lu (CUE PhD at BiLab), @Xuchu Xu (MAE PhD at AI4CE Lab) @Bilal Sher (CUE MS at AI4CE Lab), and advised by Prof. Semiha Ergan and Prof. Chen Feng, has just won a $200,000 cash prize as one of the ten teams out of 69 teams worldwide (i.e., 396 innovators). This cash prize will be awarded to the team soon for developing EASEEBot, a robotic Envelope Assessment System for Energy Efficiency, with a multi-function drone, AI-based data analysis and mapping, and augmented reality for retrofitting. Next year, the team will compete in phase-2 of this competition. More information: https://www.herox.com/EROBOT/update/4126



biLAB member received the 2021 NYU University-wide Phd Dissertation Award.

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Recent graduate of biLAB, Zhengbo Zou, received the 2021 NYU University-wide Phd Dissertation Award! Congratulations Zhengbo!



biLAB received NSF grant

We will lead the NSF project entitled “AI-powered and Robot-assisted Manufacturing for Modular Construction” starting in January 1, 2021. This project is featured here.



Zhengbo Zou joined University of British Columbia (UBC).

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Recent graduate of biLAB, Zhengbo Zou, has joined University of British Columbia (UBC), Dept. of Civil and Env. Engineering as a tenure-track faculty. Congratulations Zhengbo!



Celia Yu defended her PhD thesis.

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Celia Yu successfully defended her PhD thesis on December 18, 2020. Congratulations Dr. Yu!



Zhengbo Zou defended his PhD thesis.

Zhengbo Zou successfully defended his PhD thesis on December 15, 2020. Congratulations Dr. Zou!



biLAB recieved C2SMART center grant.

Our proposal on “Increasing work zone safety: Worker behavioral analysis with integration of wearable sensors and virtual reality” with Dr. Ozbay has received a C2SMART center funding.



Affiliations with NYU CUSP and NYU Tandon Computer Science and Engineering

Dr. Ergan has been reappointed as an associated faculty at the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress and an assistant professor of NYU Computer Science and Engineering.



biLAB received a multi-year DOE grant in collaboration with LLNL

Our DOE proposal, titled “Capacity Utilization of Building Energy (CUBE): A Multi-Scale Approach“, led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has been funded. More information is available here.



biLAB received NSF MRI grant with collaborators from CSE

We will be part of the team to deliver the NSF-MRI grant entitled as “Development of reconfigurable environment intelligence platform”.



biLAB participated in Tandon Research Expo 2018!

2018 NYU Tandon School of Engineering Research Expo was on April 27, 2018.



biLAB participated in the USA Science and Engineering Festival in April 2018!

biLAB had demonstrations at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in April through NYU K-12 Stem Center ARISE program. Well done! Article



Celia Yu, PhD student of biLAB participated in the PWC technology forum

Profesional Women in Construction (PWC) hosted technology forum was on Febreuary 28, 2018. Celia participated with a demo from biLAB.



Celia Yu participated in the ExxonMobil poster session on December 7, 2017



biLAB participated in Exploring Future Reality 2017 event at NYU Kimmel

biLAB participated in the ExFR17 event hosted by NYC Media Lab in November 2017.



biLAB is part of NYU EDC funded AR/VR Lab

biLAB participated in the city public news event for Interactive VR/AR event on June 27, 2017.



Dr. Ergan was invited for a talk at NYU-AIG Internet of Risky Things Meeting, April 18, 2017



biLAb met with HOK BIM Group for VR knowledge sharing

The meeting was at HOK headquarters, hosted by James Vandezenda, Director of BIM, on April 27, 2017.



MS student Robert Chiarelli from Computer Science and Engineering completed his thesis work in May 2017

Rob Chiarelli, an MS student from Tandon Computer Science and Engineering Deparment was advised by Dr. Ergan. Rob worked on “development of a system architecture for customizing BIMs for FM tasks.”



biLAB hosted two high school students as NYU K-12 STEM ARISE students in summer 2017

biLAB hosted Connie Tsang from Hunter College High School and JAson Cheung from Stuyvesant High School to work on adaptive VR environments. Please check research group.



biLAB participated in Annual Reserch Expo 2017

Since 2015, biLAB has been acrively participating in the NYU Tandon Research Expo. This year we particiated with “Facility operations using eye tracking” research.



biLAB was features in the Tandon news in 2016

Read the News Article



Dr. Ergan gave an invited talk at NYU CUSP in October 2016

biLAB work was presented at NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) group on October 20, 2016. The title of the talk was “Towards adaptive and responsive buildings.”



biLAB hosted two graduate students from Computer Science and Engineering to work with Dr. Ergan

Zeyu Meng and Prateek Chourasia, both of whom are MS students at Computer Science and Engineering Department, completed their MS Projects in December 2016 with Prof Ergan on analysis of building sensor data for pattern detection in AHU operations using data science.



biLAB hosted undergraduate students in summer 2016

biLAB hosted 5 international undergradaute students to work in the lab as undergraduate summer interns to complete a BIM of an assigned building using drawings.



MS student Rodrigo Lima completed his MS Thesis in May 2016

MS student Luiz Arruda finished his thesis work on “Airport operational safety during capital improvement projects” in May. Congrats!



MS student Luiz Arruda successfully completed his thesis in May 2016

MS student Luiz Arruda finished his thesis work on “developing interactiv virtual environents from BIMs for user tests in the built environment and facility operations” in May. Congrats!



Dr. Ergan gave a talk at AIG Research Review Day, April 2016

Dr. Ergan gave a talk on model-based safety at construction sites at the AIG NYU Sponsored Research Review Day on April 28, 2016 in Manhattan, NY.



MS student Priscila Dias successfully completed her thesis work in December 2015

Priscila’s thesis was on capturing requirements of facilities management tasks for as-built BIM deliverables. Congrats!



Dr. Ergan presented an the WestPoint Academy, WestPoint, NY.

Dr. Ergan gave an invited talk on quantification of impact of built environment on human responsiveness on September 16, 2015 at WestPoint, NY. This talk was part of the Young FAculty Award Seminar Series organized by DARPA.



DARPA YFA 2015 Kickoff Meeting

Dr. Ergan attended the DARPA YFA kickoff meeting in Washington on October 29, 2015.



Visualization lab being prepared 2015

biLAB is working with VICON, middleVR, and AVISPL to get the virtual reality setup for biLAB



biLAB received AIG grant 2015

biLAB has received a project from AIG entitle as “Model Based Job Safety At Construction Sites” starting in September 2015. This project is featured here.



Dr. Ergan received DARPA YFA Award 2015

Prof. Semiha Ergan is one of the recipients of DARPA Young Faculty Award 2015. “The objective of the DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) program is to identify and engage rising research stars in junior faculty positions at U.S. academic institutions and introduce them to Department of Defense needs as well as DARPA’s program development process. “ DARPA YFA



Semiha Ergan part of the CII 2015 New Scholar program

Professor Semiha Ergan of the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering has been named as one of the 2015 New Scholar recepient at the Construction Industry Institute (CII). This is a competitive scholar program that invites promising researchers for encouriging them for future CII awards.



Priscila Daher Russo Dias named NYC DDC Summer Fellow

Priscila Daher Russo Dias, an MS student and current member of the biLab, has been named a 2015 Summer Fellow at the New York City Department of Design and Construction (NYC DDC). The program, geared toward engineering, architecture, construction management, urban planning, and sustainability design majors, focuses on a mentor-based relationship and on-site research.



Prof. Ergan’s recent research featured in AECbytes

Prof. Ergan’s article, cowritten by Xue Yang at Autodesk Inc., was recently featured on AECbytes, a site dedicated to technology products and services in the building industry. Below is an excerpt from the piece, “Integration of BIM with Facility Systems to Support HVAC Troubleshooting.” Read the article here