Carnegie Mellon University

Burcu Akinci, F.ASCE

Burcu Akinci, F.ASCE

Paul Christiano University Professor and Department Head, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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Address
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890

Bio

Dr. Burcu Akinci is the Paul Christiano University Professor and Department Head of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and a member of the National Academies of Construction.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey), MBA from Bilkent University (Ankara, Turkey), and Master’s and PhD degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a specialization in Construction Engineering and Management from Stanford University.

Her research interests are modeling and reasoning about information-rich histories of buildings and infrastructure systems to streamline construction and infrastructure operations.  She specifically focuses on investigating the utilization and integration of building information models with data capture technologies, such as 3D imaging and embedded sensors, to create digital twins of construction projects and infrastructure operations and develop approaches to support proactive and predictive operations and management.

Dr. Akinci has two patents, and one provisional patent and over 70 refereed journal publications and 100 conference publications.  She was the PI of more than $6M grants and co-PI of more than $10M grants, supported by federal and state agencies and industry.  She has given over 100 invited presentations and co-edited books on CAD/GIS Integration and on Embedded Commissioning. 

Education

PhD 2000 - Stanford University
MS 1995 - Stanford University
MBA 1993 - Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
BS 1991 - Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

Research

Research Group: IESS, SETS, CREST
Research Centers: Scott Institute for Energy Innovation

Areas of Interest

  • Digital twins
  • Context-aware AI for Construction and Infrastructure Management
  • Computer vision and 3D Imaging 

Publications

Lei, X.,  Chen, Y.,  Berges M., Akinci, B.  “Formalized Control Logic Fault Definition with Ontological Reasoning for Air Handling Units.” Accepted for Publication, Automation in Construction.

Wei, Y., & Akinci, B. (2019), A Vision and Learning-Based Indoor Localization and Semantic Mapping Framework for Facility Operation and Management. Automation in Construction, Volume 107, Nov. 2019,  

Wei, Y., Kasireddy, V., Akinci, B. (2018), 3D Imaging in Construction and Infrastructure Management: Technological Assessment and Future Research Directions, Lecture Notes on Artificial Intelligence, July 2018.

Anil, E. B.,  Akinci, B.,  Kurc, O., Garrett, J. H. (2016), Building Information Modeling Based Earthquake Damage Assessment for Reinforced Concrete Walls. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering. 

Taneja, S., Akinci, B., Garrett, J. H., Soibelman, L., & Karimi, H. (2016), Effects of Positioning Data Quality and Navigation Models on Map-Matching of Indoor Positioning Data. ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, .

Gao, T., Ergan, S., Akinci, B., and Garrett, J. (2016). Evaluation of Different Features for Matching Point Clouds to Building Information Models. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, Vol. 30, Issue 1.

Gao, T., Akinci, B., Ergen, S., Garrett, J. H. (2015)  An Approach to Combine Progressively Captured Point Clouds to Increase the Completeness of an As-Built BIM.  Advanced Engineering Informatics. Volume 29, Issue 4, October 2015, Pages 1001–1012.

Akinci, B. (2015). Situational Awareness in Construction and Facility Management.  Journal of Frontiers of Engineering Management, Vol. 1, Issue 3., Pages 283-289.

Recent Honors & Awards

  • 2023: Outstanding Mentoring Award, CMU College of Engineering
  • 2023: Elected Fellow of ASCE
  • 2021: Inducted to National Academies of Construction
  • 2021: Recipient of the IAARC Tucker-Hasegawa Award 
  • 2020: Recipient of the ASCE Computing in Civil Engineering Award
  • 2017: Co-recipient,  Pittsburgh Business Times Innovation Award, 
  • 2014: Named Paul Christiano Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • 2014: Co-recipient, Best Paper Award, ICCCBE 
  • 2012: Outstanding Reviewer, ASCE 
  • 2011: Professor of the Year, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Pittsburgh Section 
  • 2011: Most Cited Paper Award (2007-2011), Advanced Engineering Informatics
  • 2010: "Bringing the World into the Classroom: ACE Award to Recognize Innovative Use of Technology to Promote Internationalism," American Council on Education (ACE) with Lucio Soibelman.
  • 2008: CETI Outstanding Early Career Researcher award, FIATECH
  • 2007: Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, ASCE 

Courses

  • 12-411 Construction Project Management
  • 12-711 BIM for Construction and Facility Management

Burcu Akinci: Making Infrastructure Systems More Resilient, Sustainable and Robust

How can we make our infrastructure systems more intelligent, so that we can make better decisions about them? Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Burcu Akinci discusses her research into using smart infrastructure techniques to make infrastructure systems more resilient, sustainable and robust.