Faculty Feature: Burcu Akinci

Scott Institute Faculty Affiliate Burcu Akinci is the Paul Christiano Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and newly appointed head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Carnegie Mellon University. She is also the co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of LeanFM Technologies. Akinci is a distinguished expert in using building information modeling and sensing technologies to increase operational efficiency and support decision-making in construction, facility management, and infrastructure management.  

It was announced in 2021 that Dr. Akinci will lead a NASA research team on machine learning and robotic system habitats on the Moon and Mars titled HOME (Habitat Optimized for Missions of Exploration). HOME is funded for five years as the team looks at systems automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, robotics, and human-crewed spacecraft design to develop new paradigms for the design of NASA's deep-space habitats. NASA wants to create habitats on the Moon and Mars that can support astronauts and remain operational even when they return to Earth. This project is part of the Space Technology Research Institute for Deep Space Habitat Design. Scott Faculty Affiliates Mario Berges and Stephen Smith are also leaders on this project.  Akinci has previously worked with NASA on smart buildings on Earth, which has informed her new project on smart habitats in space. 

Akinci’s work at NASA builds on her core expertise on digital twin technologies, defined by IBM as a “virtual representation of an object or system that spans its lifecycle, is updated from real-time data, and uses simulation, machine learning and reasoning to help decision-making.” Her work has studied applications and use cases of digital twin technologies in smart habitats, smart buildings, construction, and infrastructure management. You can read more about her digital twin pilot project for Mill 19 at Hazelwood Green through the Metro 21: Smart Cities Institute at Carnegie Mellon here.   

Akinci is also the co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of LeanFM, an international SaaS company serving operational facility managers in the built environment Arc Fault Detection Devices. This platform utilizes Akinci’s knowledge of digital twins and expertise in the built environment, paired with artificial intelligence to enrich maintenance and building information and provide actionable insights through 3-D visualization.  

Dr. Akinci’s work is multifaceted. Recent ongoing work models the demand flexibility of grid-responsive buildings looking at building level analytics as well as groups of buildings interacting with the grid. This work focuses on demand response in terms of energy demand for a community of buildings that have active participation to the grid. 

Akinci along with Scott Institute Faculty Affiliate Pingbo Tang are part of the team designing the future National Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Construction, in coordination with researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and over 40 industry partners. This institute will investigate and develop ways to integrate rapidly evolving machine learning and AI technology into modern construction work. 

Among her numerous awards, in 2021 she was selected as a member of the National Academy of Construction and received the Tucker-Hasegawa Award from the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction.  She also recently received the 2020 Computing in Civil Engineering award from ASCE and was made a 2020 honorary member of the Women in Transportation Systems, Pittsburgh chapter. You can read more about her awards here. 

Effective July 2022, Akinci has been appointed the new head of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Previously, Akinci was the Associate Dean for Research for the College of Engineering and the Director of Engineering Research Accelerator at Carnegie Mellon University. During her time supporting the university she oversaw the research for the college identifying and fostering key research areas, facilitating research vision and discussion, and supporting faculty in their research pursuits. 

In Fall 2022, Akinci will resume serving as a co‐chair for the Civil and Environmental Engineering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategic Planning Committee. She is also leading a task force for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) focused on fostering inclusive academic communities.  

Dr. Akinci has two patents, one provisional patent, 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.  

To learn more about Dr. Burcu Akinci’s work you can visit her website. Additionally, you can watch the recording of one of her recent presentations on her at the Georg Nemetschek Institute International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for the Built World in April 2021. 

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Dr. Burcu Akinci is a Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and co-director of Pennsylvania Smarter Infrastructure Incubator at Carnegie Mellon University.  She earned her BS in Civil Engineering (1991) from Middle East Technical University and her MBA (1993) from Bilkent University at Ankara, Turkey. After that, she earned her MS (1995) and her Ph.D. (2000) in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a specialization in Construction Engineering and Management from Stanford University.