News & Updates (Since 2019)

2023

• Aug. The paper "Participatory Sensing and Digital Twin City: Updating Virtual City Models for Enhanced Risk-Informed Decision-Making" from Journal of Management in Engineering, has been selected for the Sustainable Development Goals Showcase to promote content devoted to the UN Sustainable Development Goals!

• Aug. Two of our lab members (Jaeyoon and Parth) received the COSC Outstanding Research Award at the hard hat ceremony yesterday. This award annually goes to the most deserving graduate student based on academic achievements. Again congratulations, Jaeyoon and Parth!!!

• Aug. Minguk joined our research group as a PhD student. Congrats and Welcome aboard!

• Jul. Wei-Lun William Tsai from National Taiwan University joined Ham Research Group as a Visiting Student. Welcome, William!

• Jun. Dr. Ham was elected as a new officer of ASCE Visualization, Information Modeling, And Simulation (VIMS) committee.

• Jun. Yoojun received the KACEPMA (Korean-American Construction Engineering and Project Management Association)/HanmiGlobal Graduate Student Scholarship. Congrats! 

• Jun. Jaeyoon, Yeon, Yoojun, Jinsol, and Miran presented their research in 2023 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering, CH2M HILL Alumni Center, Corvallis, OR.

• Jun. Journal paper on “Personal Thermal Comfort Modeling based on Facial Expression" was accepted by Elsevier Journal of Building Engineering. 

• Jun. Parth successfully defended his MS thesis entitled “Analysis of the Performance of Storm Drain Inlets under the Effect of Clogging near a Construction Job Site”. Congrats! He will be joining Kiewit as a Field/Office Engineer II. Best of luck on his new career!

• May. Jaeyoon successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Digital Twin City for Enhanced Data Mapping and Virtuality-Reality Connectivity: Toward Risk-Informed Decision Making”. Congrats! He will be joining The University of Texas at El Paso as an Assistant Professor from August 2023. Best of luck on his new career!

• Apr. Journal papers on “Location-Based Collective Distress using Large-Scale Biosignals in Real Life for Walkable Built Environments” and "Tunable Acoustic Properties in Reconfigurable Kerf Structures" were accepted by Nature Scientific Reports and ASCE Journal of Architectural Engineering. 

• Mar. Journal paper on “Measuring the Distance between Trees and Power Lines under Wind Loads to Assess the Heightened Potential Risk of Wildfire” was accepted by MDPI Remote Sensing . 

• Feb. Journal paper on “Simulating the Spatial Impacts of a Coastal Barrier in Galveston Island, Texas: A Three-Dimensional Urban Modeling Approach” was accepted by TAYLOR & FRANCIS Natural Hazards and Risk. 

• Jan. Journal paper on “Simulating travel paths of construction site workers via deep reinforcement learning considering their spatial cognition and wayfinding behavior” was accepted by Elsevier Automation in Construction. 

2022

• Sep. Jaeyoon successfully passed the prelim exam! Way to go! 

• Sep. Dr. Ham's team received funding from NSF to study Human-Robot Interface for Extraterrestrial Construction (Space Construction).

• Aug. Dr. Seonghyeon Moon from Seoul National University, South Korea joined Ham Research Group as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Welcome, Seonghyeon!

• June. Yoojun and Dr. Ham were selected to receive the Best Paper Award from the 9th International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management. Yoojun presented his research on Enhancing occlusion robustness for vision-based construction worker detection using data augmentation.

• June. Yeon Chae from Seoul National University, South Korea joined Ham Research Group as a Visiting Student. Welcome, Yeon!

• May. Mirsalar successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Construction Site Hurricane Preparedness Using Digital Twinning through Large-scale Visual Data”. Congrats! He will join The University of Southern Mississippi as an Assistant Professor from August 2022. Best of luck on his new career!

• May. Journal paper by Kamari, M., Kim, J., and Ham, Y. on “Analyzing Safety Risk Imposed by Jobsite Debris to Nearby Built Environments via Geometric Digital Twins and Vision-based Deep Learning ” was accepted by ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering.

• May. The lab members presented their research in 2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Workshop on Future of Construction: Build Faster, Better, Safer - Together with Robots, Philadelphia, PA. 

• Mar. Journal paper by Kim, J., Ham, Y., and Park, H. on “Underground Metal Pipeline Localization Using Low-cost Wireless Magnetic Sensors Mounted on an Excavator” was accepted by IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

• Mar. Jinsol presented his research on Exploring Human-Machine Interfaces for Teleoperation of Excavator in CRC 2022 conference, Arlington, Virginia. 

• Feb. Dr. Ham has been selected as a Assistant Specialty Editor in the Information Technologies (IT) area for American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (JCEM).

• Jan. Minguk Kim from Incheon National University, South Korea joined Ham Research Group as a Visiting Student. Welcome, Minguk!

2021

• Dec. Journal paper by Lee, J., Ham, Y., Park, H. and Kim, J. on “Challenges, Tasks, and Opportunities in Teleoperation of Excavator towards Human-in-the-loop Construction Automation” was accepted by Automation in Construction, Elsevier.

• Dec. Journal paper by Kamari, M. and Ham, Y.  on “AI-based Risk Assessment for Construction Site Disaster Preparedness through Deep Learning-based Digital Twinning” was accepted by Automation in Construction, Elsevier.

• Oct. Ruchita joined our research group as a master student. Congrats and Welcome aboard!

• Sep. Dr. Ham got promoted to an Associate Professor with a History Maker Homes professorship.

• Aug. Dr. Seulbi Lee (former lab member) joined Incheon National University, as an Assistant Professor. Congrats and Good luck!  

• Aug. Dr. Ham's team received funding from NSF to study Smart City Digital Twin for Older Adults.

• Aug. Dr. Ham's team received funding from NSF to study Digital Twin Infrastructures for Coastal Community Resilience.

• Aug. Yoojun joined our research group as a PhD student and received the Top Off Scholarship. Congrats and Welcome aboard!

• Jul. Nicole joined our research group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome aboard!

• May. Dr. Ham received the 2020 Research Excellence Award from Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University. 

• May. Salar passed the preliminary exam and now became a PhD candidate. Congrats!

• Mar. Dr. Seulbi Lee (former lab member) joined Ewha Womans University, as a Research Associate. Congrats and Good luck!

• Mar. Dr. Hongjo Kim (former lab member) joined Yonsei University, as an Assistant Professor. Congrats and Good luck!

• Jan. Dr. Ham's team received funding from NSF to study The Future of Teleoperation in Construction Workplaces.

• Jan. Dr. Ham's team received funding from NSF to build PreK-12 School Resilience in the Face of COVID-19.

• Jan. Dr. Jeehee Lee (former lab member) joined the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, as an Assistant Professor. Congrats and Good luck!

• Jan. Dr. Ham's team received funding from TAMU President's Excellence Fund (T3) to leverage Human-Building Interaction for Occupant Comfort and Productivity . 

2020

• Oct. Dr. Ham's team received funding from NSF to improve Undergraduate Education in Civil & Building Engineering through Student-centric Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Real-world Problems.

• Sep. Dr. Ham and PhD student Jaeyoon Kim won the 2020 Best Paper Award from ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering. Congrats!

• Sep.  Dr. Ham's team received funding from Innovation [X] Program to study Intelligent Psychoacoustic Space for Health and Well-Being. 

• Aug.  Dr. Ham's team received funding from Department of Defense (DOD) Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC) to Elevate, Integrate, and Document Research for Architecture and Technologies to Support an Integrated RADAS Framework. 

• Aug. Jinsol joined our research group as a PhD student.

• Jul. Dr. Ham received 2020 Junior Faculty Award from The Korean-American Construction Engineering and Project Management Association (KACEPMA).

• Jul. Dr. Ham's team received funding from NSF to study Artificial Intelligence-driven Disaster Risk Prediction and Assessment.

• Jan. Dr. Ham's team received funding from TxDOT to develop Guidance for the Use of UAS During Suboptimal Environmental Conditions.

2019

• Nov. Dr. Ham received 2019 Montague-CTE Faculty Award from Texas A&M University.

• Sep. Dr. Ham's team received funding from X-Grant Program to study Digital Twin City for Age-friendly Communities: Crowd-biosensing of Environmental Distress for Older Adults. 

• Sep. Dr. Ham's team received funding from Texas A&M Institute of Data Science to study Boosting Workplace Productivity: Data-driven Framework for Enhancing Occupant Environmental Comfort.  

• Sep. Dr. Ham's team received funding from Innovation [X] Program to study Adaptive Responsive Environments for Physical and Mental Health.  

• Aug. Aswin, Jingdi, and Nathan joined our research group as master and undergraduate researchers for Smart City project.

• May. Dr. Ham was selected as a ASCE ExCEEd Teaching Fellow.

• Jan. Dr. Ham's team received funding from TAMU President's Excellence Fund (T3) to study Wearable Sensing Framework for Examining the Effect of Built Environments to Human Performance.  

• Jan. Jaeyoon joined our research group as a PhD student.