ilab-Faculty of Architecture-HKU | CIB-HKU Student Chapter

Introduction of iLab

iLab is an urban big data hub housed on the 7th floor of the Knowles Building, the University of Hong Kong that supports the entire suite of HKUrbanLabs. It facilitates multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary urban big data collection, storage, analysis, and presentation to inform decision-making in urban development. iLab is a repository for urban big data from Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Urban Remote Sensing (URS), satellite and airborne Remote Sensing (RS), Building Information Modeling (BIM), facilities and asset management and other sources.

iLab is a focus for research across the urban disciplines and works closely with other groups in HKUrbanLab, especially the Centre for Urban Studies and Urban Planning, HealthyHDCities, SustainableHDCites and the Ronald Coase Centre for Property Rights Research, all of which heavily use urban big data. iLab also has its own unique research remit to integrate big data in pursuit of integrated modeling of smart urban development, combining smart community, smart infrastructure, smart construction, smart property and facilities management and Internet of Things (IoTs). iLab’s research into integrated project delivery (IPD), serious video gaming technologies and virtual design and construction (VDC) is underpinned by conventional research in the field of construction management and links with architectural, urban design and urban planning data and modeling to yield new insights about optimizing design and production of the built environment across scales and professional disciplines.

iLab contributes to teaching within and across the disciplinary boundaries in urban development by use of its computational technologies, research output and integrated approach to problem solving. iLab runs a specialist 5D-BIM Lab in Shanghai, which occupies the 4th floor of the Faculty’s Shanghai Study Centre. 5D-BIM Lab is a partnership teaching and research investment with leading German technology firm RIB, providing a unique facility to work on projects that integrate digital models of the entire building life-cycle specified in 3D+time+cost (5D). The lab provides an outreach facility for teaching, research and industry engagement in China and beyond, in collaboration with our partner universities.

People of iLab

Prof. Chris Webster

Prof. Webster has degrees in urban planning, computer science, economics and economic geography and is a leading urban theorist and spatial economic modeller. He has published over 150 scholarly papers on the idea of spontaneous urban order and received over US$20M grants for research and teaching and learning projects. He was co-editor of Environment and Planning B for ten years. Books include Webster and Lai (2003) Property Rights, Planning and Markets, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar; Glasze, Webster and Frantz, (2006) Private Cities, London, Routledge; Wu, Webster, He and Liu, (2010) Urban Poverty in China, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar; and Wu and Webster (Editors) Marginalisation in Urban China. London: Palgrave McMillan; and Sarkar, Webster and Gallacher (2014) Healthy Cities: Public Health Through Urban Planning. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Professor Webster has five prize-winning academic papers on urban theory. His present professional mission is to change the way cities are planned in China and his current research agenda is to establish systematic evidence for the relationship between urban configuration (planned and spontaneous) and individual health. He is currently PI on a UK ESRC-funded ‘Transformative Research’ project that is creating 700 built environment morphometrics for each of the 500,000 members of the UK Biobank, the country’s flagship epidemiological study.

Prof. Webster’s research covers a big range:

Urban big data;
Urbanism;
Urban economy;
Built environment morphometrics;
the UK Biobank.

Dr Wilson Lu

Dr Lu is an associate professor in the Department of Real Estate and Construction at University of Hong Kong (HKU). He holds a BSc of Computer Science and an MSc of Construction Economics and Management, both awarded by Chongqing University. He was awarded his PhD by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK PolyU) for his work on construction firm’s competitive strategies. He has worked as a research fellow at the University of Reading, UK, from 2006-2008, and an assistant professor at HK PolyU from 2008-2009 before joined HKU. His research covers a wide range of interests:

International construction: international competitiveness, strategic management, procurement innovation, and corporate social responsibility;
Construction informatics: Building Information Modelling (BIM), smart construction, and big data; and
Construction waste management with a focus on its managerial, economic, and policy facets.

Dr. Frank Xue

Dr. Xue is a research assistant professor in the Department of Real Estate and Construction (REC) at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He obtained a BEng of Automation and an MSc in Computer Science, both from Civil Aviation University of China (CAUC). He was awarded his PhD degree by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU) for his work on introducing a knowledge-based enhancement to existed algorithms. He has worked as a Research Assistant (2010-2011), a Research Associate (2012-2013) and a Postdoctoral Fellow (2013-2016) at HKPU. His research interests include:

Computational challenges and data interoperability of Building Information Modeling (BIM);
Machine learning and data visualization for construction projects;
Applications of operations research.