On July 22, 2025, Prof.  Jack Cheng gave a lecture on “Smart Construction and Digital City Leveraging Digital Twin, AI, and Robotics/Drones”.

He is currently a guest at the Chair of Computing in Engineering of Prof. Markus König at Ruhr-Universität Bochum.Prof. Cheng is a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and a globally recognized expert in digital construction and smart cities.
 
His keynote on digital twins, AI, and robotics offered insights into current research on integrating BIM, GIS, and IoT to create smarter and more sustainable infrastructure and cities. Among many other interesting topics, his presentation provided valuable input for our Collaborative Research Center (CRC), especially for project area C, which focuses on process methods for sustainable reuse and the automation of the circular process for concrete elements. The approaches he presented, particularly those related to digital twins, the integration of life cycle data, and automated carbon tracking, brought new ideas for further developing sustainability assessments and refining our system strategies. Following his lecture, Prof. Cheng visited the KIBKON test hall to gain an insight into current experimental research and the demonstrators built for the CRC.
 
The event was attended by 20 participants on site and 25 participants online, including members of Ruhr University Bochum and the AdvanceAEC research network. We thank him for his inspiring presentation and insightful perspectives on the future of digital and intelligent construction.