Smart Human-centered Infrastructure, Embedded sensing & Life-course Dynamics
At the SHIELD Lab, we envision a future where buildings, infrastructure, and smart cities do more than support human activity. They actively sense, understand, and adapt to the people and communities they serve.
Our research integrates structural and environmental sensing, embedded and non-contact sensing technologies, artificial intelligence, and human-centered engineering to transform buildings and infrastructure into intelligent systems capable of understanding how people move, interact with, and experience the built environment.
A central focus of our work is understanding human mobility and functional ability across the life course, including the challenges experienced by older adults and individuals with functional limitations. We develop privacy-conscious sensing and computational approaches to recognize mobility patterns, characterize human–infrastructure interactions, and identify meaningful changes that may affect safety, independence, and quality of life.
Beyond individual environments, our research contributes to a broader vision of smart cities and resilient communities in which infrastructure is not only structurally safe and technologically advanced, but also adaptive, inclusive, and responsive to human needs.
Engineering
Human-Centered Infrastructure for the Communities of the Future
SHIELD Lab research aligns with ASCE’s Future World Vision, which explores how civil engineers can respond to the technological, environmental, and societal changes shaping the built environment of the future. Our work contributes to this vision through smart cities, intelligent and adaptive infrastructure, resilience, and human-centered engineering, with particular emphasis on creating future communities that respond to the diverse and evolving needs of the people who live in them.
Aligned with ASCE
Future World Vision
What
SHIELD Lab Stands For