Welcome to Human-centered Construction and Infrastructure (HCI) research group in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Hanyang University, Korea, and in the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore! We come from a variety of academic backgrounds across engineering and science, but are working toward a single research vision as below:
Construction and infrastructure systems are vital to enhancing human well-being and quality of life, yet they have faced longstanding challenges such as stagnant productivity, safety concerns, sustainability threats, project delays, and cost overruns. We believe these global issues can be addressed through a human-centric perspective, which places humans at the heart of construction and infrastructure systems. In this sense, our vision is to transform these physically demanding and hazardous engineering systems into ones that are more human-friendly, where individuals are physically, emotionally, and mentally healthy, while systems become more productive, sustainable, and safer. To this end, we investigate how humans feel, respond, and behave in complex construction and infrastructure systems; and how to innovate and reform the entire system processes from planning, design, and construction to operation and maintenance. In particular, we leverage emerging data sensing and analytical technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Wearables, Robotics, Virtual/Augmented Reality, Simulation, and Building Information Modeling, in integration with long-established human theories and knowledge. This theory-informed, data-driven approach enables us to deepen our understanding of human-system interactions and propose practical solutions that foster human-friendly environments. Working toward this research vision, we are actively carrying out a variety of research projects with financial supports from government institutes, while collaborating with industry partners including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Korea Expressway Corporation, Site Vision, VelocityEHS, and Samsung Electronics.
We are looking for motivated, friendly and open-minded MS/PhD students and postdocs who would like to join our journey toward human-centered construction and infrastructure systems. Undergraduate research interns and visiting PhD students are also welcome! Please email Prof. Kim at jinwookim@hanyang.ac.kr with your CV and brief self-introduction.
한양대학교 사람중심건설연구실에서는 건설산업을 함께 혁신해갈 학부연구생/석사과정/박사과정/박사후연구원을 모집하고 있습니다. 관심있는 분들은 간단한 자기소개와 함께 이력서를 이메일(jinwookim@hanyang.ac.kr)로 보내주시길 바랍니다.
대학원 진학을 고민하고 있는 분들! 관련 정보도 얻기 쉽지 않고 여러분들의 향후 몇 년, 미래 진로를 좌우하는 중요한 결정이라는 점을 누구보다도 잘 이해하고 있습니다. 짧게나마 학부연구생을 하면서 연구실 생활을 직접 경험하고 연구, 생활, 취업, 진로 관련해서 함께 고민해가면 조금이라도 도움되지 않을까 싶습니다.
News Archive
Sep 2025: Dr. Kim will serve as Co-Chair of the Technical Committee for the ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering 2026.
Sep 2025: Junsik and Hyungjoon received their bachelor's degrees and joined our group as master's students. Way to go!
Sep 2025: Jaehyun joined our group as an undergraduate research assistant. Welcome!
Sep 2025: Journal paper by Ren, R., Shi, P., and Kim, J. on "A Spatial Context-informed Self-supervised Learning Approach for Pavement Distress Segmentation." was accepted by IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, IEEE.
Aug 2025: We received funding from National Research Foundation of Korea to develop a foundational language model specialized for the construction industry, a key driver of digital and robotic transformation.
Aug 2025: Hunhee joined our group as an undergraduate research assistant. Welcome!
Aug 2025: Journal paper by Yang, X., Fu, Y., and Kim, J. on "Synthetic-to-Real Domain Adaptation with Virtual Laser Scanning and Self-Training-Based Category-Aware Cuboid Mixing for Semantic Segmentation of Bridge Point Clouds" was accepted by Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE.
Jun 2025: Dr. Kim delivered a talk titled "Toward Generalizable and Specializable AI Models for the Construction Industry" at the 2025 Spring Technical Seminar hosted by the Korean Society of Automation and Robotics in Construction.
Jun 2025: We received funding from Korea Expressway Corporation to identify high-risk road maintenance activities and evaluate the field applicability of robotic technologies.
May 2025: We received funding from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to examine and improve current quality management practices and regulations within the construction industry.
May 2025: Journal paper by Kim, J. on "Balancing AI Generalization and Specialization: Multi-Domain Learning for Universal Computer Vision in Construction" was accepted by Automation in Construction, Elsevier.
Mar 2025: Journal paper by Wang, S., Moon, S., Fu, Y., and Kim, J. on "Construction Regulatory Document Digitalization with Layout Knowledge-informed Object Detection and Semantic Text Recognition" was accepted by Advanced Engineering Informatics, Elsevier.
Nov 2024: Dr. Kim gave a talk about Human-centered, Intelligent Construction and Urban Infrastructure Systems at the 2024 Korean Society of Automation and Robotics in Construction Conference.
Nov 2024: Journal paper by Xin, J., Kim, J., Li, Z., and Li, N. on "Train a Real-world Local Path Planner in One Hour via Partially Decoupled Reinforcement Learning and Vectorized Diversity" was accepted by Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Elsevier.
Nov 2024: Dr. Kim will serve as an Area Chair in the Theme of Sensing Systems & Data Infrastructures at the 2025 International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction.
Nov 2024: Journal paper by Ren, R., Shi, P., Jia, P., and Kim, J. on "An Unsupervised Learning Approach for Pavement Distress Diagnosis via Siamese Networks" was accepted by IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Nov 2024: Dr. Kim served as a session chair at the 2024 Korea Institute of Construction Engineering and Management conference held in Seogwipo, Korea.
Oct 2024: Dr. Kim gave a talk about AI-assisted, Human-centered Construction and Infrastructure Systems at the 2024 Future-Shaping Architectural, Civil, and Environmental Engineering Congress, Korea University, Korea.
Oct 2024: Dr. Kim gave a talk about Human-centered Industrial and Urban Systems at the Gyeongsang National University, Korea and the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, Korea.
Sep 2024: Hyungjoon joined our group as an undergraduate research assistant. Welcome!
Aug 2024: Journal paper by Kim, J., Kim, D., and Lee, S. on "Synthetizing Virtual Construction Images to Strengthen Real Data Volume and Variety in Real-world Application Scenarios" was accepted by Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering,
Jul 2024: Dr. Kim was awarded the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management 2024.
Jul 2024: Dr. Kim received the Hanyang University Outstanding Scholar Award in July 2024.
Jul 2024: Junsik joined our group as an undergraduate research intern. Welcome aboard!
Jun 2024: Dr. Kim gave a talk about Human-centered Construction and Infrastructure at the Hanyang University and I-Shou University workshop.
May 2024: Journal paper by Kim, J., Hwang, J., Jeong, I., Chi, S., Seo, J., and Kim, J. on "Generalized Vision-Based Framework for Construction Productivity Analysis Using a Standard Classification System" was accepted by Automation in Construction, Elsevier.
Apr 2024: Journal paper by Xin, J., Kim J., Chu, S., and Li, N. on "OkayPlan: Obstacle Kinematics Augmented Dynamic Real-time Path Planning via Particle Swarm Optimization" was accepted by Ocean Engineering, Elsevier.
Apr 2024: Journal paper by Kim, J., Song, K, Lee, G, and Lee, S. on "Time-Series Data Clustering with Load-shape Preservation for Identifying Residential Energy Consumption Behaviors" was accepted by Energy and Buildings, Elsevier.
Mar 2024: Prof. Kim joined Hanyang University as an Assistant Professor. We will continue to collaborate closely with all the students at NTU!
Jan 2024: Shuyi joined our group as a PhD student. Welcome aboard!
Nov 2023: Boda joined our group as a visiting PhD student. Welcome!
Nov 2023: Our two conference papers were accepted by IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management 2023.
Oct 2023: Tong and Ruiqi joined HCI as visiting PhD students. Welcome aboard!
Sep 2023: Dr. Kim received 2023 SMP Outstanding Mentor Award from Ministry of Education, Singapore.
Aug 2023: Ziqing joined our group as a research associate. Welcome!
Aug 2023: Journal paper by Lee, H., Jeon, J., Lee, D, Park, C., Kim, J., and Lee, D. on "Game Engine-driven Synthetic Data Generation for Computer Vision-Based Safety Monitoring of Construction Workers" was accepted by Automation in Construction, Elsevier.
Jul 2023: Dr. Kim has been appointed as Faculty-in-Residence for Residential Education in NTU. He will be mentoring NTU students staying at Saraca Hall.
Jul 2023: Journal paper by Kim, J., Chi, S., and Kim, J. on "3D Pose Estimation and Localization of Construction Equipment from Single Camera Images by Virtual Model Integration" was accepted by Advanced Engineering Informatics, Elsevier.
Jul 2023: Xiaofei joined our group as a postdoctoral fellow. Welcome aboard!
Jun 2023: Dr. Kim presented HCI's research projects on AI applications for industrial and urban systems management at KAIST, Korea.
Jun 2023: Dr. Kim's group received funding from Singapore Maritime Institute to study AI-Driven Ship Safety Management Systems.
May 2023: Dr. Kim gave a talk about digitalisation and robotic automation in construction at Hanyang University, Korea.
May 2023: Jinghao joined our group as a visiting PhD student from Shanghai Jia Tong University, China. Welcome!
Mar 2023: Dr. JoonOh Seo, Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, visited our group and we had a fruitful discussion on potential collaborations.
Mar 2023: Dr. Kim's group received funding from the Ministry of Education (MOE AcRF Tier 1 Seed) to study Virtual Image Synthetisation for Visual AI Model Development.
Feb 2023: Journal paper by Jeong, I., Hwang, J., Kim, J., Chi, S., Hwang, B-G., and Kim, J. on "Vision-Based Productivity Monitoring of Tower Crane Operations during Curtainwall Installation Using a Database-Free Approach" was accepted by Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE.
Jan 2023: Journal paper by Kim, J., Kim, D., Lee, S., and Chi, S. on "Hybrid DNN Training Using Both Synthetic and Real Construction Images to Overcome Training Data Shortage" was accepted by Automation in Construction, Elsevier.
Jan 2023: Dr. Daeho Kim, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, visited our group and discussed potential collaborations on Visual AI for Constuction Management.
Jan 2023: Udit joined our group as an undergraduate research assistant from Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur. Welcome aboard!
Jan 2023: Seungmo joined HCI as a visiting PhD Student from Seoul National University, Korea. Welcome!
Dec 2022: Our group received funding from the Ministry of Education (MOE AcRF Tier 1 Generic) to study Construction Project Document Digitalisation.
Dec 2022: Dr. SangHyun Lee, Professor and Associate Chair of Research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, visited our lab and shared research experience!
Dec 2022: Dr. Kim presented his research "Construction Image Synthetization to Overcome a Small, Biased Real Training Dataset for DNN-Powered Visual Scene Understanding" at 2022 Winter Simulation Conference in Singapore. He also served as a session chair at the conference.
Nov 2022: Hongyu successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled "Vulnerability Modeling and Assessment in Urban Rail Transit System." Big congrats, Dr. Chen!
Oct 2022: Hongyu joined HCI as a PhD student. Welcome!
Oct 2022: Victor joined our research group as an undergraduate research intern with URECA programme.
Oct 2022: Yinuo joined our group as a MS student. Welcome aboard!
Oct 2022: Dr. Kim served as a moderator in the NTU-CEE Distinguished Seminar Series.
Sep 2022: Yunxiang joined HCI as a research associate. Welcome!
Aug 2022: Wen Sin joined our research group as an undergraduate research intern with URECA programme.