Academic Degrees
- Ph.D. in Civil Engineering - Georgia Institute of Technology 2016
- M.S. in Civil Engineering - Texas A&M University 2011
- B.S. in Architectural Engineering - Dongguk University 2009
Research Opportunities (Graduate/Undergraduate)
Areas of Research and Professional Interest
Research is what propels my life forward. It is fueled by my ambition to bring profound impacts on our society and led by my curiosity to find innovative solutions to achieve the goal. My future trajectory as a researcher is reflected in my overarching research framework that investigates Human-Robot-Infrastructure Interaction (HRII) to address challenges in planning, building, and operating the built environment. My research ultimately attempts to reimagine and redefine an infrastructure as a system for interactions of people, robots, and the infrastructure itself that better serves the society in normal and extreme conditions. Since the inception of the framework, I am exploring how we could incorporate autonomous robots in our daily lives and how the new interactions between human, robot, infrastructure would change the way we design, build, and utilize infrastructures. Built on top of my expertise in BIM, safety, robotics, automation, and sensing, I initiated three streams of studies that form the main structure of the HRII framework.
1. BIM-robotics integration
2. Knowledge-based and goal-directed robot task planning
3. Human-aware safe robot operations
I intend to make significant contributions both in the academia and businesses. Innovative and impactful research studies performed under the overarching HRII framework will lead to the development of the AEC industry’s next-generation BIM platforms to design, simulate, and control autonomous robots in various facilities, such as residential buildings, power plants, and educational facilities.
Research Profiles:
About Kyungki Kim
I am currently a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Construction Management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. My career goal is to become a recognized researcher who leads the transformation to robotization in the AEC industry. My entire career is dedicated to extending the boundary of BIM toward intelligent robotization in all stages of a facility lifecycle.
My lifelong endeavor as a researcher and educator is reflected in my overarching research framework that investigates Human-Robot-Infrastructure Interaction (HRII) to address challenges in planning, building, and operating the built environment. With a strong focus on investigating how humans, robots, and infrastructures can interact in the future scenarios, I initiated three streams of studies that are (1) BIM-robotics integration to incorporate facility lifecycle information in a robot’s operational software, (2) knowledge-based and goal-directed robot task planning that allows the utilization of knowledge about the facility to intelligently plan and execute operations in it, and (3) human-aware robot operations to plan safe actions considering site- and task-specific characteristics, and interactions with humans.
My teaching goal is to cultivate a multidisciplinary and inspiring environment in which students from diverse background can create innovative solutions to problems. I create an interdisciplinary graduate course in robotics technologies in construction industry to teach theories of robotics technologies and provide hands-on practices of utilizing/adapting the state-of-the-art robotics technologies to enhance existing processes.