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Type
Lecture

Unwin Lecture 2022: 21st century construction; the age of automation

Event organised by ICE

Date
06 October 2022
Time

This event has now ended

Overview

The 2022 Unwin Lecture will take place on 6 October at One Great George Street, London. The lecture was created in 1948 to focus on engineering research and how technology could impact the capability of civil engineers.

This year’s lecture is focused on ‘21st Century Construction; the age of automation’ and will provide insight from Sarah Sharples from the Department for Transport and Dr Annette Pass from National Highways, on their research into how technology can create a more productive and safer construction site and how this changes the way civil engineers design and build infrastructure. Automation offers the industry a step change in how it approaches projects and how it tackles major obstacles from skills shortages to carbon reduction and the need for modernisation.

Over the course of the talk, we will explore the challenges that are driving the need for change in the sector, what we mean by connected autonomous plant and the next steps for the project, including the roadmap towards implementation. Join us to also pose your questions to the speakers and discuss the opportunities and implications of automation for your infrastructure projects.

The event will be chaired by Jim Hall, director of research in the school of geography and environment at the University of Oxford.

Programme

18:00 - 18:30

Registration and refreshments

18:30 - 18:35

Welcome from Professor Jim Hall

18:35 - 19:20

Keynote address by Professor Sarah Sharples and Dr Annette Pass

19:20 - 19:55

Q&A session and discussion

19:55 - 20:00

Closing remarks from Professor Jim Hall

20:00

Event close

Speakers

Prof Jim Hall

Prof Jim Hall

University of Oxford

professor of climate and environmental risks

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Prof Jim Hall

Prof Jim Hall is a trustee of the ICE and until recently, held the carbon and climate portfolio.

He’s a professor of climate and environmental risks at the University of Oxford.

His research specialises on risk analysis for water resource systems, flooding and coastal engineering, infrastructure systems and adaptation to climate change.

Prof Hall is a member of the UK prime minister's Council for Science and Technology and is a commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission.

He was a member of the UK independent Committee on Climate Change Adaptation from 2009 to 2019.

He led the development of the National Infrastructure Systems Model (NISMOD), which was used for the ICE’s influential National Needs Assessment and for the UK’s first National Infrastructure Assessment.

Prof Hall invented, and now chairs, the UK Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure (DAFNI).

Among various distinctions, Hall was awarded the ICE’s George Stephenson Medal in 2001 and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in 2018.

He was a contributing author to the Nobel Prize-winning Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Sarah Sharples

Sarah Sharples

Department for Transport

chief scientific adviser

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Sarah Sharples

Professor Sarah Sharples is chief scientific adviser for the Department for Transport. She is a professor of human factors in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham, where she was pro-vice-chancellor for equality, diversity and inclusion, and people in 2018-21. 

Sarah has led research projects focusing on transport, manufacturing and healthcare. Her particular interest is the design of systems that successfully integrate novel technologies and people in complex systems, in settings including railways, roads and aviation. She was president of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors in 2015-16.

Dr Annette Pass

Dr Annette Pass

National Highways

head of innovation

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Dr Annette Pass

Annette has over 20 years’ experience in transport infrastructure. She is currently Head of Innovation at National Highways, where she is a passionate advocate of change and improvement in construction, transport and innovation in government.