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• Ayan Sadhu receives national honour for contributions to information technology in civil engineering

Ayan Sadhu receives national honour for contributions to information technology in civil engineering

Western Engineering professor Ayan Sadhu (Jacob Arts/Western Engineering photo)

Western Engineering professor Ayan Sadhu is the 2024 recipient of the Whitman Wright Award for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of the application of information technology in civil engineering through original research, significant development, innovative application and outstanding teaching.

Sadhu, who is also a Canada Research Chair in Smart and Sustainable Civil Infrastructure, accepted the award last week at the Annual Conference hosted by the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The CSCE Whitman Wright Award is one of the most prestigious research awards and recognitions in the field of Civil Engineering in Canada and internationally and I am very excited to receive this award from CSCE,” said Sadhu. 

He added: “This recognition showcases the impactful research of my team, positioning Canada at the forefront of global asset management using smart technology. My sincere thanks to the entire Civil Engineering research community including my students, colleagues, peers, national and international collaborators, mentors, as well as my industry partners. Special thanks to Dr. Ashraf El-Damatty and my colleagues from various national and international organizations for their invaluable support.” 

As the director of the Smart Cities and Communities Laboratory and the theme leader of the Smart Cities and Communities Theme supported by the Western Academy for Advanced Research at Western, Sadhu aims to do research and create innovative applications that will significantly advance the field. 

With over 150 journal and conference articles to his credit, Sadhu's expertise extends across various domains of aging infrastructure within civil engineering. His role as the associate editor of the ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering and the Royal Society Open Science underscores his commitment to advancing scholarly discourse in the field. Notably, Sadhu's academic prowess has been recognized with the receipt of the Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities, a testament to his outstanding contributions to the academic community. 

At the forefront of Sadhu's research interests lie structural health monitoring, smart sensing and visualization technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and remote and autonomous systems for the management and disaster mitigation of sustainable and resilient civil infrastructure. By harnessing the power of noncontact and robotic sensors coupled with AI and information technology, Sadhu is pioneering efforts to automate the operation and maintenance of both new and existing structures. 

Sadhu is also actively engaged in addressing the technological and sociological challenges of next-generation smart cities and communities. Under his leadership, an international research theme supported by the Western Academy for Advanced Research is poised to break new ground in this critical area. 

Sadhu's remarkable achievements have not gone unnoticed, as evidenced by the significant funding his research has garnered from prestigious institutions such as the Canada Research Chairs program, NSERC, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities, among others. Moreover, his collaborations with industry partners and consulting firms in Canada underscore the practical relevance and impact of his work on real-world challenges. 

In receiving the Whitman Wright Award, Sadhu's contributions to the advancement of information technology in civil engineering have been duly recognized and celebrated. His unwavering dedication to research excellence and his commitment to shaping the future of civil engineering make him a truly deserving recipient of this esteemed accolade.