Dr. Nikhil Bugalia

I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Building Technology, Construction Materials, and Management (BTCM) Group in the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Madras. My research focuses on addressing challenges related to occupational health and safety and sustainability in the construction industry. My research group works at the intersection of technical tools such as text mining, computer vision (CV), and virtual reality (VR), and system-thinking-based qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including system-dynamics modeling and case studies, to identify risks and develop and implement solutions for the construction sector. I also serve as an advisor to the Global Safety Evidence Centre of Lloyd’s Register Foundation and am a member of the CIB working groups on Safety, Health, and Wellbeing in Construction (W099) and People in Construction (W123). I have extensive experience working on skill development, capacity building, and training projects at organizational and policy levels in association with the Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and East Japan Railway Company. I also serve as the secretary of the special interest group on “High-Speed Rail: Policy, Investments, and Impacts” for the World Conference on Transport Research Society. I hold a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo and a BTech in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, from where I graduated in 2013