Keynotes
Dr. Sam Zolfagharian
Co-Founder & Strategic Advisor
YegaTech
"The Future of AEC Work in an AI-Driven Environment"
Bio:
Dr. Sam Zolfagharian is an AI strategist, keynote speaker, and author of Disrupt It: How AEC Executives Can Transform Their Organizations in the Age of AI Disruption. As Co-Founder of YegaTech, she advises CEOs and boards on AI strategy, governance, and innovation. With a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech and 20+ years in technology and design, Sam helps organizations turn AI disruption into sustainable, strategic advantage.
You can learn more about Dr. Zolfagharian through her blog posts or LinkedIn profile.
Information about the presentation:
Artificial intelligence is transforming the way AEC firms design, build, and deliver projects. In this keynote, Dr. Sam Zolfagharian will highlight emerging AI trends and practical use cases that are reshaping workflows, roles, and business models across the industry. Attendees will gain a clear view of how AI can create competitive advantage in the next 3–5 years and what leaders should do now to prepare.
Bhragan Paramanantham
AECOM
Last Week in ConTech
"From Curiosity to Capability: Upskilling Teams for AI Adoption in Construction"
Bio:
Bhragan Paramanantham is a Civil Engineer with AECOM and was seconded as an Innovation Advisor on the $13B Level Crossing Removal Project, where he helped design AI capability uplift initiatives for engineers on-site. Currently on sabbatical, he is the Founder of Last Week in ConTech, a media venture spotlighting construction technology and innovation trends across the US, EMEA, and APAC. He is also Head of Content at Formwork Labs, a ConTech accelerator backed by Brick & Mortar Ventures, where he leads content and co-hosts The Startup Scaffold podcast.
Information about the presentation:
AI won’t transform construction unless people know how to use it. Drawing on real-world experience delivering an AI education program for a major infrastructure authority, this session shares a practical framework for upskilling AEC teams. From surveying organizational needs and mapping capabilities to designing role-specific training that builds confidence and accelerates adoption, you’ll leave with a clear playbook to launch your own capability uplift program.
Prof. Zoltán Nagy
Chair of Building Services, Eindhoven University of Technology
Founder, Intelligent Environments Laboratory
"AI-Driven Multi-Scale Intelligence: From Occupant-Centric Control to Urban Energy Orchestration"
Bio:
Zoltán Nagy is a Full Professor and Chair of Building Services at the Eindhoven University of Technology and founder of the Intelligent Environments Laboratory. With a unique background combining mechanical engineering and robotics with building science, he pioneers the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to create adaptive, occupant-centric built environments. Previously Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Austin, Nagy's team developed the initial version of CityLearn, a community-driven, open-source computational platform for benchmarking advanced building control and demand response that has been globally adopted by researchers and recognized as a Digital Public Good by the United Nations. As an operating agent of IEA EBC Annex 95 and Users TCP, he co-leads international efforts to redefine human-building interactions in the context of climate action. He is a Fellow of IBPSA and recipient of IBPSA-USA's Outstanding Researcher Award (2022), multiple Best Paper awards from CISBAT and Building & Environment, and a Highest Cited Paper award from Applied Energy. Nagy organized and chaired the first workshop on Reinforcement Learning for energy management in buildings and cities (RLEM) and has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers on smart buildings, machine learning applications, and urban energy systems. His current research focuses on multi-agent reinforcement learning for grid-interactive buildings, occupant-centric control systems, and the development of AI-driven frameworks for urban-scale decarbonization.
Information about the presentation:
The convergence of artificial intelligence and building science is fundamentally transforming how we design, and operate our built environment. This keynote explores the application of AI across multiple scales—from individual occupant interactions to district-wide energy coordination—demonstrating how machine learning, particularly reinforcement learning, enables buildings to become truly intelligent, adaptive and grid-responsive systems. Drawing from the CityLearn platform, we examine how AI agents can learn optimal control strategies that balance occupant comfort with grid flexibility requirements. The keynote concludes with a vision for cyber-physical building systems where AI seamlessly orchestrates the complex interplay between human needs, building operations, and urban energy networks, paving the way for truly sustainable and resilient cities.
Prof. Sigrid Brell-Cokcan
Director of Individualized Production, RWTH Aachen University
President of the Association for Robots in Architecture
"5G, AI and construction robotics for the Construction site oft he future"
Bio:
Univ.-Prof. Dr.-techn. Sigrid Brell-Cokcan is the founder and head of the new Chair of Individualized Production (IP) at RWTH Aachen University and currently President of the Association for Robots in Architecture (RiA) and was on the board of euRobotics until 2021.
In recent years, she has pioneered the simple application of industrial robots for the creative industries and participated in numerous international research and industrial projects. The Association for Robots in Architecture is a development partner of KUKA and Autodesk and a validated EU research institution within the FP7 program.
In 2016, Sigrid Brell-Cokcan founded the new Topic Group for Construction Robotics within euRobotics to contribute to the Multi Annual Roadmap (MAR) for Horizon Europe. In addition, as editor-in-chief, she has launched the new scientific Springer Journal Construction Robotics since 2017. Since 2022, she has been part of the writing team of the living Springer Encyclopedia of Robotics | SpringerLink to the topic Robotics in Construction | SpringerLink.
At RWTH Aachen, her professorship for Individualized Construction Production deals with the use of innovative machines in material and construction production. In order to enable efficient, individualized production from batch size one for the construction industry, new and user-friendly methods of human-machine interaction are being developed.
The IP chair employs researchers from various areas of robotics and building production to streamline the necessary digital workflow from initial planning to the production process and to redesign the construction site of the future via intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces.
Results on innovative developments in "haptic programming" and "cloud remote control" were presented to the public as finalists in the KUKA Innovation Award 2016 and KUKA Innovation Award on Artificial Intelligence 2021 at the Hannover Messe. This year, she has been nominated for the BAUMA Innovation Award 2022 of Research with the ROBETON project for the robot-supported controlled dismantling of concrete components.
The cross-faculty Center for Construction Robotics (CCR) on RWTH Aachen Campus was co-founded by Sigrid Brell-Cokcan in 2018 to focus on automation in construction with key industry leaders along the construction industry value chain. In 2020, Sigrid Brell-Cokcan initiated the new international consecutive Master's program "Construction & Robotics" for the Bachelor of Architecture, Computer Science, Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in order to train future engineers in the digital environment across academia for the construction industry.
