On the morning of September 12, 2024, our school hosted Professor Pitt from University College London and Dr. Long Chen from City University of Hong Kong for two academic lectures held in the Lecture Hall of Building 7. Professor Pitt delivered a talk titled Towards a Conceptual Facilities Management Journey: Digital and Intelligent Applications and Research, while Dr. Chen presented on From BIM to Twin: Developing Digital Twins for Future Infrastructure and Built Environment.

The event was organized by the Department of Construction Management and co-hosted by the Construction Management Society. Professors Hui Yan and Xiaochun Luo from our department served as moderators. Simultaneously, the lecture was broadcast live as the 44th session of the Public Lecture Series on Engineering Management, a scholarly event supported by Frontiers of Engineering Management, the journal of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

In the first part of the event, Professor Pitt gave a brief introduction to University College London and then elaborated on the challenges currently facing the field of facilities management. He emphasized that facilities management should be based on organizational structure and tailored to the specific needs of end users. He discussed the importance of understanding service users and their requirements, and proposed that facilities management can be modularized and customized according to stakeholder needs, forming a foundation for commercial delivery models. Students actively engaged with Professor Pitt, asking questions related to the digital transformation of facilities management.

In the second session, Dr. Long Chen focused on the application of digital twins in the built environment. He analyzed the opportunities digital twin technologies offer for infrastructure and architectural systems, pointing out that digital twins are emerging as a data-driven approach to monitoring, managing, predicting, and enhancing the efficiency and quality of design, construction, and operational processes. He highlighted smart cities and transportation systems as key examples where the value of digital twins is particularly evident.

This event provided valuable insights into cutting-edge technologies for both faculty and students, broadening their academic horizons and fostering closer collaboration between our school and leading institutions. Continued academic engagement between the institutions is anticipated in the future.