The infrastructure of tomorrow includes self-sensing concrete that can warn of cracks before they appear and digital twins which predict floods, the NSSN’s Women in Sensing Forum heard last week.

The speakers on the *Women in Sensing* Forum panel included (from right to left): Professor Nicole Metje, Dr Neda Mohammadi, Dr Anna Wright and Dr Yunyun Tao. The panel was moderated by Joanne Elliott from Quantum Australia (far left). Credit: Pauline Woo

The forum highlighted sensing technologies, next-generation materials, and equitable innovation which are shaping the future of infrastructure.

Smarter ways to manage buried infrastructure

Professor Nicole Metje from the University of Birmingham, UK, has spent her career looking underground.

The Professor of Infrastructure Monitoring and Director of the National Buried Infrastructure Facility studies buried infrastructure such as water pipes, which often go unnoticed until something goes wrong.

Prof Metje said smart infrastructure demands a fundamental shift from reactive to proactive asset management.

Embedding sensors into infrastructure at the point of construction, or retrofitting them later, allows engineers to detect weaknesses early and prevent costly failures.

But she said this is not without challenges.

Pipes may remain in service for more than 150 years, meaning sensors need to survive in harsh underground environments for just as long.

“The sensors have to last the life of the asset, and that can be quite difficult,” Prof Metje said.

The Professor of Infrastructure Monitoring also shared her pioneering work on quantum gravity sensing with physicists, highlighting the transformative power of interdisciplinary collaboration.

“Don’t be afraid of collaboration and don’t be afraid to step outside your main discipline,” she said.

“It can be challenging and you might feel like an imposter and have to learn a different language, but it’s also where the really rewarding projects happen and where you can make a step change.”

Professor Metje said while upfront investment in sensing technologies can be high, the long-term savings, resilience and safety benefits far outweigh the initial costs.

Digital twins that save lives

Sydney Horizon Fellow Dr Neda Mohammadi from the University of Sydney described how she is advancing the use of AI-enabled digital twins to design cities and communities which are smarter, more sustainable and more equitable.

Her research explores how human behaviour and infrastructure interact, creating systems that enable real-time, evidence-based decisions.

“Why we want the system to be smart or infrastructure to be smart is so we can make the decisions based on evidence, not just opinion or experience,” Dr Mohammadi said.

She said sustainability must be measured across the whole life of infrastructure and that outcomes must be inclusive, serving entire communities.

“Which is why we involve end users early on and build their input into every decision,” she said.

Dr Mohammadi shared her work on digital twins that fuse diverse data sources to model “what-if” scenarios and highlighted a US case study where a river digital twin now helps anticipate flash floods and protect lives.

She said the impact of her research comes alive through collaboration with governments and communities, ensuring innovations are not only technically advanced but also socially equitable and practically implemented.

Wayfinding that works for everyone

CEO and co-founder of wayfinding technology BindiMaps, Dr Anna Wright, said the startup began with the goal of helping people who are blind or have low vision find their way through complex indoor spaces like universities and train stations.

“Outdoors we all rely on GPS, but it degrades very quickly once you step inside a building,” Dr Wright said.

“Our system, using AI-enabled digital twins, achieves indoor localisation accuracy down to 30 centimetres on average and as precise as nine centimetres.

“For someone who is blind, that’s the difference between finding the train platform or missing it.”

BindiMaps began as an accessibility app but has since expanded to serve all users, with applications in universities, hospitals, shopping centres and beyond.

“Hospitals… post COVID have really worked out that they don’t want people wandering around aimlessly, especially if you’re coughing and spluttering around the hospital, and also they’ve got data on how often surgeons get stopped to be asked for directions,” she said.

“They’ve also got data on the number one excuse for being late to an appointment, which is ‘I got lost’.”

The startup has also built its localisation platform as a software development kit (SDK), opening the door for broader use in fields like robotics.

While inclusivity remains at the heart of its mission, Dr Wright emphasised the wider benefits of designing for everyone:

“Anything that’s truly smart and equitable must be inclusive of everybody. By not including people with disabilities, we risk missing out on extraordinary skills and breakthroughs,” she said.

She encouraged others, particularly universities and large facilities, to recognise both the social and economic value of inclusive wayfinding.

“BindiMaps is about more than getting from A to B,” Dr Wright said.

“It’s about independence, safety, and unlocking new opportunities for innovation across industries.”

Materials that sense for themselves

Early-career researcher Dr Yunyun Tao from the University of Sydney is pioneering the use of recycled aerospace fibres in sustainable, self-sensing concrete.

Her work tackles two pressing challenges at once: reducing industrial waste and creating stronger, smarter infrastructure.

Instead of sending tonnes of fibre-reinforced composites to landfill or incineration, Dr Tao’s research chemically recycles these high-value materials and integrates them into cementitious composites.

The result is a new class of self-sensing concrete, where embedded carbon fibres form a conductive network that can detect stress, strain and cracks in real time, without the need for separate sensors.

“By transforming recycled composites into smart building materials, we can both cut waste and give engineers early warnings of structural damage,” Dr Tao said.

The innovation not only improves the resilience of infrastructure but also lowers costs by reusing materials from aerospace and renewable energy industries, such as turbine blades.

Dr Tao emphasised that industry standards and government collaboration are now crucial to scaling adoption.

Her work is already being trialled in bridge applications in NSW.

The forum was held at the University of Sydney’s Sydney Knowledge Hub.

It was moderated by National Marketing Lead at Quantum Australia, Joanne Elliott and opened by Sydney Knowledge Hub Partnerships and Events Manager Karla Perez Romero.

The NSSN Women in Sensing event series started in 2022 with the aim of profiling women researchers and leaders from across the network of seven universities. 
 

From smart concrete to digital twins: Women in Sensing forum highlights infrastructure innovations