Dr. Sheryl Staub-French, Director

Sheryl Staub-French, Ph.D., P.Eng., is a Professor of Civil Engineering and former Associate Dean of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She leads research to support the digital delivery of sustainable building projects through the collaborative use of Building Information Modelling (BIM). She has contributed over 100 papers to leading journals and conferences on BIM and related topics, addressing technological and organizational issues associated with its implementation. As Associate Dean, she helped lead the engineering outreach program Geering Up!, which promotes engineering and STEM skills to children, youth, parents, and teachers. She also leads EDI initiatives in the Faculty to enhance the diverse representation of engineering students and cultivate inclusive spaces and experiences that support all community members. 

Dr. Puyan Zadeh

Puyan Zadeh, Dr.-Ing, is a building innovation specialist, the founder of “Pyramoon Innovations”, and a research associate/sessional instructor at UBC’s Project and Construction Management (PCM) group since fall 2017. He joined UBC as a postdoctoral fellow in late 2013. Before joining UBC, Puyan obtained his B.Sc. (2001) in Civil Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Tehran, Iran, and earned both his M.Sc. (2007) and Dr.-Ing. (2012) in “Informatics in Civil Engineering” from Technische Universität Darmstadt (TUDa), Darmstadt, Germany. His recent research at UBC covers a wide range of topics related to the “innovation in construction” including BIM-based design and coordination, application of IPD and Lean Construction, AI driven algorithms for AECO, BIM for FM, Digital Fabrication and Modular Construction, as well as XR (AR/VR/MR) for Construction.

Dr. Rachel Pottinger

Rachel Pottinger, Ph.D., is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where she leads data management and mining research. Her work focuses on semantic data integration, metadata management, and developing techniques to make complex data more accessible and understandable for non-experts. Pottinger is deeply committed to advancing diversity and equity in computer science. She received the Anita Borg Institute’s Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award for her research excellence and significant impact on promoting women and underrepresented groups in STEM. She is highly regarded for her teaching, receiving multiple departmental awards for excellence in instruction, and has played key roles in mentoring, curriculum development, and academic leadership at UBC. Beyond her professional achievements, Pottinger actively advocates for inclusive academic communities and participates in numerous service and outreach initiatives, both locally and nationally.

Dr. Devarsh Bhonde, Postdoctoral Fellow

Devarsh Bhonde, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the BIMTOPiCS Lab at UBC Vancouver, where he leads research on digital transformation in the construction industry. His work centers on Building Information Modelling (BIM), Lean Integrated Project Delivery (Lean-IPD), and virtual collaboration. His doctoral research explored the impact of BIM-enabled tools and cloud platforms on design coordination in complex projects. Devarsh has collaborated with BC Housing, IPDA, and AECO Innovation Lab on industry-partnered studies, contributing to national efforts around BIM adoption, ISO 19650 implementation, and innovation in public sector infrastructure delivery.

Najme Hashempour, Ph.D. Student

Najme is a PhD student at the BIM TOPiCS Lab, where she focuses on enhancing the energy performance of buildings. With a construction management and engineering background from Imam Khomeini International University in Iran, her research aims to bridge the gap between designed and actual energy performance. She is currently contributing to the Vienna House Project by BC Housing, a social housing initiative targeting Passive House certification.

Danilo Caron, Ph.D. Student

Danilo Caron is a PhD student of mixed Italian and Anishinaabe heritage and an Indigenous and Black Engineering and Technology (IBET) Fellow. With a physics and civil engineering background, his research explores how Indigenous knowledge can be meaningfully integrated into architecture, engineering, and construction practices. He focuses on project delivery methods, Indigenous governance, intercultural collaboration, and systems change. Central to his work is building strong partnerships between Indigenous communities, industry, and UBC through co-developed research that supports shared goals and mutual benefit.

Hao Xuan (Harry) Zhang, Ph.D. Student

Hao Xuan Zhang is a PhD student whose research focuses a novel method for quality assurance in building construction using synthetic point clouds and semantic segmentation models. By training a 3D segmentation model on synthetic data generated from Building Information Models (BIM), Harry’s approach enables automated detection of discrepancies between as-designed and as-built structures, achieving a mean intersection over union of 41.1% in semantic segmentation. This method aims to reduce manual inspection workload, improve efficiency, and address common industry challenges such as cost overruns and schedule delays caused by errors in traditional quality assurance processes

Samaneh Torabifar, MASc Student

Samaneh is a Master of Applied Science student at the BIM TOPiCS Lab, where her research explores the use of BIM and Digital Twin technologies to enhance building operations, in partnership with the BC Government. With a background in Architectural Engineering from Tarbiat Modares University, her interests span emerging technologies in the AEC industry, including AI/ML, smart buildings, and construction project management. Outside of academia, she enjoys hiking, camping, and participating in various sports.

Mahtab Ebadati, MASc Student

Mahtab is a Master of Applied Science student at the BIM TOPiCS Lab, having joined in 2024 after completing her bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from Shahid Beheshti University. Her research focuses on leveraging large language models and AI tools to extract operations and maintenance data for integration into BIM models, aiming to advance AI- and BIM-enabled facility management solutions.