Professor Dr. Kay Smarsly
Professor, School of Civil an Environmental Engineering
Director of the Institute of Digital and Autonomous Construction
Hamburg University of Technology
Institute of Digital and Autonomous Construction
Blohmstraße 15, Room 1.023
21079 Hamburg
Email: kay.smarsly(at)tuhh.de
Short bio
Kay Smarsly is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Hamburg University of Technology and founding director of the Institute of Digital and Autonomous Construction. He earned his doctorate in civil engineering from Ruhr University Bochum in 2008 with summa cum laude. From 2010 to 2013, he was a DFG Research Fellow at Stanford University, and he has also conducted research at Carnegie Mellon University and held a fellowship at Berlin University of Technology. In 2013, he was appointed Professor and Chair of Computing in Civil Engineering at Bauhaus University Weimar and, in 2021, accepted the appointment at Hamburg University of Technology. He received the Hamburg Teaching Award in 2023, and he was elected to the North Rhine-Westphalia Academy for Sciences, Humanities and the Arts in 2024. Professor Smarsly is Chair of the German Association of Computing in Civil Engineering (GACCE) and member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ISCCBE). He is also editorial board member and active reviewer for numerous international journals and research funding agencies and has supervised more than 250 doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s theses as well as student projects. His research, focusing on digital twins, construction robotics, building information modeling, smart monitoring, and artificial intelligence in civil engineering, is documented in over 200 publications.
Academic positions (selected)
- Full Professor, Hamburg University of Technology, since 2021
- Full Professor, Bauhaus University Weimar, 2013–2021
- Acting Head of the Chair of Applied Mathematics, Bauhaus University Weimar, 2020–2021
- Lecturer, Advanced Training Program “Bridge construction”, Bauhaus University Weimar, 2013–2020
- DFG Research Fellow, Stanford University, 2010–2013
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Berlin Institute of Technology, 2013
- Research and Teaching Associate, Ruhr University Bochum, 2002–2010 — doctorate awarded in 2008 (summa cum laude)
Memberships and initiatives (selected)
- Member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts (AWK NRW), since 2024
- Member of the Scientific Committee of the Georg Nemetschek Institute (GNI), Technical University of Munich, since 2023
- Chair of the German Association of Computing in Civil Engineering (GACCE), since 2021 (member since 2013; vice chair 2017–2021)
- Member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ISCCBE), since 2016
- Founder of the International Workshop on Explainable Artificial Intelligence in Civil Engineering (XAICE), since 2019
- Founder of the seminar series “Computing in Civil Engineering”, since 2013
- Founder of several student competitions and international summer schools
- Affiliate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
- Reviewer, among others, for the European Union (European Regional Development Fund, ERDF), European Research Council (ERC Synergy Grants), German Research Foundation (Collaborative Research Centers, Research Training Groups, Major Research Instrumentation, Specialized Information Services, Research Grants), Dutch Technology Foundation (STW), The Netherlands, Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Belgium, Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation, Innovation and Technology Commission of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Bavarian Research Foundation, German Society of Property Researchers, as well as for journals, including, among others, the Journal of Bridge Engineering (ASCE), Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering (ASCE), Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems (IEEE), Access (IEEE), Transactions on Industrial Informatics (IEEE), Additive Manufacturing (Elsevier), Advanced Engineering Informatics (Elsevier), Automation in Construction (Elsevier), Case Studies in Construction Materials (Elsevier), Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine (Elsevier), Computer-Aided Design (Elsevier), Computers and Electrical Engineering (Elsevier), Computers and Electronics in Agriculture (Elsevier), Computers in Industry (Elsevier), Construction and Building Materials (Elsevier), Control Engineering Practice (Elsevier), Developments in the Built Environment (Elsevier), Engineering Structures (Elsevier), International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems (Elsevier), Internet of Things (Elsevier), Internet of Things and Cyber-physical Systems (Elsevier), Journal of Building Engineering (Elsevier), Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (Elsevier), Journal of Industrial Information Integration (Elsevier), Journal of Safety and Sustainability (Elsevier), Materials Today: Proceedings (Elsevier), Measurement (Elsevier), Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing (Elsevier), Pervasive and Mobile Computing (Elsevier), Resilient Cities and Structures (Elsevier), Results in Engineering (Elsevier), Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering (Elsevier), Transportation Research Part E (Elsevier), Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology (Elsevier), Smart Materials and Structures (IOP Publishing), Structural Health Monitoring – An International Journal (SAGE Publications), Vibration and Control (SAGE Publications), International Journal of Green Energy (Taylor & Francis), International Journal of Systems Science (Taylor & Francis), Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering (Tylor & Francis), Journal of Zhejiang University (Springer Nature), Applied Sciences (Springer Nature), Springer Science+Business Media (Book Publications), Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering (Wiley), Structural Control and Health Monitoring (Wiley), Stahlbau (Wiley), Smart Structures and Systems – An International Journal (Techno Press), Structural Engineering and Mechanics – An International Journal (Techno Press), AgriEngineering (MDPI), Algorithms (MDPI), Buildings (MDPI), Infrastructures (MDPI), ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (MDPI), Machines (MDPI), Materials (MDPI), Mathematics (MDPI), Sensors Journal (MDPI), Sustainability Journal (MDPI), Symmetry (MDPI), Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing (Cambridge University Press), Advances in Civil Engineering (Hindawi), Elsevier Science and Technology Books
University service at Hamburg University of Technology
- Vice Dean of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, since 2025
- Member of the School Council, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, since 2025
- Member of the Appeals Committee, since 2024
- Member of the Senate, 2022–2024
- Member of the Senate Committee on Strategic Research Planning, 2022–2024
- Spokesperson of the Research Cluster “Civil Infrastructure Systems”, 2022–2024
- Member of the Research Cluster “Civil Infrastructure Systems”, since 2022
- Member of the Research Cluster “Cyber-Physical Systems”, since 2022
- Member of the Research Cluster “Environmental and Energy Systems”, since 2022
- Member of the Research Initiative “Climate-Informed Engineering”, since 2022
- Member of the Research Initiative “Machine Learning in Engineering”, since 2021
- Member of the Research Initiative “Waterside Structures,” 2021–2022