Dr Tharaka Gunawardena's visit to UK

Dr Tharaka Gunawardena of CAMPH attended the recently concluded International Conference on Smart Infrastructure and Construction 2019 (ICSIC) at Churchill College of the University of Cambridge.

The presented conference paper titled “Effective use of Offsite Manufacturing for Public Infrastructure Projects in Australia” received much praise and attention by many other attendees such as the Dr Keith Bowers who is Head of Profession for the Civil Engineering and Built Environment disciplines in Transport for London’s Engineering Directorate and Mr Jas Shanker who is the Head of Technology of Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) of UK. The modular technology in Australia in general and how it is successfully used in many public infrastructure projects was of great interest to the attendees from UK and other countries.

Dr Tharaka Gunawardena also had the opportunity of visiting the Laing O'Rourke Centre for Construction Engineering and Technology at the University of Cambridge which is led by Professor Campbell Middleton. His meeting with the centre manager Jan Wojtecki was a vital initial step in developing relations between the two centres. He also had the opportunity of speaking to many of the researchers and PhD students at the centre. CAMPH intends to continue this relationship with the Laing O'Rourke Centre at the University of Cambridge to ensure that the researchers and industry partners of both parties benefit from the shared knowledge.

During his visit to the UK, Dr Tharaka Gunawardena also met with one of the leading researchers in the world on modular construction, Professor Mark Lawson. His book titled “Design in Modular Construction” among many other articles is quite well known and heavily cited among researchers in this area. This meeting will also lead to further relations and the sharing of knowledge between two active research groups.