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Biography

Dr. Zili Li is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Civil Engineering Discipline, School of Engineering and Architecture at ¸£Àû1000ÔÚÏß College Cork, and a Visiting Professor / Affiliated Scholar at School of Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. He is the Founding Director of Quantum Sensing Lab at ¸£Àû1000ÔÚÏß College Cork. He holds a PhD degree from the ¸£Àû1000ÔÚÏß of Cambridge, UK and a bachelor degree from Tongji ¸£Àû1000ÔÚÏß, China. 

Internationally, Dr. Li is the Founding Chair of Technical Committee TC310 Space Geotechnics in ISSMGE (International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering), the largest international geoengineering society. He chaired ISMLG 2023 (the 4th International Symposium of Machine Learning and Big Data in Geoscience) at ¸£Àû1000ÔÚÏß College Cork, Ireland in 2023. He also acts as the Leader of Task Force ‘Physical AI’ in TC309 Machine Learning & Big Data at ISSMG, and leads world-class the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) tunnel projects.

Since taking up current employment in May 2016, Dr. Li has secured €5.5+ million research grant as the Principal Investigator, including prestigious Science Foundation Ireland Frontiers for the Future Programme (€612k total budget) and Research Ireland Infrastructure Programme (€1,713k total budget).

He has published 100+ peer-reviewed papers in machine learning, computer vision, geo-structure long-term resilience and broad geotechnics with ample experience in project management. His team has received 20+ honours and awards, including Bright Spark Lecture Award, Geotechnical Trust Fund Award, Irish Mining and Quarrying Society (IMQS) Bursary, Best Paper Award (2023) in the journal of Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 6+ keynote speaker presentations and etc.

Research Interests

• Innovative sensing technologies and data analytics (quantum sensing, distributed fibre optic sensing, computer vision, smartphone sensing)
• Physical AI and Agentic AI for Geotechnics and Infrastructure, Space Geotechnics
• Geothermal foundation (thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) modelling, large-scale energy geostructures)
• Tunnelling engineering and underground excavation
• Computational geotechnics (advanced finite element modelling, ground constitutive model)

Publications

Selected 5 Publications

• Wang, C., Xiao, Z., Di Murro V., Osborne, J., Friedman, M., Li Z.*, (2024), The impact of thermal-hydraulic variation on tunnel long-term performance: a tale of two tunnels, Geotechnique (2025) 75 (7): 858–874.

• Neng Wang, Bowen Jiang, Camillo J. Taylor, Zili Li*. (2026) Diffusion-Enhanced Semantic Segmentation: A Novel Framework for Underground Crack Detection, Automation in Construction, Volume 182, February 2026, 106721 (won best publication of the year award competition for the School of Engineering and Architecture) 

• Ran Zhang, Chao Wang, Zili Li*, (2025) Automatic inspection and assessment of a cross-passage twin tunnel using UAV, Automation in Construction, Volume 175, July 2025, 106200 

• Aohui Ouyang, Vanessa Di Murro, Mehdi Daakir, John Andrew Osborne, Zili Li*, (2025) From Pixel to Infrastructure: Photogrammetry-based Tunnel Crack Digitalization and Documentation Method using Deep Learning, Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, Vol 155, 106179

• O'Brien, D., Osborne, J., Perez-Duenas, E., Li, Z., (2023), Automated crack classification in the CERN underground tunnel infrastructure using deep learning, Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, Volume 131, 104668 (won Best Paper Award in Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 2023)

Google Scholar Link:

Professional Activity

Internationally, Dr. Li is the Founding Chair of Technical Committee TC310 Space Geotechnics in ISSMGE (International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering), the largest international geoengineering society.

He chaired ISMLG 2023 (the 4th International Symposium of Machine Learning and Big Data in Geoscience) at ¸£Àû1000ÔÚÏß College Cork, Ireland in 2023.

He also acts as the Leader of Task Force ‘Physical AI’ in TC309 Machine Learning & Big Data at ISSMG, and leads world-class the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) tunnel projects.

Teaching Activity

Postgraduate Level: GL6021 Engineering Geology / CE4007 Geotechnical Engineering

Undergraduate Level: CE3004 Mechanics of Soil I, CE3005 Mechanics of Soil II,

CE4007 Geotechnical Engineering, CE4002 Dissertation in Civil and Environmental Engineering