Ward & Burke Centre News

Thursday, 26 November 2026 | 3:30pm
Áras Moyola, MY231 Seminar Room 2
Speaker: Professor Nicole Metje, Director of the National Buried Infrastructure Facility, University of Birmingham

Construct Innovate members, researchers, industry professionals, and students are invited to attend the next Seminar Series event featuring Professor Nicole Metje, a leading expert in infrastructure monitoring and Director of the National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF) at the University of Birmingham.

In this seminar, Professor Metje will provide an overview of the National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF), one of the UK's most advanced large-scale physical testing facilities for geotechnical engineering. Opened in 2022, NBIF forms part of the infrastructure developed through the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC), supporting cutting-edge research into underground infrastructure systems.

Attendees will gain insight into the facility's unique capabilities and the diverse range of projects undertaken over the past four years. These include research on pile foundations, geogrid assessment, quantum sensing technologies, and other innovative applications that are helping to advance the understanding, monitoring, and resilience of buried infrastructure.

The presentation will showcase examples of industry-supported and Research Council-funded projects, demonstrating how large-scale testing environments can accelerate innovation, validate new technologies, and address real-world challenges facing the construction and infrastructure sectors.

Seminar Hosts:
A/Prof Bryan McCabe and Prof Brian Sheil

We look forward to welcoming you to what promises to be an insightful and engaging discussion on the future of infrastructure testing and monitoring.