Professor Peter Demian

BA/MA MEng MSc PhD M.ASCE M.CIOB FHEA CEng MICE

Pronouns: He/him
  • Professor of Digital Construction Engineering

Research and expertise

I joined the Construction Management Group at Loughborough in 2005 and led it from 2019 to 2022. I conduct research in all aspects of information management in design, construction and the built environment. I primarily teach Design Management at MSc level, and am Programme Leader for Loughborough’s renowned Construction MSc programmes.

I am broadly interested in information management, and led the Centre for Digital Built Britain Neterowrk For ONTologies And Inormartion maNagemenbt (Network FOuNTAIN, https://www.cdbb.cam.ac.uk/CDBBResearchBridgehead/Networks/2018Network_FOuNTAIN).  

I worked with Dr Karen Blay on the follow-up CDBB project on resilience in information management. Within the broad area of information management, I am particularly interested in information retrieval and have developed a search engine for building information models, along with colleagues, as part of the 3DIR project.

I am a member of the EC3 Committee on Human-Data Interaction and am active in this research area.

Recently completed research projects 

Recent publications

  • Molsa, M., Demian, P., & Gerges, M. (2023). BIM Search Engine: Effects of Object Relationships and Information Standards.Buildings, 13(7), 1591. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071591
  • Murguia, D., Vasquez, C., Demian, P., & Soetanto, R. (2023). BIM Adoption among Contractors: A Longitudinal Study in Peru. ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 149(1), 04022140. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0002424
  • Kurwi, S., Demian, P., Hassan, T. M., & Blay, K. B. (2022). A Process Model for Collaboration at the Design Stage of Rail Project Delivery. ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 148(10), 04022105.  https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0002355
  • Liu Z, Wu T, Wang F, Osmani M, Demian P. (2022). Blockchain Enhanced Construction Waste Information Management: A Conceptual Framework. Sustainability. 2022; 14(19):12145. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912145 
  • Murguia, D., Demian, P. and Soetanto, R. (2021), "The role of the industry's cultural-cognitive elements on actors' intention to adopt BIM: an empirical study in Peru", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-08-2021-0743

Teaching

Programme Leader, MSc Construction Management / MSc Construction Project Management / MSc Construction Project Management with BIM I contribute to learning and teaching activities across the School’s programmes. I generally deliver sessions on IT and design management, including:

Undergraduate

  • Design Briefing as part of Design Project modules
  • Virtual Working to final year Architecutral Engineering students
  • Construction IT to Civil Engineering students

Postgraduate

  • I lead the Design Management module, as part of the Construction MSc programmes

Enterprise

Recently completed projects

  • s3DIR: Updating the Three-Dimensional Information Retrieval (3DIR) to comply with Standards
  • Lifting Wing

Profile

I joined Loughborough as a Lecturer in Construction Management in 2005, following MSc/PhD degrees in Civil Engineering from Stanford University and BA/MA/MEng degrees in Engineering from Cambridge University (Selwyn College). I was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2012, and Reader in 2017 and Professor in 2024. From 2019 to 2022, I took on leadership of the Construction Management Group, the largest group in the School by number of academics.

I have had a variety of industrial experience. I spent a year before going to university working for British Gas as a database programmer. During my undergraduate degree at Cambridge, I spent a summer working for the National Centre for Hydraulic Engineering in France, which was then part of Electricité de France, in Chambéry, France. During my studies at Stanford, I worked as a technology consultant with a local design firm, KL&A Engineers in Menlo Park, California.

Professional affiliations

  • Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE) and Chartered Engineer (CEng)
  • Member of th Chatered Institute of Building
  • Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers
  • Fellow of HEA 

Awards

  • Highly Commended Teaching Stars Award (medium class sizes) School Awared 2021
  • 3DIR, Highly Commended, Best Research Project at LU Built Environment Awards, 2018
  • Outstanding Reviewer status, Elsevier, Automation in Construction, 2015
  • Top 10 Most Loaded Paper, Automation in Construction, 2015
  • Top 10 Most Downloaded Paper, Construction Management and Econmics, 2013
  • Outstanding Reviewer Award, ASCE J of Computing in Civil Engineering, 2012
  • Stanford School of Engineering Broeren Fellowship, 1999

External activities

  • About 20 research degree external examinations at various universities, including: Cambridge University, Universiti Teknologi Mara Malaysia, Anna University India, Bath University, Reading University, Cardiff University, Huddersfield University, Northumbria University, Robert Gordon University.
  • External MSc Examiner, 2013-2017, Middlesex University, MSc Building Information Modelling Management
  • External Examiner, Engineering (Levels 4-6). University of Northampton, 2011-2015
  • External Examiner, Postgraduate Programmes in Built Environment, Robert Gordon University, 2010-2014
  • Member of International Advisory Board of India BIM Association since 2018
  • Member of Horizon Group of the Supply Chain Sustainability School since 2018
  • Invited to present at Stanford University's AEC Global Teamwork 25 yr anniversary, 2018
  • China Lecture Tour, Summer 2016.  Trip hosted by ACG China, presented research at over 10 universities, including NCUT, SCUT, Shanghai University, Shandong University.
  • Active member of BIM Academic Forum, contributed to report https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/bim_june2013.pdf
  • Invited to present research at Cambridge University Seminars of Engineering Department (2009) and Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory (2013)
  • Keynote speaker, International Conference on Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering (ICSEE - 2011).with  Indian Concrete Institute, KSR College of Engineering

Key collaborators

My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and stakeholder partners, including:

  • Cambridge University, Centre for Digital Built Britain
  • Stanford University, Project-Based Learning Laboratory