Dr Craig Hancock

Following the completion of my PhD, my research work has been more closely related to Engineering and initially focused on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Pseudo-Satellite Systems for positioning in Urban Environments (Particularly for mapping utilities).

Over the last 10 years, my research interest can be categorised into 3 strands:

1. Error categorization and mitigation for GNSS, where my prime interests are ionospheric errors.
2. Change detection and Monitoring, including monitoring of engineering structures and also monitoring of changes in the Earth and
3. Using Geospatial Techniques that benefit Digital Construction.

I have published over 80 academic papers and supervised 10 PhD students to completion all in the general area of Surveying, Geomatics and Geospatial Engineering including Mapping Utilities, Laser Scanning Applications, Structural Health Monitoring and Surveying applications in Digital Construction.

Current research activity 

• Characterization and Mitigation of Errors on GNSS
• Structural and Natural Change Monitoring
• Spatial Data Acquisition for BIM and Digital Construction

Recently completed research projects

• Structural Health Monitoring of Infrastructure in Logistics Cycle (LY16D040001), International Academy for Marine Economy and Technology (IAMET) Ningbo Science and Technology Bureau, 2015 - 2019, (1,500,000 RMB, £150,000) (Principal Investigator)
• Assessment and Mitigation of Ionospheric Errors on GNSS (2014A35008), Zhejiang Natural Science Foundation 2016 - 2019, (90,000 RMB, £9,000) (Principal Investigator)
• Research on Key Technology of Bridge Deformation Monitoring Based on Multi-Frequency GNSS (PF2017-6), Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of Precise Engineering and Industry Surveying of National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation’, 2017 - 2019, (20,000 RMB) (Principal Investigator)

• Roberts, G. W., Hancock, C. M., Lienhart, W., Klug, F., Zuzek, N., & de Ligt, H. (2020). Displacement and frequency response measurements of a ship using GPS and fibre optic-based sensors. Applied Geomatics, 1–11.
• Li, C., Hancock, C. M., Hamm, N. A. S., Veettil, S. V, & You, C. (2020). Analysis of the Relationship between Scintillation Parameters, Multipath and ROTI. Sensors, 20(10), 2877.
• Kelly, C. I., Andam-Akorful, S. A., Hancock, C. M., Laari, P. B., & Ayer, J. (2019). Global gravity models and the Ghanaian Vertical Datum: challenges of a proper definition. Survey Review, 1–11.
• Chen, C., Tang, L., Hancock, C. M., & Zhang, P. (2019). Development of low-cost mobile laser scanning for 3D construction indoor mapping by using inertial measurement unit, ultra-wide band and 2D laser scanner. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management.
• Yan, J., He, G., Basiri, A., & Hancock, C. (2019). 3-D Passive-Vision-Aided Pedestrian Dead Reckoning for Indoor Positioning. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 69(4), 1370–1386.

Undergraduate

• CVB104 – Practical Skills for Civil Egineering (Module Leader)
• CVA102 – Professional Practice in Civil Engineering (Contributor)

Recently completed projects

• Low Cost Indoor Mapping for Building Information Modelling, iSpatial Ltd, 2017, (32000 RMB) (Principal Investigator)
• Structural Health Monitoring of Wind Turbines, New Materials Institute, Ningbo, China, 2020 (24,000 RMB)

I graduated from Newcastle University with a BSc (Hons) in Surveying and Mapping Science in 2003. Following my undergraduate degree in Surveying, after a short 3-month summer position with Ray Beels Associates as a Junior Land Surveyor, I started my PhD in Space Geodesy under the guidance of Prof Philip Moore also at Newcastle University. My PhD developed a novel technique for utilizing Earth Rotation Parameters for calculating low degree spherical harmonics of the Earth’s Gravity Field.

Following my PhD studies, I took up a position as a Research Associate in the Nottingham Geospatial Institute (NGI) at the University of Nottingham on an EPSRC funded project “Mapping the Underworld“ investigating means of positioning buried pipes and cables. Over the next few years, I worked on 2 other EPSRC funded projects about position and navigation at the NGI.

In 2010, I was appointed as a Lecturer in Engineering Surveying in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Nottingham, and I was still a member of the NGI. In 2013 I took up a position at the China campus of the University of Nottingham as an Assistant Professor in Surveying. In 2016 I was appointed Acting Head of Civil Engineering and in 2017 I was promoted to Associate Professor and Appointed Head of Civil Engineering and founded the Geospatial Research Group of which I was also appointed Head. In 2020, I decided it was time to return to the UK and was appointed a Senior Lecturer in Surveying at Loughborough University. At Loughborough, I am a member of the Geotechnics and Geomatics Research Group.

External activities

• Member of the CICES Regional Board 2008 - 2013
• Vice Chair Commission 6 of the FIG – 2010 - 2015
• Member of the BIM Working Group FIG 2018 – 2019
• Member editorial Board for “Survey Review”