Dr Robby Soetanto

My research work in the field of innovation management lays on two specific innovation focussed areas: (1) flood and community resilience, specifically on the deployment of blue-green infrastructure to alleviate flood risk in urban areas, and (2) innovation adoption in construction. My areas of expertise include lean construction, productivity, process mapping, applying BIM technologies, scenario planning, and structural and non-structural measures for adaptation and mitigation for reducing flood risk. I have been PI and Co-I on research projects (valued at over £2.5m), funded by governments (EPSRC, NERC, EU, HEA, British Council, UKRI, Newton Fund, GCRF, UKRI) and private companies (Lloyds TSB and Hewlett Packard). I led the award-winning BIM-Hub initiative (http://bim-hub.lboro.ac.uk/), received Premier Award of the CIOB’s International Innovation and Research Awards 2014, and won 4 international best paper awards.

Current research activity 

• Principal Investigator, ‘DECONT’ – Digital Enablers for CONstruction Transformation: a new paradigm for rethinking construction (July 2019 – 31 March 2020; UKRI via TCN+, UCL) https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/construction/about-us/transforming-construction-network-plus/small-projects#Digital%20Enablers%20for%20Construction%20Transformation%20(DECONT)[RS1] 
• Co-Investigator, ‘FloodFinJava’ - Financial planning for natural disasters: the case of flooding risk in Central Java (January 2018 – 31 January 2020; NERC, DFID, ESRC)

Recently completed research projects  

• Principal Investigator, ‘BuGIS’ - Enhancing urban flood resilience for 1 million people through Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) in Semarang, Indonesia, Newton Fund - Institutional Links project (April 2017 – March 2019; British Council & MenRisTekDikti) https://bugis.lboro.ac.uk/[RS2] 
• Principal Investigator and Coordinator - British Council  Researcher Links (UK-Indonesia) - Towards sustainable building and infrastructure in Indonesia (October 2013 – March 2014), and founder of UK-Indonesia Researcher Network (UKIREN; https://ukiren.lboro.ac.uk/[RS3] )
• Principal Investigator, ‘BIM-Hub’ – A learning hub for international problem-based learning (July 2013 – March 2015; The Higher Education Academy) https://bim-hub.lboro.ac.uk/[RS4] 
• Co-investigator in Build Your English (BYE) project (March 2012 – February 2014; EU Long-life Learning Programme)
• Principal Investigator – Hewlett Packard Catalyst Initiative project (January 2011 – December 2012) 
• Co-investigator in CREW (Community Resilience to Extreme Weather events) research programme (February 2008 – November 2011; EPSRC)

• Drosou, N., Soetanto, R., Hermawan, F., Chmutina, K., Bosher, L. and Hatmoko, J.U.D. (2019) Key factors influencing wider adoption of blue-green infrastructure in developing cities. Water, 11(6), 1234;https://doi.org/10.3390/w11061234
• Ahmad, S., Soetanto, R. and Goodier, C. (2019) Lean approach in precast concrete component production. Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 9(3), 457-470. https://doi.org/10.1108/BEPAM-02-2018-0051
• Soetanto, R., Mullins, A. and Achour, N. (2017) The perceptions of social responsibility for community resilience to flooding: The impact of past experience, age, gender and ethnicity. Natural Hazards, 86(3), 1105-1126. DOI: 10.1007/s11069-016-2732-z
• Zanni, M.A., Soetanto, R. and Ruikar, K. (2017) Towards a BIM-enabled sustainable building design process: roles, responsibilities, and requirements. Architectural Engineering and Design Management, 13(2), 101-129. DOI: 10.1080/17452007.2016.1213153  
• Soetanto, R., Childs, M., Poh, P., Austin, S., Glass, J., Adamu, Z.A., Isiadinso, C., Tolley, H. and MacKenzie, H. (2015) Key success factors and guidance for international collaborative design project. International Journal of Architectural Research (ArchNet-IJAR), 9(3), 6-25. http://archnet-ijar.net/index.php/IJAR

Undergraduate

• CVC037 Pre-construction Planning and Estimating
• CVB024 Contractors’ Planning and Estimating
• CVD002 Research Dissertation

Postgraduate

• CVP325 Sustainability in the Built Environment
• CVP326 Management of Construction Processes and Techniques
• CVP322 Principles of Design and Construction

Career 

I teach Construction Management, and am Programme Director for BSc(Hons) Construction Engineering Management at Loughborough University. Prior to my current post, I was Lloyds TSB Insurance Post-doctoral Research Fellow (2001-2002), investigating remediations of flood-damaged domestic properties. Then, I worked as a Post-doctoral Research Associate at Loughborough University (2002-2007), where I was involved in several industry and government-sponsored research projects, including ‘HyCon’, ‘Respect for People’, ‘the Big Ideas’. This post was followed by Senior Lecturership (2007-2012) at Coventry University, where I led Construction Management Applied Research Group and won research funding for Community Resilience to Extreme Weather (CREW), virtual collaborative building design (Hewlett Packard Catalyst Initiative), Build Your English (BYE, EU Long-life Learning Programme) projects.

Since starting my current post in 2012, I have led research initiative in two strands; digital design and construction and flood resilience in the context of low and middle-income countries. The digital strand has brought the award-winning ‘BIM-Hub’ (https://bim-hub.lboro.ac.uk/[RS1]  ) project that puts collaborative working in the construction industry under the spotlight and tests the Building Information Modelling (BIM) mode of working. This was followed by Digital Enablers for CONstruction Transformation (DECONT; https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/construction/about-us/transforming-construction-network-plus/small-projects#Digital%20Enablers%20for%20Construction%20Transformation%20(DECONT)[RS2] ), which was aimed to develop future scenarios and roadmap for the adoption of digital technologies to integrate off-site manufacturing and on-site construction. In flood resilience strand, I led Blue-Green Infrastructure in Semarang (BuGIS; https://bugis.lboro.ac.uk/[RS3] ) project that aimed to increase the flood resilience of Semarang city (Indonesia) by integrating Blue Green Infrastructure (BGI) concepts into urban development planning. I was pivotal in obtaining funding for FloodFinJava project which promotes proactive financial planning for mitigating the impact of flooding in Central Java, Indonesia. I coordinated Researcher Links workshop and Second City Higher Education Partnerships in Indonesia, and founded UK-Indonesia Researcher Network (UKIREN; https://ukiren.lboro.ac.uk/[RS4]  ) and – all were funded by the British Council.

I was World Class Professor at Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS, Surabaya), funded by Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Indonesia (2017-2018) and Visiting Professor at Ryerson University, Canada (2010, 2012). I was PhD external examiner at Universities of Salford, Aston, Wolverhampton (UK) and KNUST (Ghana). I am currently external examiner for BSc Construction Management at Kingston University and MSc Construction Management at the University of Reading.

Professional affiliations

• Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Awards

• The CIOB International Innovation and Research Award 2014 – Premier Award in the Innovation in Education and Training category
• Emerald Outstanding Reviewer Awards 2014 (Structural Survey)
• Emerald Outstanding Paper Awards 2009 (highly commended paper)
• The RICS Building Surveying Faculty Postgraduate Prize for the best paper presented at COBRA 2002 Conference
• Scholastic awards for all my degrees (B.Eng, M.Eng, Ph.D).

External activities

• Executive Committee Member (Publications Officer) of Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM)of Association of Researcher (2009 – present)
• Member of Review Panel, Newton Fund Researcher and Institutional Links, British Council (2015 – present) 
• Proposal Reviewer for ESRC-DFID (2013), UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) (2014)