Soumava Boral

Profile

I am Dr. Soumava Boral, a researcher with expertise in AI/ML, decision science, sustainability, operations management, and systems engineering. I completed my Ph.D. through the prestigious Dual Doctoral Degree Programme jointly offered by the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (India) and Curtin University (Australia).

My research spans industrial and academic environments. I have previously worked in several industry roles focused on operations management. More recently, I served as an Industrial Secondee with C-DICE, RAAC Consulting and Solutions, and Loughborough University. During this period, I developed decision-making frameworks and sensor-data fusion strategies for AI-based monitoring of failure-prone RAAC planks in NHS buildings and schools.

I have also contributed to the Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Mineral-based Construction Materials (ICEC-MCM), where I developed a system dynamics and agent-based modelling framework to optimise circular economy value. This framework was grounded in complexity science theory and addressed the multi-faceted interactions within the built environment.

As part of my ongoing work, I have co-developed a comprehensive concrete mix-design database, featuring 84 explanatory variables and 8 response variables. This database, the first of its kind, focuses on recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and has strong potential for predictive analytics in RCA mix design. We are actively working to derive further insights from this dataset.

Currently, I am engaged in the Safe, Sustainable and Swift Reconstruction of Ukraine (S3RoU) project, a major initiative aimed at post-conflict reconstruction. My focus is on AI-assisted computer vision for the classification and sorting of construction and demolition waste (CDW), along with the development of a software tool to measure circular economy value in CDW streams.

I have supervised or co-supervised more than eight B.Sc. and M.Sc. students, and I am currently supervising one B.Sc. student and co-supervising a Ph.D. candidate. I welcome collaborations and expressions of interest from students and researchers interested in AI/ML, circular economy, systems modelling, optimisation, and RCA-based material modelling.

Feel free to get in touch if you'd like to join or collaborate with our research group.

Research interests

My research interest includes the following:

1. Circular Economy
2. Sustainability Assessment
3. AI/ML integration
4. Operations Management
5. Uncertainty Quantification
6. Statistical Analysis

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Technology
• M.E. in Production and Industrial Engineering
• Ph.D. (Industrial and Systems Engineering)

Professional memberships

• European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology
• International Society on MCDM
• RILEM

Research groups and institutes

• Materials and Structures
• Materials and Structures