CIES welcomes Mohsen Kalantari who has joined the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering as an Associate Professor of Geospatial Engineering.

Mohsen is a co-founder of a geospatial technology company called Faramoon, which, amongst other things, converts point cloud data to 3D models. Mohsen is passionate about research and translating it into impactful solutions to address societal challenges. Previously, he lectured in the Department of Infrastructure Engineering at the University of Melbourne. Before his academic career, he worked with the surveying and spatial industry through his role in the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) as the Victorian coordinator of a nationwide land and survey information modernisation initiative, ePlan. 

Mohsen has a wealth of experience developing successful research grant applications, engaging with the industry and profession, building strong research teams, conducting research in Australia and overseas, and leading a research centre. His area of research covers land administration, 3D spatial Data Infrastructure, and the nexus of construction engineering and geospatial engineering, most notably BIM and digital engineering.

Mohsen brings in-depth and rich skills in university teaching, developing teaching grants, coordinating degrees, inter/cross-disciplinary/online curriculum development, accreditation, and assisting students in their studies. In this context, he envisions developing teaching methods considering that university learners have grown up with digital technologies. This philosophy also entails that today’s formal learning classroom and online distance learning systems keep students motivated.

Associate Professor Kalantari has built and maintained a strong network with the surveying and spatial industry across Australia and Internationally.  He brings strong industry and professional links with Australian and international bodies and government agencies such as the United Nations, World Bank, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inter-governmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM), mapping and land authorities across Australia, Singapore Land Authority, Surveying and Mapping Agency of Malaysia as well as the internationally renowned private sector.

Beyond contributions to academia, Mohsen's research has had a demonstrable contribution to industry; most notably, he is a co-founder of, Faramoon, a start-up company that has licensed technology developed in his research group for commercialisation purposes. He aims to foster a mindset that advocates the importance of entrepreneurship in academic research to raise the culture of entrepreneurship in the Centre and School.