
PhD (Engineering), University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia, 2010
MSc/Dipl.-Ing. Univ. (Civil Engineering), Technical University Munich (TUM), Germany, 2003
Dr Ulrike Dackermann is a lecturer in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a member of the Centre for Infrastructure, Engineering and Safety at UNSW.
Dr Dackermann’s expertise lies in non-destructive testing, timber engineering, structural health monitoring, wave propagation analysis, damage detection, structural dynamics and artificial intelligence. She believes that integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in smart structural health monitoring systems can help generate more sophisticated and reliable inspection procedures, ensuring the sustainability of civil infrastructure. On a project involving the Sydney Harbour Bridge, she developed new damage assessment methods to safeguard its longevity, using AI to analyse vibration measurements gathered from the bridge’s sensor system.
Dr Dackermann’s knowledge in AI also has practical applications for the energy sector. In an ARC Linkage grant, partnering with AusGrid, she used her expertise in AI and timber engineering to develop a screening tool that enables AusGrid pole inspectors to distinguish healthy poles from unhealthy poles using wave-based detection and AI to locate invisible damage.
As a true engineer, when she sees and identifies a problem, she must help to solve it. This vision has extended to her work abroad with Engineers Without Borders where seemingly simple innovations have resulted in practical real life solutions for communities to conserve energy, improve health outcomes and diminish environmental degradation. This ‘giving back’ is Dr Dackermann’s down to earth, hands-on approach to creating balance in her life as a researching academic and a global engineer.
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