Vedhus Hoskere, the Kaspar J. Willam Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston, has received a five-year, nearly half-million-dollar Faculty Early Career Development Program award from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop new ways for engineers and artificial intelligence to collaborate in the design and assessment of resilient civil infrastructure systems.
The project, “BRACE-CI: Building Resilience through Human-AI Co-Engineering Cyberinfrastructure,” is supported through NSF’s CAREER program — the foundation’s most prestigious award program for early-career faculty. The program recognizes researchers with the potential to become academic leaders through the close integration of research and education.
As infrastructure systems become more complex and communities face growing exposure to natural hazards, their design and assessment increasingly require coordination among architects, engineers, contractors and other specialists. Yet these teams often work across disconnected drawings, photographs, engineering analyses and 3D models, making coordination difficult, introducing inconsistencies and limiting the alternatives they can explore.
BRACE-CI will investigate a human-centered alternative in which engineers work alongside AI agents within a shared cyberinfrastructure. These agents will connect project information, support the creation and revision of engineering models, identify inconsistencies and help teams compare alternatives, while human experts retain responsibility for defining objectives, reviewing results and making final decisions.
“The goal is to give civil engineers capable autonomous assistants,” Hoskere said. “By reducing the effort required to move between disconnected drawings, models and analyses, we can help engineering teams explore more alternatives within project timelines, recognize potential problems earlier and devote more attention to the decisions that require human creativity and judgment.”
“I am deeply grateful to NSF’s Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure for supporting this vision. We are excited to uncover foundational principles for engineer—AI collaboration and pioneer new paradigms in service of safer, more resilient communities.”
Hoskere directs UH’s Structures and Artificial Intelligence Lab, where his research combines artificial intelligence, computer vision and robotics with structural engineering and infrastructure assessment. The CAREER project builds on that interdisciplinary foundation while expanding the focus from AI-assisted inspection to AI-supported engineering design and decision-making.
The project will also examine how engineers can establish appropriate trust in AI collaborators.
“Engineering applications require more than an AI system that can produce an answer,” Hoskere said. “The system must help users understand where the answer came from, recognize when information is missing and incorporate engineering principles, standards and human feedback throughout the process.”
Research and education will be closely integrated. Undergraduate and graduate students will participate in developing and evaluating the cyberinfrastructure, and findings from the project will be introduced into engineering courses and professional workshops. The educational activities will emphasize both the capabilities and limitations of AI, preparing students to use emerging technologies responsibly while remaining accountable for engineering decisions.
“Students entering the profession will increasingly work with intelligent systems,” Hoskere said. “We want to prepare them not simply to operate AI tools, but to question their outputs, connect them to physical principles and use them responsibly to create safer and more resilient communities.”
Hoskere expressed gratitude to those who have played an instrumental role in his academic journey.
“This award reflects the guidance, collaboration and support of many people throughout my career,” Hoskere said. “I am deeply grateful to my mentors, Billie F. Spencer Jr. at Illinois and Craig Glennie at UH; to Chair Roberto Ballarini, Dean Pradeep Sharma and my colleagues in UH Civil and Environmental Engineering; and to my academic and industry collaborators. At the heart of this work are the students and researchers in the Structures and Artificial Intelligence Lab, whose creativity and dedication make it possible.”
“Above all, I am grateful to my wife for her unwavering love and support, and to our son, whose joyful presence makes every achievement more meaningful.”