When we think of cities, ones we’ve visited, or those on our list of places to go, we picture famous buildings or bridges towering into the sky. However, according to NYUAD Associate Professor of Civil and Urban Engineering Rita L Sousa, the architectural identity of future cities may be defined by what lies beneath those iconic skylines.
Sousa, a geotechnical engineer, is working on developing mathematical models that will open additional possibilities right under the feet of those living in increasingly densely populated urban areas.
“As cities continue to be built and go up, we will start exploring underground more and more,” Sousa said. “Having machines that do things by themselves, in a safe and optimized manner, is my vision, and maybe a little bit futuristic.”
Underground construction and engineering often use enormous excavation vehicles called tunneling boring machines (TBMs). Sousa explained that TBMs are not automated; they have multiple sensors and are still guided by humans using limited information from underground surveys. But even modern sensors and up-to-date survey information can’t fully anticipate potential challenges and construction obstacles. The variability of large-scale digging projects is not only an incredibly costly risk consideration but also a potentially fatal health hazard.
“I want to try to come up with a system that would help the operator optimize construction and even warn them if there are geology changes,” Sousa said, “if they need to be alerted to possible issues ahead.”
The ultimate goal of her work would be to create a system where “you could be sitting somewhere above ground and controlling these machines from far above,” like you would a drone.
Sousa fell in love with tunneling while working as a young engineer in her hometown of Lisbon, Portugal. However, her passion for the profession may go back to her childhood, when she was a little girl accompanying one of many engineers in her family to the dams, tunnels, and other large-scale construction projects they worked on.
“I remember that was fascinating to me,” Sousa said, “because it’s something you don't see from above, how much stuff is under the ground like pipes and tunnels.”
Today, Sousa is focused on more than tunnels. She’s expanded her work to underground energy systems using research to identify the characteristics of fractures in the earth that serve as pathways for geothermal fluid, oil, and gas.
Sousa has been asked to share her expertise worldwide, working on projects in the United States, Europe, and the UAE. She lived in the UAE from 2013 to 2019, so when she got a job teaching at NYUAD, she was coming back to the city she really loved.
“It's a great university,” Sousa said. “It’s truly diverse; I don’t think I’ve ever been in a place like that. NYU has campuses worldwide, so it’s a global community.”
