Annual Conference 2024

At this year’s DAFNI Conference on 10th September 2024,  we welcomed over 150 in-person delegates to Aston University, Birmingham for the day.

The conference theme of ‘Working Together for Resilient Infrastructure’, covered modelling for resilient infrastructure, the impact of digital twins, and addressed the challenges and opportunities to data sharing.

With the DAFNI Centre of Excellence portfolio growing, this year’s conference provided an update on the eight ‘Building a Secure and Resilient World’ projects and introduced the community to the six new projects covering research in transport and energy.

The DAFNI conference held its first industry panel, which enabled great conversations in the room and discussions at the networking breaks.

We look forward to DAFNI Conference 2025, the date shortly to be announced!

Morning Programme

Welcome and Introduction

Tom Kirkham, DAFNI Science Lead
PowerPoint Slide Tom Kirkham

Keynote Presentation

Martine Wauben, Head of Data for London, and Helen Huemer-Markides, Infrastructure Data & Innovation Lead
PowerPoint Slide Martine Wauben and Helen Huemer-Markides

DAFNI Updates

Dr Brian Matthews, DAFNI Programme Lead and Dr Jens Jensen, DAFNI Team Lead
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Brian Matthews and Dr Jens Jensen

Project Updates

Room 1

STORMS

Dr Xilin Xia, University of Birmingham
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Xilin Xia, University Of Birmingham

D-RES

Dr Desen Kirli, University of Edinburgh
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Desen Kirli, University of Edinburgh

FIRM

Professor Richard Dawson, Newcastle University
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Richard Dawson, Newcastle University

ClimaTracks

Dr Giuliano Punzo, University of Sheffield
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Giuliano Punzo, University of Sheffield

Project Updates

Room 2

SCQUAIR

Dr Richard Milton, UCL
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Richard Milton, UCL

SOFRAMODE

Dr Vassilis Glenis, Newcastle University
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Vassilis Glenis, Newcastle University

BRINES

Dr Hannah Bloomfield, Newcastle University
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Hannah Bloomfield, Newcastle University

Pywr-WREW

Dr Anna Murgatroyd, Newcastle University
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Anna Murgatroyd, Newcastle University

Afternoon Programme

Welcome Back

Professor Theo Tryfonas, University of Bristol
PowerPoint Slide, Professor Theo Tryfonas, University of Bristol

Keynote Presentation – University of Birmingham’s Digital Twin

Dr Asaad Faramarzi, University of Birmingham
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Asaad Faramarzi, University Of Birmingham

Industry Panel Discussion

PowerPoint Slide, Industry Panel, DAFNI Conference 2024

Project Updates

Room 1

RIWS

Dr Ana Mijic, Imperial College London
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Ana Mijic, Imperial College London

ForNet

Professor Konstantinos Nikolopoulos, Durham University
PowerPoint Slide, Professor Kostas Nikolopolous, Durham University

NIRD

Dr Raghav Pant, University of Oxford
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Raghav Pant, University of Oxford

Project Updates

Room 2

USARIS

Saskia Salwey, University of Bristol
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Ana Mijic, Imperial College London

IMPACT

Dr Qiuchen Lu, UCL
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Qiuchen Lu, UCL

MARS

Dr Fabian Steinmann, Cranfield University
PowerPoint Slide, Dr Fabian Steinmann, Cranfield University

Conference Closing Remarks

Dr Brian Matthews, DAFNI Programme Lead

Agenda

09:00 Arrival – Breakfast networking
09:20 Welcome and Housekeeping
09:30

Keynote presentation

Martine Wauben, Head of Data for London, and Helen Huemer-Markides, Infrastructure Data & Innovation Lead, Greater London Authority

10:10 DAFNI – Technical Update
DAFNI Programme Team
10:45 Break, Demos, Networking
11:15 Project Presentations

 

Room 1:

STORMS: Strategies and Tools for Resilience of Buried Infrastructure to Meteorological Shocks

Dr Xilin Xia, University of Birmingham

D-RES: Provision of distributed grid resilience using EVs during extreme weather events

Dr Desen Kirli, University of Edinburgh

FIRM: Flood resilience simulation on DAFNI

Professor Richard Dawson, Newcastle University

ClimaTracks: Forecasting resilience of railway network under propagating uncertainty 

Dr Giuliano Punzo, University of Sheffield

Room 2:

SCQUAIR: Simulating the Resilience of Transport Infrastructures Using QUANT 

Dr Richard Milton, UCL

SOFRAMODE: Sewer Overflow Flood Risk Analysis MOdel DAFNI Enabled

Dr Vassilis Glenis, Newcastle University

BRINES: Building Risk-Informed redundancy for Net-zero Energy Systems

Dr Hannah Bloomfield, Newcastle University

Pywr-WREW: Water Resources model for England and Wales built in Python water resources simulation system

Dr Anna Murgatroyd, Newcastle University

12:20 Networking lunch
13:20 Exhibitions and Demonstrations
13:50

University of Birmingham’s Digital Twin

Professor Asaad Faramarzi, Professor of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Birmingham

14:30

Industry Panel

Yiu-Shing Pang

Open Data Manager at UK Power Networks

Martine Wauben

Head of Data for London at the Greater London Authority

Holger Kessler

Senior Stakeholder Manager, Assets & Technology-Infrastructure UK & Ireland at AtkinsRéalis

Ben Fitzsimons

Technical Director at Water Resources East

Olly Tones

Head of Data Sharing and Technology at Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) 

15:20 Break, demos and networking
15:50

Project Presentations

 

Room 1:

RIWS: Resilience scenarios for integrated water systems  

Dr Ana Mijic, Imperial College London

ForNet: DAFNI FORecasting Services for Energy NETworks

Professor Konstantinos Nikolopoulos, Durham University

NIRD: Building systemic resilience of interdependent infrastructure networks at the national scale

Dr Raghav Pant, University of Oxford

Room 2:

USARIS: Uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis for resilient infrastructure systems

Saskia Salwey, University of Bristol

IMPACT: IMproving flood-disruPted road networks resilience with dynAmic people-Centric digital Twins

Dr Qiuchen Lu, UCL

MARS: Flight Diversion Modelling for the UK Aviation System

Dr Fabian Steinmann, Cranfield University

16:40 Conference closing remarks 
Dr Brian Matthews, DAFNI Facility Lead, Scientific Computing, STFC
16:45 Close of Conference

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