What would be the possibilities if buildings would be able to talk to us?

Alex Donkers obtained his MSc degree in Construction Management and Engineering cum laude in August 2019, after obtaining his BSc in Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences in 2017 at Eindhoven University of Technology. After working at Sweco, Alex performed research into semantic web technologies and digital twins as a doctoral researcher in the Information Systems in the Built Environment group in the SmartTWO Flagship Telecom project with KPN. He currently works as a postdoctoral researcher in the ITEA4 FireBIM project, aiming to harmonize fire regulations and their checking process across European borders using semantic web technologies.

Alex chairs the W3C Linked Building Data Community Group, co-organizes LDAC, teaches and supervises MSc and EngD students, and spent time at the Ruhr-University Bochum as a visiting researcher. He published peer-reviewed articles in a.o. Automation in Construction, Semantic Web Journal, TRD, Building Research & Information, Buildings and IEEE, and is the developer of multiple open-source projects, including LBDviz and the BOP and OFO ontologies.

His research interests include linked building data, semantic web technologies, semantic digital twins, occupant-centric decision-making, sensors and IoT, web development, building performance and neuro-symbolic AI.

Alex Donkers performs research as a Doctoral Candidate within the Information Systems in the Built environment group, part of the Design and Decision Support Systems research program. His research is in close collaboration with KPN, being part of SmartTWO and the larger KPN+Universities collaboration.

His interests are smart cities, autonomous things, (electric) mobility, big data, urban environments, digitalization and high tech innovation, (augmented) user-behavior and process optimization. His current research focusses on Digital Twins.