Welcome to the research blog website of the RIII Lab! RIII stands for Risk-Informed Infrastructure Innovation. This is a research lab led by Professor Arnold Yuan of the Department of Civil Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).
The acronym RIII, read as R-triple-I, was carried over from the now sunset Ryerson Institute for Infrastructure Innovation, for which Dr. Yuan was the academic director from the period between 2014 and 2019. The RIII Lab was previously known as Risk-Informed Life-Cycle Infrastructure Engineering, or RILCIE Lab. In October 2024, the RILCIE Lab was renamed as RIII Lab. The Lab continues to carry out research within the RILCIE program, a burgeoning research and practice field since the dawn of the new millennium.
The progress of human civilization relies on physical infrastructure systems – buildings, roads, rails, water and wastewater systems, power generations, transmission lines, oil and gas pipelines, just name a few – for providing safe shelters and distributing essential services and resources to the public. As time in service accumulates, these infrastructure systems deteriorate and become increasingly vulnerable to extreme events such as earthquakes, hurricanes and snow storms, as well as human-induced disasters such as human errors and terrorist attacks. If left unchecked, the aging can have adverse impacts to public safety, utility’s profits, and even a whole nation’s economy. The bridge collapses in Quebec and Minneapolis just witnessed this.
To ensure safety and reliability throughout the service life, including any extended life, of an infrastructure system, the aging or performance degradation of infrastructure needs to be effectively managed through innovative engineering ideas. The RILCIE research program is mandated to advance the risk-informed infrastructure theory for engineering innovations in multiple grounds. RILCIE integrates risk and reliability analysis methods into civil engineering systems design and management, addressing complex questions arising in infrastructure planning, financing, design, construction, operation, and maintenance and renewals.
The RIII Lab provides a unique multidisciplinary research training opportunity for young people who are dedicated to advance and promote the RILCIE theory and its applications to civil engineering design and management. Over the next three years (2024-2026), the RIII Lab will focus on climate-conscious infrastructure asset management using deep reinforcement learning and digital twins.