Dr Vladimir Vukovic (PhD) works as a Senior Research Lecturer in BIM & Energy Reduction in Built Environment. Dr Vukovic joined Teesside University from his post of a Research & Business Director at research intensive SME, Exergy Ltd. There he was responsible for establishing new business lines, scientific/technical coordination and project management in EU collaborative projects focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy (RESSEEPE, R2CITIES, NAWADES, PROMETHEUS, FFW). Previously, he worked as Scientist and senior project manager within Energy in Buildings research field, Energy Department, Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT). During his time at AIT he defined and coordinated a strategic project focusing on development of the next generation integrative building simulation tool, in collaboraton with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He was also the main AIT technical contact point in a number of international projects (S4ECoB, MODRIO, SOTHERCO, IEA EBC Annex 60) and acting representative in the Energy Efficient Buildings (E2B) Association.

In line with the interdisciplinary nature of construction and facility management research demands into the issues surrounding sustainability, Dr Vukovic’s academic background spans mechanical (building services), architectural engineering and computational science. His PhD awarded by the Pennsylvania State University, Department of Architectural Engineering, USA (2009) establishes methodology for predicting respiratory health impacts of office building environments. This research built upon his previous work including real-time identification of indoor pollutant source locations awarded MSc in Architectural Engineering from the same department, and simulation of fluid flow and heat exchange processes awarded Diploma (equivalent to Master degree) from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Serbia.

For his outstanding academic and research achievements Dr Vukovic received awards from the Austrian Institute of Technology, American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Air and Waste Management Association (A&WMA), The Pennsylvania State University, University of Belgrade, Government of Serbia etc.

Dr Vukovic's research interests include sustainable (energy efficient, socially acceptable, environmentally friendly) building design and operation - whole life cycle approach - and in particular: building information modelling (BIM) and digital construction twins, cyber physical and quantum system simulation and optimisation, predictive controls, indoor environmental quality, energy efficiency implications on occupants' wellbeing and productivity, energy aware social networking enabled through smart metering, energy blockchain, augmented/mixed reality and artificial intelligence applications in the built environment. He has been researching issues associated with the development of sustainable building environments for more than ten years.

Dr Vukovic was previously leading Centre for Construction Innovation and Research at Teesside University including 16 academics and 12 PhD students. He successfully supervised Master and PhD students working towards their degrees in Civil Engineering, Project Management, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Process Automation.

Currently, Dr Vukovic has a leading role in £11 million EU H2020 funded project DTA3 - Extended UA Doctoral Training Alliance in Applied Biosciences for Health, Energy and Social Policy - where he works as a Deputy Director of DTA Energy. The project provided scholarships for up to 83 PhD students across 15 leading professional and technical universities in the UK.

Previously, at Teesside University Dr Vukovic had a leading role in the following research and innovation projects: £13.1 million EU H2020 funded project inteGRIDy - integrated Smart GRID Cross-Functional Solutions for Optimized Synergetic Energy Distribution, Utilization and Storage Technologies - where he worked as a project manager; £3.2 million EU H2020 funded project eDREAM - enabling new Demand REsponse Advanced, Market oriented and secure technologies, solutions and business models - where he led a work package on the Next generation Demand Response Services (DR) for Aggregators and Customers; £4.5 million EU H2020 funded project DR-BOB - Demand Response in Block of Buildings - where he was responsible for administrative project coordination as a member of TU project coordination team; £600k Qatar Foundation funded project on development of a whole life cycle information flow approach enabled by Building Information Modelling (BIM) protocols and technologies for Qatar construction industry; and was also engaged in £3.4 million EU FP7 funded project IDEAS - Intelligent Neighbourhood Energy Allocation & Supervision.

Before joining TU, Dr Vukovic was leading a research team in 5 EU FP7 funded projects at Exergy Ltd, worth nearly £40 million: RESSEEPE- REtrofitting Solutions and Services for the enhancement of Energy Efficiency in Public Edification, R2CITIES - Residential Renovation towards nearly zero energy CITIES, NAWADES - Nanotechnological Application in WAter DESalination, PROMETHEUS - Production Method of Electrical Energy by Enhanced Thermal Electron Emission by the Use of Superior Semiconductors, and FFW - Liquid and gas Fischer-Tropsch fuel production from olive industry waste: Fuel From Waste.

During his career at the Austrian Institute of Technology, Dr Vukovic also participated and led team participation in several international projects worth nearly £50 million: S4ECoB - Sounds for Energy Control of Buildings, MODRIO - Model Driven Physical System Operation, SOTHERCO - Solar Thermo Chemical Storage, EcoGrid EU - Large scale Smart Grids demonstration of real time market-based integration of DER and DR.

Dr Vukovic acquired over £3 million in external research funding for all the organisations where he was engaged so far (over £2 million for Teesside University).

Dr Vukovic welcomes PhD applications on topics related but not limited to:

• Processes and policies to ensure lifecycle building performance;
• Continuous building performance monitoring/commissioning and end-user engagement;
• Integrated Project Delivery of low-energy buildings;
• Integration of buildings as energy prosumers into virtual energy systems;
• Low-energy housing and electro mobility;
• Trade-offs between indoor comfort aspects (thermal, acoustic, visual, smell...);
• Model predictive building controls and maintenance adaptation to climate change;
• Augmented/Virtual reality and serious games as integrators of construction technology;
• Impacts of indoor environmental quality and building energy efficiency on occupants’ health, wellbeing and productivity;
• Cyber physical modelling, digital twins and optimisation of energy systems’ design and operation;
• Energy aware social networking enabled through smart metering;
• Utilisation of building excess capacity;
• Innovative funding instruments for low energy projects;
• Contextually-aware building information modelling;
• Optimisation and adaptation of traffic routing;
• Manufacturing-optimized generative building design and renovation;
• Energy blockchain and smart contracting;
• Flexibility in transactive energy systems;
• Digital construction monitoring and controlling using LiDAR image recognition and aerial surveying.

Dr Vukovic currently serves as a Deputy Director of Doctoral Training Alliance (DTA) in Energy, the largest multi-partner and only nationwide doctoral training initiative of its kind, involving 14 UK universities.

Dr Vukovic served as reviewer of research funding proposals submitted to Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK), Estonian Research Council, as well as for Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Systems evaluation panel of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

Dr Vukovic is a Topic Editor of Buildings. He is regularly invited to review papers submitted to international journals (Building and Environment, Indoor and Built Environment, Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Sustainability, Applied Thermal Engineering, Energies, Automation in Construction) and conferences (ICESF, CIBSE, ASME, CONVR, BauSim, CESBP, ECPPM). He served as organising committee member for international conferences (ICESF, Adaptbuild, Sustainable Places), Chair of conference sessions (ICESF, TFI, Sustainable Places), Assessor of PhD students’ progress and External examiner of MPhil/MScR and PhD students.

Dr Vukovic gave more than 30 invited lectures and presentations across Europe (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, North Macedonia, Serbia, UK), Asia (Singapore, China), Africa (Egypt), North (USA) and South America (Colombia).

Dr Vukovic is open and welcomes international and national research collaborations. 

He is currently collaborating with EU Joint Research Centre (JRC), Netherlands, on an exploratory research project Optimisation-Based Calibration of Residential Electric Load Simulation.

During his time at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Dr Vukovic established research collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), USA. This resulted in contributions of cyber physical system simulation models developed by AIT to the open source Modelica Buildings Library maintained by LBNL. It also resulted in a joint participation within IEA EBC Annex 60 - New generation computational tools for building and community energy systems based on the Modelica and Functional Mockup Interface standards. 

In his efforts to commercialise research results, Dr Vukovic founded V-LAB Ltd (www.v-lab.uk). The company is currently trying to commercialise Intuitive Thermal Comfort Controller THERCOM (www.thercom.net) steming from PhD research of Edgar Segovia.

Dr Vukovic is currently engaged in the Community of Practice on Industry-academia Collaboration for Knowledge Valorisation, initiated by the European Commission to co-create codes of practice for industry-academia collaboration and citizen engagement for knowledge valorisation.

As an expert in the field of energy efficiency and smart metering systems Dr Vukovic did consulting work for United Nations Development Program within the project Energy Efficiency in Building Sector. He also served as Advisory Board member of the EU project TRIBUTE and the Energy Innovation Center Teslianum, Serbia.

Dr Vukovic is regularly invited to serve as an Expert for EUREKA Secretariat, Belgium, and Innovation Fund Denmark. He prevously served as a Technical Assessor for Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, Thermal Efficiency and Low Carbon Technology Heating Fund by the UK government Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

Dr Vukovic led a customer project for Darlington Borough Council on assessment of best practice health and wellbeing interventions in the built environment as part of the Council's Healthy New Towns initiative. 

Dr Vukovic's industry contacts include over 300 SMEs and large multinational companies. He was engaged as a Knowledge Base Supervisor in InnovateUK supported successful Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) with Scott Bros and with Applied Integration. He was also engaged in a knowledge exchange project with the award-winning Core Systems Software through Industrial Digitalisation Technology Centre, as well as consultancy work with Phusion IM, funded through the Innovate Tees Valley project.

Dr Vukovic currently teaches Advanced Project Planning and Visualisation module within the Project Management master curriculum. He is also a module leader for the following modules: Enterprising Leadership and Project Management undertaken by MEng students, Engineering Research Project, undertaken by all Teesside University engineering MSc students while doing their master theses, and Group Project - Planning and Organisation of Construction undertaken by the second year Construction Management undergrad students. Additionally, Dr Vukovic regularly gives guest lectures in Digital Technology in Construction to the first year undergrad students in Construction Managmeent, Innovative Home Design and Construction and Building Services Engineering.

Previously, Dr Vukovic was also a Course Leader in Construction Management undergraduate programme at Teesside University, UK, and was working as external lecturer of Systems Engineering and Simulation course - Modelica/Dymola group at the University of Applied Science Technikum Wien, Department of Renewable Energy, Austria. He also had experience as a Teaching Associate in Engineering Graphics at University of Belgrade, Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Serbia, and as a Guest Lecturer in Fundamentals of Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning at The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Architectural Engineering, USA.