Isabelle serves as an Associate Head, Director for the BSc (Surveying) Programme, and Assistant Professor at the Department of Real Estate and Construction, the University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on the pivotal yet often undervalued ‘soft’ aspects of construction management, including health-centric built environment, health and safety, trust, and culture within the fragmented and rapidly digitising Architectural, Engineering, Construction, and Operations industry. In recent years, she has adopted cutting-edge, cross-disciplinary technologies such as electroencephalography (EEG) and virtual reality (VR) to address these issues. In line with these research interests, she has successfully secured a variety of external, competitive grants. The outcomes of these projects have been extensively disseminated via her more than 90 publications in books, international journals, conferences, consultancy reports, and so forth. Internationally, Isabelle is the Joint Coordinator of the Working Commission W112 – Culture in Construction at the International Council for Research & Innovation in Building & Construction (CIB), and Co-Chairman of the Associated Research Centres for the Urban Underground Space (ACUUS) – Youth Group. Within the realm of education, Isabelle has successfully secured various teaching and learning funds, aiming to enrich surveying students’ learning with emerging knowledge and innovative technologies, including generative AI, VR, BIM, amongst others. She has also been appointed as the accreditation panel/academic assessors for five surveying-related programmes. Additionally, she is a board member of the STEAM alliance of the Hong Kong Institute of Construction. Industry-wide, she serves as Chairman at the Institute of Safety and Health Practitioners, Hong Kong, as well as an Executive Committee Member of the Hong Kong Federation of Occupational Safety and Health Associations (HKFOSHA), a Member of the Youth Affairs Committee (YAC) at the Construction Industry Council (CIC), and Chairman of the Policy Advocacy Task Force at CIC YAC.

Isabelle has been honored with the RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyor) Woman of the Built Environment Award 2024.

Brief Introduction to the Report

Occupants of underground spaces face significantly greater health risks than their aboveground counterparts due to the inherent limitations of such environments. This study seeks to uncover the profound effects of various underground environmental factors on occupants' psychophysiological health and cognitive performance through innovative EEG-facilitated virtual reality experiments. The seminar will provide an in-depth exploration of our research process and transformative findings. Our study offers critical insights and practical implications for shaping the future of human-centric underground spaces, challenging conventional approaches and paving the way for safer, healthier living environments.