Intelligent Systems & AI for the Built Environment
The BUILT Lab pioneers AI-driven research at the intersection of construction, infrastructure, and intelligent technology — developing smarter, safer, and more human-centered built environments through rigorous science and real-world deployment.
Reachsak Ly
Directing the BUILT Lab, working on AI-driven digital twins, human–building interaction, edge AI, and decentralized systems for the built environment.
Eight threads, one built environment
From job-site sensing to decentralized building governance, our work spans the full stack of intelligent construction.
XR / Extended Reality
AR/VR for construction training and inspection.
AI for Construction Education
Adaptive learning for AEC students.
Human–Building Interaction
LLMs and IoT sensing for occupants.
Digital Twins & BIM
Real-time twin intelligence.
Edge AI & Sensing
On-site inference at the edge.
Multimodal LLMs for AEC
Document and vision-language intelligence.
Human–Robot Collaboration
LLM-guided collaboration on job sites.
Blockchain & DAOs
Decentralized systems for smart buildings.
Who we are
The BUILT Lab (Built Environment Intelligent Systems Lab) is a research group at Eastern Illinois University dedicated to transforming how humans design, build, operate, and experience the built environment through artificial intelligence. We sit at the intersection of construction engineering, computer science, and human factors — producing work that is both theoretically rigorous and immediately deployable in real buildings, on construction sites, and in classrooms.
Our research spans XR for construction training and inspection, AI-powered adaptive learning for construction engineering students, human–building interaction via LLMs and IoT sensing, real-time digital twins powered by edge AI, multimodal LLMs for AEC document intelligence, LLM-guided human–robot collaboration on job sites, and blockchain-based decentralized autonomous systems for smart building management.
2026 updates
Redden Grant Awarded — EIU
Awarded the 2026 Redden Grant ($2,500) for "Generative AI-Powered Human-Robot Collaboration Demonstration for Construction Technology Education."
Two Virginia Tech IP Disclosures Approved
DAB-CPS (INV2025-123) and LLM-Based Autonomous Building Operations (INV2025-121) approved, covering foundational systems from our research.
Paper Accepted at ACM FSE 2025 — Trondheim, Norway
"Smart Building Operations and Virtual Assistants Using LLM" accepted to the 33rd ACM Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering.