News and Events
- Engineers Ireland Accreditation May 31st 2023
- UCD researcher receives ERC funding to unlock insights into pig-to-human heart transplants
- Biomedical Engineering Innovator Receives 2023 NovaUCD Innovation Champion of the Year Award
- Inventor of Disruptive Biosensors with Industrial Bioprocessing Applications Receives 2023 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award
- seamlessCARE Receives 2023 NovaUCD Spin-Out of the Year Award
- Prof Francesco Pilla launches new bike libraries for Dublin primary schools
- Launch of WATSON Project at UCD
- UCD's Livija Vasilenkaite - First Prize Winner #ThisIsEngineering2023
- Minister Harris and Commissioner McGuinness announce first recipients under the €65M National Challenge Fund
- Séamus McDermott receives his Honorary Doctorate
- Ten Days in the Ruhr - A Student Engineer's Diary (1952) - The Final Days
- Ten Days in the Ruhr - A Student Engineer's Diary (1952) - Part 3
- Ten Days in the Ruhr - A Student Engineer's Diary (1952) - Part 2
- College researchers recognised in UCD Research Impact Competition
- Ten Days in the Ruhr - A Student Engineer's Diary (1952)
- Arup Scholarship Presentation 2022
- UCD wins Higher Education Partnership of the Year Award at the Asia Matters Business Awards
- Dr Amiya Pandit wins the Thomas Mitchell Medal
- RIBA Stirling Prize 2022
- 2022 News Archive
- 2021 News Archive
- 2020 News Archive
- 2019 News Archive
- 2018 News Archive
- 2017 News Archive
- Accelerate your career with UCD’s Master of Engineering Management
- Irish Academy of Engineering Parsons Medal Winner
- Professor Da-Wen Sun Elected as a Foreign Member of PAN
- PolliNation Takes Top Spot at Sustainability LaunchPad Awards 2017
- Dr Edmond Harty awarded prestigious 2017 Parsons Medal
- Intel continues its commitment to Women in Technology
- 2017 NUI Awards names two UCD Engineering Students
- Professor Da-Wen Sun named as Highly Cited Researcher in the 3rd Year
- Prof John Kelly awarded ESB Outstanding Contribution to Engineering
- UCD Engineering PhD student chosen as Climate Change Ambassador
- UCD Engineer named as IT & Tech Professional of the Year 2017
- Barry Brophy Interview on Tubridy Show with Dave Fanning
- Constructed wetlands: from waste to oasis
- Giant fat blobs, known as fatbergs, are the scourge of London's aging
- How can we make cities better places to live, asks new UCD centre
- The Inchicore Model School: a 21st-century design on education
- Electric-field boost to water flow in protein
- How much traffic can this bridge safely take?
- Technology for all: towards truly inclusive design
- UCD PhD student, Eduardo Morais wins award at conference
- Energy-saving UCD technology breathes life into wastewater treatment
- A fresh look at freezing foods: new technology to preserve nutrients
- UCD honorary degree for Sir Ciarán Devane
- Maintaining the balance of power – through engineering
- Eco-Plan: Upping the game for green spaces in urban planning
- Engineering a smarter treatment for Parkinson’s disease
- 3D printing to revolutionise medical devices
- Smart science to power the Internet of Things
- Getting up close with chemistry
- Former UCD School of Civil Engineering Professor Debra Laefer release
- UCD PhD candidate wins Royal Academy of Engineering early-stage career
- BOC Gases supports research and development in UCD
- Saudi Aramco Takes Stake in UCD Spin out
- Two UCD academics receive a 2017-2018 Fulbright Irish Award
- Grafton Architects receive Architecture award
- Royal Irish Academy elects UCD academics
- Professor Gerry Byrne receives the Fraunhofer Thaler Award
- Dr Edmond Harty appointed as Adjunct Full Professor
- UCD engineers named among Ten Outstanding Young People in Ireland
- Teaching Awards for College Academic Staff
- ENBIO Secures €650,000 Contract with European Space Agency
- Science Foundation Ireland to Invest in 4 New research centres
- Inclusive design to help people with autism & intellectual disability
- UCD professor takes a close look at the chemistry of water
- UCD Engineers receive Outstanding Young People Award
- iSCAPE - Improving the Smart Control of Air Pollution in Europe
- QS Rankings
- UCD Engineering Student announced as winner of the inaugural Engineers
- Dynamic System Modelling Workshop
- Smart CITIES & ENGINEERING for Sustainable Architecture
- Consultation Event on the National Planning Framework
- Seeking to encourage girls in civil engineering
- UCD SBFE Assoc Professor Featured in Irish Times Article
- Stimulating the brain to treat Parkinson’s disease
- UCD SBFE PhD student elected to CIEEM Irish section committee
- UCD SBFE Lecturer contributes to Irish Times article
- Earth’s water may have been formed in its mantle
- Professor David FitzPatrick awarded 23rd RAMI Silver Medal
- UCD SBFE Assoc Prof Aoife Gowen featured in "Women on Walls" Campaign
- Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe features UCD Engineer Colin Keogh
- 2016 News Archive
- Building the State
- A Centenary Celebration
Former UCD School of Civil Engineering Professor Debra Laefer releases world's densest urban aerial laser scanning dataset
Monday, 17 July, 2017
New York, NY – New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (NYU CUSP) Professor Debra F. Laefer today released the world’s densest urban aerial laser scanning (LiDAR) dataset. At over 300 points per square meter, this is more than 30 times denser than typical LiDAR data and is an order of magnitude denser than any other aerial LiDAR dataset. The dataset also includes the first ever urban scan with the fullwave form version of the data, as well as affiliated imagery and video. The unprecedented comprehensiveness of this multi-layered dataset enables new opportunities in exploration and modeling. It also sets a new standard for what can be collected and used by cities around the world. The data and affiliated information is now publicly available through New York University’s Spatial Data Repository (SDR) here for both personal and commercial use.
The dataset was collected and processed as part of Professor Laefer’s European Research Council (ERC) $1.7 million research grant “Rethinking Tunnelling in Urban Neighbourhoods (RETURN)”1 with additional funding from Science Foundation Ireland. Using techniques developed by Professor Laefer’s research team, this dataset provides uniquely high resolution LiDAR data for a 1.5km2 study area of Dublin’s historic city center. The data covers not only the horizontal surfaces of the built environment, as seen in traditional LiDAR projects (e.g. roofs and roads), but also provides dense vertical data including exceptional building facade capture. This allows the creation of richly elaborated 3D models of the urban environment that accurately represent building geometry, curb height, vegetation, and utility lines. The work builds on a previously publicly released dataset (aerial laser scanning and imagery) and more than a decade of research. Permission is currently being sought to acquire similar data for New York City.
Dr. Laefer, Professor of Urban Informatics at NYU CUSP and affiliated with the Tandon School of Engineering’s Department of Civil and Urban Engineering, was the founder and former head of the University College Dublin’s Urban Modeling Group in Dublin, Ireland. There, she led the development of the ERC project’s innovations across the data pipeline from flightpath planning and optimization to final processing for numerical modeling. “A city-scale dataset of this level can be applied to many projects to improve services,” said Laefer. “This extraordinary level of data quality, combined with open access through NYU’s Spatial Data Repository, will help pioneer new possibilities for visualisation and analyses by urban engineers, civic agencies, and entrepreneurs trying to identify and ultimately solve urban challenges of all kinds.”
This dataset can be used in many forms to improve city services such as mobility impaired route assessment, 3D digital tourism, built environment change detection, and comprehensive urban documentation for civic records. The data are also directly applicable for a variety of engineering analyses including building energy modeling, pedestrian wind analysis, disaster planning, and infectious disease tracking.
“NYU Libraries’ accession of aerial laser scanning and photogrammetry data produced by Professor Laefer’s research team is a major addition to our geospatial data holdings,” said Andrew Battista, a professor of Public Service at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and Librarian for Geospatial Information Systems at New York University. “This collection marks the first time that spatial data associated with a major, grant-funded project has been submitted to our repository. We are confident that this dataset will be invaluable to a larger community of urban studies scholarship, and we anticipate expanding our collections as Prof. Laefer’s research evolves.”
To view a video showing LiDAR data for a portion of central Dublin featured in the dataset, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEi2Wo7Bcuk
1. https://erc.europa.eu/projects-figures/stories/engineering-safer-cities
About New York University’s Center for Urban Science & Progress
CUSP is a university-wide center whose research and education programs are focused on urban informatics. Using NYC as its lab, and building from its home in the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, it integrates and applies NYU strengths in the natural, data, and social sciences to understand and improve cities throughout the world. CUSP offers a one-year MS degree in Applied Urban Science & Informatics. For more news and information on CUSP, please visit http://cusp.nyu.edu/.