Zili Li

Dr. Zili Li is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Geotechnical Engineering at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has postdoctoral experience at the Colorado School of Mines and a visiting professorship at MIT. His research focuses on innovative monitoring technologies, computational geotechnics, and energy geotechnics. He leads projects funded by CERN and the SFI Frontiers Programme, totaling over €2 million as Principal Investigator.

Education

• Bachelor in Civil Engineering, Tongji University
• PhD in Engineering, University of Cambridge

Research Interests

Dr. Li’s research integrates advanced technologies like distributed fiber optic sensing, machine learning, and wireless sensor networks with geotechnical engineering challenges. His work spans tunneling engineering, geothermal foundations, and energy geotechnics, addressing critical infrastructure needs such as underground excavation monitoring and large-scale energy geostructures.

Grants and Projects

• Principal Investigator of SFI Frontiers for the Future Programme (€612.8k)
• Leading CERN-funded project on tunnel monitoring (€405k)
• Task Force Leader for Big Data Acquisition in ISSMGE’s TC309

Awards

• John Murphy Postgraduate Research Fellowship (2022)

Advising and Mentoring

Supervising 8 PhD students and mentoring a postdoc, Dr. Li actively contributes to training the next generation of geotechnical engineers.

Labs and Teams

Leads the Zili Li Group, focusing on machine learning and big data applications in geoscience. Organized the 4th International Symposium on Machine Learning and Big Data in Geoscience (ISMLG 2023).