CIB is pleased to announce the winner of the CIB Sebestyén Future Leaders Award 2026 is a team from The University of Hong Kong, with their research project to improve the level of construction knowledge resources available in languages other than english, through the use of AI-assisted translation.
The award is named after the late Prof. Gyula Sebestyén, former CIB President (1971-74) and Secretary General (1980-1993), and was launched as the CIB Gyula Sebestyén Award in 2002.
“Breaking Language Barriers in Knowledge Exchange: Expert-in-the-loop Deep Translation of CIB Video for Construction 5.0” addresses the limited reach of English-language construction knowledge resources by developing a structured multilingual translation workflow. The methodology uses AI-assisted translation, domain-specific terminology database construction, expert verification, and voice morphing to produce contextually accurate multilingual versions of CIB video content. Targeting Chinese (Putonghua and Cantonese) as primary languages, with Thai and Italian as pilots, the project will process the top 30 most-viewed CIB YouTube videos and disseminate the multilingual outputs through CIB’s official platforms for broader community access.
Project team
The proposed project is led by a multidisciplinary team from the Department of Real Estate and Construction, Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong.
Associate Head of Research
Professor Fan Xue (Associate Professor and Associate Head of Research) specializes in building and city information modeling (BIM/CIM), 3D/4D point cloud processing, derivative-free optimization, and AI-driven construction informatics; he will provide overall technical oversight, supervise the AI translation and voice-morphing workflow design, and guide the AI fine-tuning process.
Professor Isabelle Y. S. Chan (Associate Professor) is a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Construction Manager whose research addresses construction health and safety, innovation management, occupational culture, and sustainable development; she will lead the expert validation process, coordinate domain expert recruitment for terminology verification and localization correction, and oversee the evaluation and final reporting.
The team is further supported by CHEN Sou Han (PhD Candidate) and HONG Jingqing (PhD Candidate), who will take primary responsibility for the day-to-day execution of the project.
Why this research matters
The construction industry is inherently multicultural and labor-intensive, yet the majority of professional knowledge resources — including CIB’s valuable video content — remain accessible only to native English speakers. Language barriers have been shown to reduce productivity, increase workplace risk, and isolate non-English-speaking communities into “linguistic ghettos”. Generic AI translation alone cannot resolve this, as it does not take into account for regional terminology, local jargon, and cultural context. This project addresses that gap through a human-centric, expert-validated approach aligned with the Construction 5.0 paradigm, ensuring that state-of-the-art research and project experience reach the workers and communities who need them most.
On winning the award the team said,
“Receiving the CIB Sebestyén Future Leaders Award is a tremendous honor for our team at the HKU CIB Student Chapter. The construction industry is multicultural by nature, yet language continues to divide communities and limit access to knowledge. This project embodies the Construction 5.0 vision — developing a human-centric, AI-assisted workflow that bridges language gaps in construction knowledge exchange to advance sustainability and resilience in the industry. By combining AI-assisted translation with domain expert validation, we aim to ensure that state-of-the-art construction research reaches every worker and community, regardless of language or region.”
University of Hong Kong team
