ConnectionAI and Oxford University Announce Research Partnership

The collaboration unites ConnectionAI's proprietary industry dataset and domain expertise with Oxford's academic strength and deep breadth of knowledge in machine learning and structural engineering. The research is driven by ConnectionAI’s research lead, Nacho Fernández Mullin, as a DPhil candidate at the Department of Engineering Science, under the academic supervision of Associate Professor Barbara Rossi and Dr. İsmail İlkan Ceylan, renowned experts in structural engineering and in machine learning research respectively.

"We are looking at one of the biggest and most exciting problems which will have a direct impact on society. Structural engineering is a highly skilled discipline that deserves the automation required for humans to focus on the truly novel work. The partnership between the University of Oxford and ConnectionAI positions us in the right place to solve it."

Nacho Fernández Mullín, AI Research Lead, ConnectionAI

The AEC industry is lagging behind its peers when it comes to AI adoption and implementation as a direct consequence of the bespoke nature of every project. Although strides have been taken in several applications, structural steel connection design remains a highly manual process, despite much of it being repetitive and predictable. Existing software treats each connection as an isolated data point, unable to capture the spatial relationships and structural logic that govern how a real steel frame behaves as an integrated system under each project’s bespoke constraint conditions.

This partnership will focus on researching the foundational artificial intelligence methodologies and systems needed to address this gap, creating a network of academic discoveries that will elevate the field from its nascent state. The direct research-to-product pipeline provided by ConnectionAI will translate the findings into realised value across the structural steel supply chain in real-time.

Barbara Rossi, Associate Professor, Department of Engineering Science, says, "I am very excited about this partnership which combines Oxford’s research depth and ConnectionAI’s industrial experience with the aim of accelerating the translation of AI-driven ideas into practical and accessible tools for structural steel design. The construction sector is under unprecedented pressure. We need to harness AI to speed up innovation, support decarbonisation, and give practitioners safe and reliable assistance based on rigorous scientific research".

About ConnectionAI

ConnectionAI is an AI-driven platform bringing Construction Intelligence to the structural steel industry. Powered by the Steel Brain, trained on $97.7 billion worth of construction projects, it understands steel structures at a fundamental level, delivering predictability at scale and advancing how the construction industry designs and delivers steel.