PhD Candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests
My research centres on multi-sensor fusion, robust localization, autonomous navigation, and GeoAI, specifically within GNSS-denied and unstructured environments. I am especially interested in the integration of LiDAR, cameras, GNSS/INS, IMUs, and radar to support robotic mapping, infrastructure inspection, and deformation monitoring.
Education
- Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, May 2026-present
- Ph.D. in Geomatics Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 2021
- Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering, Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA, 2019-2021
- B.Eng. in Geomatics Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 2016
Selected Publications
- Ai, Mengchi, I. A. S. Hokmabadi, X. Zhao, 2025.vA novel smartphone PDR framework based on map-aided adaptive particle filtering with a reduced state space. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, vol. 14, no. 12, p. 476.
- Ai, Mengchi, M. Elhabiby, N. El-Sheimy, 2025.vA novel CAD-aided coarse-to-fine framework for RGB-D to point cloud registration. ISPRS Archives, vol. XLVIII-1/W5, pp. 1–6.
- Ai, Mengchi, M. M. Elhabiby, Y. Yang, N. El-Sheimy, 2025. A coarse-to-fine optimization framework for LiDAR-based air–ground cooperative mapping. PLANS 2025.
- Ai, Mengchi, M. Elhabiby, M. Haggag, I. A. S. Hokmabadi, M. Moussa, H.
- Yang, N. El-Sheimy, 2024. GMRC-aided LiDAR/GNSS/INS: ground map registration constrained LiDAR–GNSS–INS navigation solution in urban canyons. Proceedings of the ION GNSS+, pp. 2102–2110.
- Ai, Mengchi, I. A. S. Hokmabadi, M. Elhabiby, N. El-Sheimy, 2024. A novel LiDAR–GNSS–INS two-phase tightly coupled integration scheme for precise navigation. ISPRS Annals, vol. 10, pp. 1–6.
- Ai, Mengchi, I. A. S. Hokmabadi, N. El-Sheimy, 2023. L2VCali: A dataset for LiDAR- and vision-based sensor calibration in structural indoor environments. Proceedings of the Institute of Navigation ITM, pp. 1184–1191.
- Ai, Mengchi, I. A. S. Hokmabadi, M. Elhabiby, N. El-Sheimy, 2023. LiDAR–inertial navigation based on map-aided distance constraints and OpenStreetMap. ISPRS Archives, vol. 48, pp. 875–880.
- Ai, Mengchi, I. A. S. Hokmabadi, M. Elhabiby, M. Moussa, A. Zekry, A. Mohamed, N. El-Sheimy, 2023. LiDAR–inertial localization with ground constraints in a cloud map. ISPRS Annals, vol. 10, pp. 613–619.
- Ai, Mengchi, Z. Li, J. Shan, 2021. Topologically consistent reconstruction for complex indoor structures from point clouds. Remote Sensing, vol. 13, no. 19, p. 3844.
- Jia, Shoujun, C. Liu, H. Wu, D. Zeng, M. Ai, 2021. A cross-correction LiDAR SLAM method for high-accuracy 2D mapping in problematic scenarios. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, vol. 171, pp. 367–384.