Sudip Subedi

Sudip Subedi learned the value of education from his parents, who moved from a small village in Nepal to its capital city, Kathmandu, to ensure a better education for their children. Sudip received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Tribhuvan University, Nepal. For the next six years, he worked in construction as a project and operation engineer, where he became aware of safety-related issues. His desire to improve worker safety and quality of life motivated him to continue his education. 

Sudip chose FIU for his Ph.D., becoming the first in his family to come to the United States for higher education. With Nipesh Pradhananga, assistant professor and Graduate Program Director at the Moss School of Construction, Infrastructure and Sustainability, as his mentor, Sudip conducted research ― using machine learning and available technologies ― to determine “safe work procedures” for repetitive labor-intensive activities in construction. At FIU, he received several scholarships, including the Dissertation Year Fellowship. His work resulted in four journal articles and 11 conference papers (one received a best paper award) and was presented at 10 conferences. He was awarded a National Science Foundation I-Corps grant of $50,000 to help him commercialize his research product. 

At FIU, Sudip also founded the first student chapter of the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC), a collaborative space, and conducted student workshops. He also organized and taught programming and safety summer camps for high schoolers. After graduation, Sudip will continue at FIU as a Visiting Teaching Assistant Professor at the Moss Department of Construction Management. 

By Elizabeth Calzadilla 
Director, Marking and Communications 
College of Engineering & Computing