On July 16th, the first Master's Thesis (TFM) defense for the Erasmus Mundus NoRisk master's program took place. Graduate Jose Rozo Cortes received an outstanding grade for his innovative work entitled "Automated Risk Analysis of Civil Engineering Contracts and Specifications using Natural Language Processing."
The thesis, supervised by Professor Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl, Ph.D., of the Civil Engineering School of Barcelona - UPC, and co-supervised by Professor Ye Xia, Ph.D., of Tongji University (Shanghai, China), presents an automated solution for risk analysis in civil engineering contracts. The developed prototype uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) and advanced models such as GPT-4o-mini to identify inconsistencies and ambiguous clauses in technical specifications for transportation projects.
The study results demonstrate that the methodology is not only affordable but also has the potential to significantly reduce review time, optimizing resources and helping prevent cost overruns in large infrastructure projects.
After his excellent time at the Civil Engineering School of Barcelona - UPC, Jose Rozo Cortes will return to Boston (USA) to rejoin the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) as an Engineer, where he will apply his knowledge to "continue providing safe and reliable transportation infrastructure."
From the organization of the NoRisk master's program and the Civil Engineering School of Barcelona - UPC, we extend our sincere congratulations and wish him every success in his professional future.
Official title: Erasmus Mundus Master's in Risk Assessment and Management of Civil Infrastructures – NORISK
Participating universities:
· Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya