AI and reality capture with Fiona Collins
How can technology help us better understand the built environment? Fiona Collins, Artificial Intelligence Research Engineer at Hexagon, joins Ioanna Mitropoulou, postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Circular Engineering for Architecture at ETH Zurich, to explore how reality capture, point clouds, and artificial intelligence are reshaping the relationship between the physical and digital worlds. Starting from her background in environmental engineering and sustainability, Collins reflects on how the built environment became the focus of her work—and why bridging the gap between digital models and real-world conditions remains one of the field’s biggest challenges.
The conversation explores how data-driven workflows can support better decision-making across the lifecycle of buildings. Collins and Mitropoulou discuss the growing role of AI in processing complex 3D data, the challenges of scaling these technologies in practice, and the evolving relationship between human judgment and machine reasoning in the built environment.