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Dr. Tom Bartley

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Dr. Tom Bartley

General Manager, Infrastructure, Mind Foundry, UK

BIOGRAPHY

As Mind Foundry’s General Manager of Civil Infrastructure, Tom collaborates closely with clients, partners, and technologists to drive innovation in the built environment. This includes developing AI-powered products and tools to help address the crisis of ageing infrastructure. Tom’s work includes leading the development and deployment of Windward Inspect, a tool that combines state-of-the-art AI and Machine Learning, image correlation, and mobile-based inspection capabilities to create a seamless, efficient workflow for bridge inspection and maintenance. As a civil engineering graduate with a strong track record in delivering valuable software, Tom’s experience spans various major projects and asset management. He has been at the forefront of digital transformation for over a decade, including achieving an Engineering Doctorate in BIM for project delivery. Before Mind Foundry, Tom worked at Jacobs and WSP, accelerating and assuring complex programme delivery throughout the UK and Europe.

ABSTRACT

AI-Powered Asset Management for Bridges using Digital Custodianship

As bridges worldwide approach the end of their intended service lives, engineers face increasing pressure to maintain safety, performance, and sustainability in the face of limited resources and growing complexity. Asset owners face a perfect storm of increasing deterioration rates, a retiring workforce, constrained budgets, and changing performance demands. This presentation introduces the concept of Digital Custodianship: a vision for how emerging technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) will take a proactive, data-driven role in managing ageing assets. Digital Custodianship is not about replacing engineers with technology. It is about preserving institutional knowledge, integrating historical data, and applying AI-driven insights to extend asset life and improve resilience. Digital Custodianship ensures the right knowledge is available to the right people at the right time to make decisions about maintenance and renewals. Digital Custodians are envisioned as AI-powered agents designed to operate continuously alongside human experts, learning from inspection data, environmental inputs, and historical performance to provide intelligent insights on asset condition, deterioration risk, and maintenance prioritization. Their role is not just analytical; it is custodial: offering ongoing oversight, contextual understanding, and timely guidance across the lifecycle of structures. In this talk, Tom will present: (i) digital Custodianship and its role in extending the life of existing infrastructure and buildings, (ii) how AI can serve as a persistent, intelligent observer to support condition monitoring and maintenance planning, (iii) the need for transparency and interpretability in AI systems used in civil engineering and asset management, and (iv) the need for good data and objective metrics as inputs.

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