About 3DEC
Deakin’s Digital Design and Engineering Centre (3DEC) was established in 2017 through integrating existing multi-disciplinary design and engineering R&D ingenuities in civil, mechanical, electronics, environmental, renewable energy, electrical and electronics engineering disciplines to advance industries that are vital for Australia’s social, economic and environmental future including the sustainable energy infrastructure industry.

Core Capabilities
Materials performance and protection
Durability of concrete structures in marine/harsh environment. Sustainable construction materials and geopolymer concrete. Structural rehabilitation materials such as carbon fibres. Hydrogen embrittlement resistant materials and technologies. Materials analysis, modelling of engineering materials and damage. Anti-corrosion cathodic protection, coatings and inhibitors applications.
Design and construction
Engineering systems design and numerical analysis of complex structural problems. Industrial control systems, process control, power system control. Computational fluid dynamics analysis. Environmental engineering. Practical geotechnical engineering, rock mechanics, ground-structure interaction.
Structural health monitoring
Sensor networks, wireless communications and instruments that incorporate sensing, actuation, control, wireless transmission, networking and IoT, data acquisition/storage/analysis for non-destructive evaluation. Corrosion monitoring sensors and technologies.
Manufacturing and materials
Additive Manufacturing (metal and non-metal). Sustainable materials for constructions. Hydrogen energy infrastructure materials selection. Hydrogen fuel cells in heavy-duty trucks.
Visualisation
Virtual Reality for infrastructure installation, maintenance and rehabilitation.
Our research labs
Led by world-class researchers and and powered by state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, our labs are dedicated to furthering our research strengths. Our research strengths span a broad range of emerging areas, from cyber-human-physical systems and 4D printing, to metal additive manufacturing and particle engineering.
- Advanced Manufacturing and Simulation Lab
- Smart Sensors Lab
- Smart Materials Lab
- Design for Additive Manufacturing Lab
- Computational Structures Lab
- Infrastructure Futures Lab
- Virtual Reality Training and Simulation Research Lab
- Metal Additive Manufacturing Processes Lab
- 4D Printing Lab
Our news
Contact us
If you'd like to study with us, collaborate with us, or learn more about our research, we'd love to hear from you.