There often is a disconnect between the problems researchers tackle and those that society most urgently needs to solve.Researchers seek out interesting problems to work on, and the nature of research is such that it is easy for them to be lured into problems that call for complex, mathematical solutions that, while interesting, may have little actual benefit to the world.Three years ago while I was looking to find interesting and socially important problems to address through my own research in civil engineering, I came upon a report published in 2008 by the National Academy of Engineering on the engineering
With a boatload of announcements about acquisitions, new products, agreements and promises delivered over several days beginning on Nov. 7, the provider of a suit of software and services widely used for infrastructure design, construction and management unveiled a raft of moves that, taken together, help define its technology strategy, especially with respect to 3D information model files and point clouds.During the three-day conference, users from many disciplines and sectors that employ Bentley Systems software reacted with approval as the announcements rolled out at the company's annual "Be Inspired: Thought Leadership in Infrastructure" conference, held in Amsterdam."We are at the
Photo courtesy of Skanska The MEP manager on a Skanska site in Boston dropped plans for conventional lights and went to LEDs. He sees big benefits and no downsides. New product development takes money, ingenuity and patience. When the product is built around a new technology—such as light-emitting diodes—money, ingenuity and patience are needed in spades."We have learned people really need to play with it and test if for awhile before they believe you," says Daniel Lax, the 31-year-old vice president of business development for a division of his family's plastic injection molding company. In 2008, he branched out from
PHOTO BY TOM SAWYER The first lock is the hardest,but once the locator has your position it will keep up with you in five-minute blinks. The possibility of tracking workers on jobsites by remote sensing got a leg up in October with the release of a new homing device. Through a web browser used by an authorized employee, it can report a worker's location.The PocketFinder Personal GPS Locator is like a GPS-enabled cell phone—without the phone. The device uses global positioning satellites to find its location and a GSM-based cell-phone network to call that location in every five minutes. If
Global changes, such as population growth, rising sea level and energy demand, create challenges for civil engineers. And advances in data sensing, and analysis can help address them—but researchers must concentrate on significant needs to make useful contributions.“We see so many people doing research that doesn't help anyone,” laments Ioannis Brilakis, an assistant professor in civil engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. His research focuses on use of computers and information technology in construction.Inspired by a 2008 survey about engineering challenges for the 21st Century, Brilakis decided to use a scientific approach to identify challenges facing civil engineering that
The October 24th issue of ENR covered how social media is being leveraged in the construction industry. It’s an emerging story on how contractors, architects, and manufacturers are reaching new audiences and developing sales leads through tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Contrast these social media efforts with “social networking”, which is using these and other tools to extend your personal network. So for example, I use LinkedIn to manage my professional contacts and Twitter as a tool to share content and meet new people. These activities are essentially the digital version of professional networking, so in addition to
Rendering courtesy of NIBS Common BIMAn overview of one of the standard building information models released to the public. To help users benchmark the performance of building information modeling software and applications in a common environment, the Washington, D.C.-based National Institute of Building Sciences' buildingSMART alliance has released a reference set of BIM open standards.Three models created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center, Champaign, Ill., include an apartment building, a medical clinic and an office building. Each model includes architectural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing information.“These common BIM files are a very good step forward
SOURCE: ACI 318-11 Structural concrete building code In a response to Bostons Big Dig failure, overhead, horizontal and slanted panels, installed using adhesive anchors, are included in the 2011 concrete standard for the first time. There are radical changes in the works for the concrete design standard of the American Concrete Institute. ACI committee members are about halfway through a six-year overhaul of the 502-page tome, aiming to validate its content and make it more user-friendly. It is the first major revamp in nearly 45 years.In a big departure, the 2014 edition of the ACI 318: Structural Concrete Building Code,
Data courtesy of SMPS White Paper: "The Client's Use of Social Media and Social Networking" (August, 2011) Data courtesy of SMPS White Paper: "The Client's Use of Social Media and Social Networking" (August, 2011) Related Links: VHB/Eng-Wong, Taub and PB: Building Client Relationships with Social Media In Social Media, Some Conversations Are Best Kept Private Corps Finds Facebook Excels for Flood Emergency Communications Social Media Reshape Job Hunting and Recruitment at Smith Group, CH2M Hill Water Social Networking Site Matches Water Providers With End Users Writing the Social Media Policy Handbook at Burns & McDonnell, HOK For any construction firm
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