image courtesy of The Materials Project The Materials Project is documenting all known materials in a database. A research partnership between Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has launched an online tool that lets researchers virtually mix, match and compare chemical compounds by calculating the resulting properties through the magic of supercomputing. The goal is to help registered users find substitute materials to replace existing components of objects and improve them—whether the item is a concrete column, a battery, an alloy beam or even a teddy bear.The effort to develop the site, called the Materials Project, sprang
Rendering Courtesy of Cornell University The Cornell-Technion team will receive a 99-year lease and $100 million in city funding to help with building and related costs of the campus. New York City is on its way to becoming the "world's capital of technological innovation" with the selection of Cornell University and its partner Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to build a state-of-the-art applied sciences campus, says NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Cornell-Technion team's proposal for an 11-acre, $2-billion-plus campus on Roosevelt Island beat out several other proposals under the mayor's Applied Sciences NYC initiative, which aims to boost the city's global
Photo courtesy of Inthinc Technology Solutions Cellphone Nanny is installed either over, or under the driver's seat to monitor just that area. When integrated with a telematics fleet management system, if the driver uses a phone to call or text while driving the system warns them to hang up, and if they do not, it reports them to the boss. Related Links: NTSB Report Federal Rule Banning Cell Phones While Driving Contractors Support Bans on Distracted Driving Into the debate over whether all drivers in the U.S. should be banned from texting or talking on cell phones comes a new
The new year will be the year of mobility; construction's Technology Spring, when the constraints on the flow of data into and out of the field, and the use of mobile devices to collect, share and present it, give way for good.That is one of the expectations of ENR technology editors and they prepare for the year ahead by trying to anticipate where current trends will lead. Expect to see field deployment of technology gather steam at companies as a driving force to efficiency gains and process innovation.Watch for wireless networks, technology kiosks and pads, and tablets to sprout on more
I had the privilege of moderating a panel of CIOs at ENR's FutureTech Conference in mid-December, held in San Francisco. For those of you unfamiliar with conference, it is a key gathering of technology leaders, expert technology users, and others looking to learn and share knowledge about leveraging technology in AEC firms. The panel is an open dialogue with CIOs on their challenges—keeping the lights on, satisfying internal users, and testing new technologies and practices, to name just a few issues. Here are some of the insights that the panelists shared.BIM Successes and Challenges BIM maturity is always a hot topic at
AP/Wideworld A pickup truck driver who was texting caused a deadly pileup last year near a highway work zone in Gray Summit, Mo. Fluor-Lane LLC The Capital Beltway initiative along I-495 encourages drivers to hang up their phones when in the construction zone. Related Links: Read NTSB's Recommendations Interactive Map of State Laws Construction firms are getting behind this month's sweeping recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board that calls for a nationwide ban on phoning and texting while driving."From a work-zone perspective, we would be 100% supportive," says Brian Deery, who heads the Associated General Contractors' highway and transportation
Related Links: LightSquared's Press Release LightSquared Faces Critics, Floats GPS Plan Changes GPS Industry Groups Reject LightSquared's Network Fix The ongoing fight over the future of LightSquared's plans to build a broadband satellite network using GPS spectrum entered a new phase this week.The Reston, Va.-based LightSquared filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 20, seeking a declaratory ruling on whether it can make use of the spectrum it has been licensed for its proposed 4G LTE broadband network.The network plans would occupy frequencies adjacent to those used by most of the GPS receivers currently in use. GPS
The U.S. State Dept.'s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations is rolling out a five-year strategic plan for information technology to support posts around the world and the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters.Announced at a conference in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 7, the plan's key goals include the development of a global unified building management system as well as a comprehensive building-information-modeling solution for life-cycle building planning and operations.Danilo Stapulo, chief of OBO's information resource management application development branch, says that when his office recently analyzed OBO's strengths and weaknesses, the need for interoperability "kept popping up."OBO managers were "spending altogether too
Image: ENR N/A Two years after a Hill International Inc. employee left the Marlton, N.J., firm, the IT department is still trying to retrieve data from his mobile phone. Why? Although the data belongs to the company, the device belongs to the employee.That conundrum is exactly what's keeping a lot of construction companies from adopting bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies."Whose data is it, really?" asks Shawn Pressley, vice president of project management systems at Hill. "If [the employee] paid for the [phone service], they could call it his data. We might not have the permissions to wipe it off our contacts. The
The Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) Young Professionals 2011 survey polled Construction Industry Owners, Contractors, Designers, and Users on the topics of Technology and Professional Development. A snapshot of these survey results are discussed below.Moore’s Law describes, in general, the effect by which our technological capacity doubles every two years. We asked, what is the most important technology tool in your company? The results:• 23% Email• 22% Database Software such as Microsoft Excel or Access• 18% CM or Scheduling Software• 16% BIM/ CAD• 12% Other (miscellaneous)• 7% Smart Phones• 2% Tablet Devices such as iPadAcross all age groups, Email and Excel