Related Links: Imagining Construction's Future: ENR's Science Fiction Collection FutureTech Event Program The theme may have been "Imagining Construction's Future" at ENR's Nov. 7 FutureTech conference in New York City, but, for many panelists and attendees, what once seemed like tomorrow's technology is used on many projects today—and driving innovation."It's a fascinating time to be in our industry," said Matt Harris, a senior vice president with Viewpoint Software. "It's astonishing how cheap and scalable things are becoming, from a cloud [computing] environment." Although it's early in the era of mobility in construction, many firms are looking at real-time sensing data
Editor's Note:Robert E. McFarlane is a principal at Shen Milsom & Wilke, an international firm that provides consulting and technology design on large and small projects, including information technology data center planning. McFarlane’s expertise is in the design of data center infrastructure. ENR approached McFarlane with a series of questions about the reports of electrical problems at the National Security Administration’s data center in Utah, seeking to better understand the kinds of issues that may be involved. Several other experts ENR approached were eager to respond as well, but prevented from doing so by non-disclosure agreements they had signed with
It is rare that tax issues generate excitement for engineering, design, and construction firms, but significant research and development-related tax benefits can be available to firms engaged in creating energy efficient buildings for the government.Three key things to consider when working to maximize your firm’s project-related tax benefits include the Research and Development tax credit, the 179D deduction, and avoiding the mistake of “self-censoring,” or assuming your firm’s activities will not qualify.The R&D tax credit is a government-endorsed incentive that many engineering, design, and construction firms—particularly small and mid-sized ones—fail to claim, either from lack of information or from self-censorship.If
Courtesy EPRI With its 110-volt vacuum engine, the crawler bot maintains enough suction to carry 40 lb up vertical structures. Courtesy EPRI The crawler bot automatically follows a preprogrammed route up and down structures but has support ropes in case it loses suction. Related Links: International Climbing Machines (Upon which the robot is based). Nuclear Energy Standards Coordination Collaborative A new concrete inspection robot successfully scaled the walls of a dam this summer, testing the dam's structural integrity.Many of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors are reaching the middle age of their design life, while, according to reports by the American
Video courtesy of EarthCam One World Trade Center time lapse video, 2004 to 2013 Related Links: World Trade Center webcam site EarthCam, Inc., a Hackensack, NJ-based provider of webcam content, technology and services, including job-cams for construction projects worldwide, posted an edited time lapse video of 12 years of construction at New York City’s World Trade Center to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks that brought down the trade center’s twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001.The video spans the period from October, 2004 to September, 2013 and was hand-edited from hundreds of thousands of high-definition images captured of work at
Related Links: Black & Veatch, 2013 Strategic Directions in the U.S. Water Industry Report McGraw-Hill Construction Water Infrastructure Smart Market Report Municipal water delivery systems around the world range from the rudimentary to the mind-bendingly complex. And their customers regard the water those systems deliver as either rare, precious and costly or overabundant to the point of inconsequence and cheap. But although many users take the water delivery systems themselves for granted, when they fail, perform badly or their managers seek funds to improve, many ratepayers can be counted upon to howl in complaint.Water-system managers walk a tightrope between the
Elon Musk, well known as the founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX, is now also well known for his recent Hyperloop Alpha Proposal outlining what he calls a “fifth mode of transportation.” But is this fifth mode of transportation feasible from an engineering and construction view, and how can engineers improve upon it?The hyperloop is like a muted, trackless version of a vactrain—a system to propel a vehicle along a maglev track inside a vacuum tube. Proponents claim the hyperloop could reach speeds of thousands of kilometers per hour. Similar vactrain and maglev ideas have been circulated and researched
Related Links: The NEON project site Project description at LEO A DALY We will soon add the nation’s ecology to the evolving and expanding “Internet of Things.” Scientists have embarked upon a nationwide project to create a linked network of sensor-studded towers to study, for the next 30 years at least, the impacts of climate change, land use change and invasive species on the ecology at 60 sites across the U.S.A. The first goal is to establish a baseline of data representing the state of the ecology at those 60 locations before external influences begin to cause change.But before that
Paul Doherty First ever AEC Hackathon. Related Links: AEC Hackathon Hackathons have long been staple events in the Technology Industry since the late 1990’s. A Hackathon is an intensive event that brings together computer programmers like software developers, graphic designers and user interface specialists along with industry process experts and professionals to identify issues and create software solutions, usually within a weekend.The first meaningful Hackathon took place in 1999 at Sun Microsystem’s JavaOne Conference, where Sun challenged the attendees to develop Java for the new 3Com Palm 5 mobile device. The event was a wild success. Our design and construction
Courtesy of InfoSense SL-RAT sends sound waves through pipes to find blockages. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, N.C., Utilities Division (CMUD) uses CCTV cameras to inspect its underground sanitary sewer pipes for blockages and interferences, but a new device that sends acoustical waves through sewer pipes is giving the utility a more accurate view.“Often, the [CCTV] images were so dark and murky or the system would get hung up, and we couldn’t get a clear picture,” says John Fishburne, senior engineer in CMUD’s field operations division. “We wound up cleaning pipes that, in many cases, didn’t need it.”In 2005, CMUD commissioned Ivan
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