Attendees at ENR's FutureTech East conference in New York City at the start of October explored the industry's future and looked inside a mid-size construction firm's innovation culture, including an invention that some are calling the Google Maps of construction. Rogers-O'Brien Construction is testing the software created by Joe Williams, director of technology, and Todd Wynne, construction technology manager, on projects.
Discovering future applications of current tech is a leadership theme of Manolis Kotzabasakis, the new chairman and CEO of Viewpoint Construction Software, who took the reins from Jay Haladay earlier this year.
A building superintendent turned professor used a bad experience placing concrete as the inspiration to develop a free, web-based application that tracks weather patterns and humidity levels to avoid cracking from plastic concrete shrinkage.
The film and construction industries have a common production model. Both work on projects that have an overall vision from the owner (or executive producer) and onboard highly experienced contractors to complete a difficult project in a short amount of time.
A proposed standard to create smart facilities supporting smart grids, written by ASHRAE and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, is open for public review until Oct. 6. ASHRAE/NEMA Standard 201P, Facility Smart Grid Information Model would provide a common basis for electrical energy consumers to describe, manage and communicate about electrical energy consumptions and forecasts.The 201P also is being considered for adoption as an international standard through the International Organization for Standardization. In addition, the standard coordinates with and uses content from the International Electrotechnical Commission’s Common Information Model (CIM) standards. It also coordinates with the North American Energy Standards
Courtesy Remix Remix is an app that delivers forward-looking public transportation bus routes. This detailed look at a possible plan for Oakland, Calif., includes total cost, number of buses and separate bus lines. What began as a hackathon program that allowed users to design their own fantasy bus routes recently grew into a real-world, transit-planning application called Remix. The users are now mostly departments-of-transportation workers, and the lines they're designing are helping save time and money on real transit routes."We have been using Remix to help us develop maps that show proposed routes and service scenarios," says Vanessa Rauschenberger, director of
Change Readiness is the means of understanding and increasing the likelihood of innovation adoption by stakeholders in the capital projects industry. Research from Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of Kansas (KU) shows that even when a compelling innovative solution is implemented, there is 70% likelihood that by the time a fifth project is executed, the innovation will have been forgotten and practices will revert to what was as been done in the past. The implications of this finding help explain the slow evolution of the capital projects industry. Fiatech is addressing this problem. The first step in the process
A recent ENR survey of design firms, general contractors and subcontractors included two questions about technology. One asked what percentage of revenue the firms invest in research and development, and the other asked how the respondents feel about their data security. The responses suggest there might be a correlation.Overall, of 208 executives who responded to the questions, 42% say they spend less than half a percent on R&D. Take the investment up to just under 1% and 14% more join the club. Add another half percent investment and the group expands another 10% before dropping back to a 6% increase
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