Challenges remain, such as the high cost of AI implementation and convincing tradespeople that jobsite cameras and wearables will support their work rather than used for surveillance, said Yongcheol Lee, an associate professor at Louisiana State University. But AI can help companies maintain consistent safety messaging, provide real-time situational awareness to aid in decision-making and help predict and reduce hazards, the researcher said. The tool will be available from CII’s website in the fall at www.construction-institute.org.

Another research team created a tool available now that helps consolidate and provide guidance on more than 30 years of CII safety implementation best practices. It incorporates more recent safety strategies that better reflect human behavior and performance, employee well-being and the promotion of positive reinforcement. “I’ve been around safety research for 30 years, but one of the things that surprised me in a good way is the talk about positive traits [in recent case studies],” said John Gambatese, a professor in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University. Top performing companies that promote positive safety program culture in addition to preventing the negative “get a workforce that listens, understands, accepts and is willing to go along the journey,” he added.

Researchers also presented a framework to help project teams reduce embodied carbon emissions on capital projects. The resource enables integrating decarbonization into existing project metrics—such as safety, quality and schedule—and identifies strategies that can help reduce project costs along with embodied carbon.

The institute, based at the University of Texas-Austin, also announced a leadership transition. Mike Pappas will take over as executive director on Nov. 1, replacing Jamie Gerbrecht, who led the group for the past three years. Pappas. now project management program director at Los Alamos National Laboratory, was associate CII director from 2017 to 2021.