An industry consortium founded 10 years ago in Texas had a straightforward goal: to connect capital facilities owners and builders with the most promising emerging technologies for the improved delivery of their work.FIATECH begins its second decade with a sense that its mission is succeeding.
The name, coined in 2000, stands for Fully Integrated and Automated Technology for Construction. The organization has based its efforts from the start on coordinated research, pilot tests, demonstrations and implementation. It is seeing the effort pay off with individual trials connecting more and more often into systems, like open-source data-exchange standards and supply-chain management tools that are being adopted by the construction industry.
“Ten years is a milestone,” said Ric Jackson, director, at the organization’s March 30-31 technology showcase and conference in Austin. It was FIATECH’s largest conference ever, attracting two-dozen vendors and 300 attendees.
Jackson says trustees are using the moment to assess gains and goals and study what has been “done, used, deployed, implemented and made money on.”
Some of the greatest traction is in emerging and market-ready solutions for data interoperabilty. FIATECH’s constituents are building on developments they have advanced for years in partnership with academic researchers and innovators within member companies.
