Photo courtesy of U.S. Army U.S. Army Barracks Complex at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Within five years facilities assessments and life cycle maintenance scheduling and planning for all $830 billion worth of Dept. of Defense facilities are to be brought into the Sustainment Management System developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Related Links: Sustainment Management System homepage On Sept. 10, Frank Kendall, the U.S. Dept. of Defense under secretary for acquisitions, logistics and technology, issued a memorandum notifying officials at all military components of the DoD and the Washington Headquarters Service that they will all be required, within
Image Courtesy of Autodesk Get The Point software users say the tool, for integrating design files with total stations for layout control and construction verification, has saved them money by avoiding rework. Related Links: Get The Point website Service provider network based on similar total station/design file integration from Theometrics Autodesk Inc. has acquired the technology assets of Larkspur, Colo.-based Get The Point LLC, which developed software to transfer information from Autodesk's design applications to robotic total stations and move CAD and BIM control points directly from design files to layout in the field.The software is also bi-directional. It can
Related Links: A live cyber attack dashboard from Deutusche Telekom State-Sponsored Attacks research report from Lieberman Software Technology security experts in many sectors surveyed at a recent conference shared a common concern: 74.3% of them could not say with confidence that their systems have not already been breached by a foreign state-sponsored cyber attack or an advanced persistent threat. Further, 62.9% think it likely their companies will be targets of such attacks within the next six months.Most (52%) were not confident their staffs could detect such intrusions, and 57.7% said they think the U.S. is losing the battle,although 30.3% said
Like almost everything else the world of construction, the world of project planning is increasingly moving toward processes that draw upon data—including what is often referred to as “big data,” which holds keys to spotting large-scale shifts in communities.This matters to construction because planners, architects, engineers and contractors often are on the front lines of spinning up projects that impact the masses. And the quality of the data used in the studies undertaken to justify the economic validity of those projects can make the difference between projects that bomb and projects that succeed—and in the construction industry languishing or flourishing.Embracing
Related Links: NOAA's Digital Coast Site Seasketch Tool Site Superstorm Sandy destroyed the shorelines and seabeds of the East Coast to such an extent that federal agencies plan to remap the coastline.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are using emergency supplemental funds to survey the coast to collect high-resolution topographic and hydrographic data. The LiDAR surveying will be recording water depths and any submerged debris that may have altered shorelines from South Carolina to Maine.The $50-million project will begin work this fall. Some contracts already have been awarded, with more
David Kligman for Pacific Gas and Electric Company PG&E's custom Ford Escape hybrids use a new gas-detection tech that allows them to identify gas-pipe leaks while driving on the highway. Related Links: Picarro Survey Device Boston University's Study In early August, a specially equipped sports-utility vehicle detected four potential gas-pipe leaks while motoring along a California highway. The improved detection capacity is due to a recently developed, highly sensitive gas-leak detection technology.The technology, developed by Picarro, Santa Clara, Calif., uses a patented form of cavity-ring down spectroscopy (CRDS) to detect gas leaks even while driving. CRDS measures the near-infrared absorption
Courtesy of Skanska; Bottom Courtesy CURT Nick Pfenning, (center) Mortenson Construction is part of the push for PDF standards. Related Links: General Contractor Coalition Forms To Draft PDF Creation Guidelines T he hodgepodge of plans, schematics and revisions in the portable document format (PDF) circulated within the construction industry is the focus of an initiative by general contractors called "All PDFs Created Equal."A coalition of general contractors recently met in Los Angeles to establish a set of best practices for PDF creation and sharing with which all players in the AEC community can agree.The meeting was hosted by Bluebeam Software
Image by Tony Jun Huang Images of a light beam without and with bubble lens. Professors from several colleges have joined forces to create the world's first plasmofluidic lens—a tiny water bubble used to manipulate and focus a beam of light at the nanoscale. Researchers say it could open doors to develop smaller, faster electronic circuitry.To make the lens, a low-intensity laser heats water on a gold-film surface, creating a water bubble, says Yongmin Liu, assistant professor in the mechanical and industrial engineering department and the electrical and computer engineering department at Northeastern University, Boston. The bubble's optical behavior remains
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