Related Links: Fiatech's Three Year Strategic Plan Cyber Security Executive Order Fiatech, an industry group made up of stakeholders who want to transform the world's infrastructure through technology innovation, has adopted a three-year strategic plan to ensure its research is well-targeted and valuable to members.The plan follows a 16-month study by a strategic-direction member committee composed of 24 industry-leading owners, manufacturers, AEC firms and academic institutions from around the world. Retired Dow Chemical Co. executive Jerry Gipson led the endeavor.Fiatech has been engaged in a systematic process of identifying issues and setting goals and strategies for implementing technology innovation since
Enormous amounts of data about projects in development can be analyzed through a browser-based search customized for the user's role in the industry, geographic area of interest and project type. Related Links: Dodge Global Network Dodge International McGraw Hill Construction's Dodge Global Network, a suite of information resources built on a database of current project leads and detailed project information, is completing transition of its subscribers to a new technology platform. The user interface coincides with the release of several new features. Early feedback indicates the system is now more useful and user-friendly.The transformation is due to a shift from
The 100 million television viewers tuned in to Fox Sports’ broadcast of Super Bowl XLVIII on Feb. 2 saw a new visualization tool that displays on screen the swirling arrows of wind vectors inside the stadium.
One of the pioneers of software development for laser-scan data processing, Mark Klusza, won an ENR Newsmaker award for that work in 2003 (ENR 1/12/04 p. 26).
Related Links: Intel's Smart Bowl Announcement The Magnetyze System Juicebar SunBar As construction users increasingly take up mobile devices, battery drain is becoming a drag. Fortunately, innovators are on it. Here are a few neat items that impress ENR as being particularly promising or useful right now, including one from Intel unveiled at the Consumer Electronic Show in January.Click to begin the slide show.
Related Links: EarthCam ePlanIt OxBlue Elevated Lens Photography photoSentinal Radiusvision OnsiteView iBEAM Construction Cameras AGC discussion on JobCams 26 Gigapixel image of Paris Jobsite cameras take scheduled photos from static positions and stream them to private users or public websites, stringing together the images as movies of projects going up or to archive for later use. While the cameras are a hit with developers and marketers of high-end residential buildings and flagship projects, they are becoming a general construction staple, written into specs from the start, say users and vendors.Sources also say the range of job-cam uses and paybacks is
Photo by Tom Sawyer I-Search has an unambiguous interface. If you know your engineering, it is easy to use. Related Links: AISC Offers Win, Place or Show Cash for App Design Contest I-Search American Institute of Steel Construction steel tools Structural engineers often are asked to judge the adequacy of a beam or column under present loads or potential loads of a contemplated modification. This typically requires field measurements and a trip to the office to check references. Now, there is an Android app for making quick calls on the spot.Kip Ping, president of Pinnacle Engineering, Cincinnati, Ohio, developed the
Image Courtesy of Softkill Design/Sophia Tang ProtoHouse encloses the planes of walls and ceiling of a cantilevered home in a web of filaments algorithmically "grown" to carry the loads. Related Links: Advancing 3D Printing Capabilities Excite Construction Leaders Softkill Design The Softkill Algorithm Moving away from designing for 3D printing that emulates traditional uses of conventional materials, a London-based design group called Softkill Design is experimenting with structures using plant-based "bio-plastic" fibers that are laid down by a 3D printing process called laser "sintering," which fuses together particles by the pinpoint application of heat, rather than chemical bonding agents.Softkill's project
Related Links: ProtoHouse Project Follows Bone-Growth Logic to Design Structure Construction has always been a three-dimensional activity. While the representation of the intent of construction has been liberated "virtually" into 3D digital models and rotatable 3D representations, accurate physical representations of design intent have been achieved, until only recently, either through the artistry and skill of a scale model-builder or by building full-scale mock-ups of the ideas captured by the design documentation.But now 3D digital printing offers a third way to go from intent to reality. Like ink-jet printers, 3D printers deposit fine particles on a surface but then keep
I have just returned from the compact, intensely urbanized city of Hong Kong. The construction industry there is a cauldron of activity simmering on the fires of competition, political change, shifting economics and demographics, and further heated by the rapidly growing soft and hard linkages to the industries and population of mainland China.These drivers are leading construction firms in Hong Kong to battle for advantage by leveraging process and technological innovation in a way that promises to set up the former British colony, with its history of internationalism as a crossroads of the Asian and Western worlds, as the hub