Past, present and future of information and knowledge sharing in the construction industry: Towards semantic service-based e-construction

The paper reviews product data technology initiatives in the construction sector and provides a synthesis of related ICT industry needs. A comparison between (a) the data centric characteristics of Product Data Technology (PDT) and (b) ontology with a focus on semantics, is given, highlighting the pros and cons of each approach. The paper advocates the migration from data-centric application integration to ontology-based business process support, and proposes inter-enterprise collaboration architectures and frameworks based on semantic services, underpinned by ontology-based knowledge structures. The paper discusses the main reasons behind the low industry take up of product data technology, and proposes a preliminary roadmap for the wide industry diffusion of the proposed approach. In this respect, the paper stresses the value of adopting alliance-based modes of operation

Towards implementing integrated building product libraries

Electronic product catalogues and brochures are gaining popularity but there is little agreement on content, format and searching methods. This limits their usability and integration with existing construction software tools. This paper examines a productmodelling approach to delivering building product information and describes a proposed multi-tier client-server environment. ISO/STEP and IAI/IFC building product models are considered to facilitate representation, exchange and sharing of product information. The proposed architecture incorporates scalability with middleware components that would provide single or few points of entry to integrated product information. This paper is part of a research project, which builds on the results of related projects including ConstructIT Strategy, PROCAT-GEN, Active Catalog, COMBINE and ARROW, towards implementing the required software components

Development of an integrated product information management system

This thesis reports on a research project undertaken over a four year period investigating and developing a software framework and application for integrating and managing building product information for construction engineering. The research involved extensive literature research, observation of the industry practices and interviews with construction industry practitioners and systems implementers to determine how best to represent and present product information to support the construction process. Applicable product models for information representation were reviewed and evaluated to determine present suitability. The IFC product model was found to be the most applicable. Investigations of technologies supporting the product model led to the development of a software tool, the IFC Assembly Viewer, which aided further investigations into the suitability of the product model (in its current state) for the exchange and sharing of product information. A software framework, or reusable software design and application, called PROduct Information Management System (PROMIS), was developed based on a non-standard product model but with flexibility to work with the IFC product model when sufficiently mature. The software comprises three subsystems namely: ProductWeb, ModelManager.NET and Product/Project Service (or P2Service). The key features of this system were shared project databases, parametric product specification, integration of product information sources, and application interaction and integration through interface components. PROMIS was applied to and tested with a modular construction business for the management of product information and for integration of product and project information through the design and construction (production) process

Clinical foundations and information architecture for the implementation of a federated health record service

Clinical care increasingly requires healthcare professionals to access patient record information that may be distributed across multiple sites, held in a variety of paper and electronic formats, and represented as mixtures of narrative, structured, coded and multi-media entries. A longitudinal person-centred electronic health record (EHR) is a much-anticipated solution to this problem, but its realisation is proving to be a long and complex journey. This Thesis explores the history and evolution of clinical information systems, and establishes a set of clinical and ethico-legal requirements for a generic EHR server. A federation approach (FHR) to harmonising distributed heterogeneous electronic clinical databases is advocated as the basis for meeting these requirements. A set of information models and middleware services, needed to implement a Federated Health Record server, are then described, thereby supporting access by clinical applications to a distributed set of feeder systems holding patient record information. The overall information architecture thus defined provides a generic means of combining such feeder system data to create a virtual electronic health record. Active collaboration in a wide range of clinical contexts, across the whole of Europe, has been central to the evolution of the approach taken. A federated health record server based on this architecture has been implemented by the author and colleagues and deployed in a live clinical environment in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Whittington Hospital in North London. This implementation experience has fed back into the conceptual development of the approach and has provided "proof-of-concept" verification of its completeness and practical utility. This research has benefited from collaboration with a wide range of healthcare sites, informatics organisations and industry across Europe though several EU Health Telematics projects: GEHR, Synapses, EHCR-SupA, SynEx, Medicate and 6WINIT. The information models published here have been placed in the public domain and have substantially contributed to two generations of CEN health informatics standards, including CEN TC/251 ENV 13606

Proposal for a conceptual model for a SaaS ERP using an Open Source System

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) systems are considered an important part in business organizations but with increasing global competition companies tend to seek more agile solutions that enable cost reduction at the same time. The paradigm change of Software as a Service (SaaS) came to revolutionize the delivery of applications at reduced costs, reliability and scalability. The ERP Open Source working in SaaS model will allow companies to extract all the benefits associated with the technologies used. This thesis presents a model and framework for ERP Open Source SaaS. The model and the framework are based on the literature review, and both were evaluated by empirical work. To validate the model and framework it was implemented an Open Source ERP which is already at market adapted to Portuguese reality. As a second validation of the artifact, the ERP was used for learning purposes by university students. Here are also reported the results of their use experience. This research shows that exist localized Open Source Software ERP alternatives that can be employed in a cloud context by companies.Os sistemas Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) são considerados uma parte importante nas organizações empresariais mas com o aumento da concorrência global as empresas tendem em procurar soluções mais ágeis que permitam ao mesmo tempo a redução de custos. O paradigma do Software como Serviço (SaaS) veio para revolucionar a entrega de aplicações a custos reduzidos, confiabilidade e escalabilidade. O ERP Open Source trabalhando no modelo SaaS irá permitir às empresas para extrair todos os benefícios associados com as tecnologias utilizadas. Esta tese apresenta um modelo e uma framework para ERP Open Source SaaS. O modelo e a framework foram baseados na revisão de literatura e ambos foram avaliados pelo trabalho empírico. Para validar o modelo e a framework foi implementado num ERP de código aberto que já existe no mercado tendo sido adaptado à realidade Português. Como uma segunda validação do artefato, o ERP foi utilizado para fins de aprendizagem por estudantes universitários. Aqui também são relatados os resultados de sua experiência de uso. Esta pesquisa mostra que existem alternativas localizadas do ERP Software de Código Aberto para que possam ser usados num contexto de Cloud pelas empresas

Context for Ubiquitous Data Management

In response to the advance of ubiquitous computing technologies, we believe that for computer systems to be ubiquitous, they must be context-aware. In this paper, we address the impact of context-awareness on ubiquitous data management. To do this, we overview different characteristics of context in order to develop a clear understanding of context, as well as its implications and requirements for context-aware data management. References to recent research activities and applicable techniques are also provided

Context Aware Computing for The Internet of Things: A Survey

As we are moving towards the Internet of Things (IoT), the number of sensors deployed around the world is growing at a rapid pace. Market research has shown a significant growth of sensor deployments over the past decade and has predicted a significant increment of the growth rate in the future. These sensors continuously generate enormous amounts of data. However, in order to add value to raw sensor data we need to understand it. Collection, modelling, reasoning, and distribution of context in relation to sensor data plays critical role in this challenge. Context-aware computing has proven to be successful in understanding sensor data. In this paper, we survey context awareness from an IoT perspective. We present the necessary background by introducing the IoT paradigm and context-aware fundamentals at the beginning. Then we provide an in-depth analysis of context life cycle. We evaluate a subset of projects (50) which represent the majority of research and commercial solutions proposed in the field of context-aware computing conducted over the last decade (2001-2011) based on our own taxonomy. Finally, based on our evaluation, we highlight the lessons to be learnt from the past and some possible directions for future research. The survey addresses a broad range of techniques, methods, models, functionalities, systems, applications, and middleware solutions related to context awareness and IoT. Our goal is not only to analyse, compare and consolidate past research work but also to appreciate their findings and discuss their applicability towards the IoT.Comment: IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials Journal, 201

Development of Web Based Application for Supply Chain Management

As a firm staying competitive in the market is never easy. It faces a lot competition from each and every competitor. The firms have to always come up with a better strategy to satisfy their customers, incorporate latest technologies to provide better service to their customers. The web based application for the supply chain management is a solution that supports collaboration in Supply Chain as the foundation for gaining competitive advantage and maintain market share. There are some other ways to obtain the collaboration but this is a better solution. There are several technologies that are needed for the design and implementation of this web application, some of the include technologies like Java, HTML, CSS, Java Script, Angular JS, Angular Schema form. There is a high level integration needed to bring this on to a single track and make this work. This web application has used the up to date technologies so this way the application can be the most sophisticated one on the market. This application uses technologies that are completely open source and involves a lot less capital than other tools out there in the world. This way the firm whoever uses this technology will be able to see a growth in the productivity, higher profits and the most important thing would be to make the customers happier. With some minor changes to the application it shall be able to make it available to other companies as well. This report describes the technologies used and how are they integrated, if this application was really able to manage the supply chain management in the company. This section gives an overview about the design of the application, the forecasting of the demand. The results showed an improvement in the manufacturing process of the company, reduction in the transportation costs