Integrating Distributed Sources of Information for Construction Cost Estimating using Semantic Web and Semantic Web Service technologies

A construction project requires collaboration of several organizations such as owner, designer, contractor, and material supplier organizations. These organizations need to exchange information to enhance their teamwork. Understanding the information received from other organizations requires specialized human resources. Construction cost estimating is one of the processes that requires information from several sources including a building information model (BIM) created by designers, estimating assembly and work item information maintained by contractors, and construction material cost data provided by material suppliers. Currently, it is not easy to integrate the information necessary for cost estimating over the Internet. This paper discusses a new approach to construction cost estimating that uses Semantic Web technology. Semantic Web technology provides an infrastructure and a data modeling format that enables accessing, combining, and sharing information over the Internet in a machine processable format. The estimating approach presented in this paper relies on BIM, estimating knowledge, and construction material cost data expressed in a web ontology language. The approach presented in this paper makes the various sources of estimating data accessible as Simple Protocol and Resource Description Framework Query Language (SPARQL) endpoints or Semantic Web Services. We present an estimating application that integrates distributed information provided by project designers, contractors, and material suppliers for preparing cost estimates. The purpose of this paper is not to fully automate the estimating process but to streamline it by reducing human involvement in repetitive cost estimating activities

Towards Supporting the Extended DevOps Approach through Multi-cloud Architectural Patterns for Design and Pre-deployment - A Tool Supported Approach

Recently the world of Cloud Computing is witnessing two major trends: Multi-cloud applications pushed by the increasing diversity of Cloud services leading to hybrid infrastructures and the DevOps paradigm, promising increased trust, faster software releases, and the ability to solve critical issues quickly (Steinborn, 2018). This paper presents a solution for merging and adapting both trends so that the benefits for software developers and operators are multiplied. The authors describe a tool-supported approach to extend the DevOps philosophy with the objective of supporting the design and pre-deployment of multi-cloud software applications. The paper begins with the presentation of the theoretical concepts, the proceeds with the description of the developed tools and the discussion of the validation performed with a sandbox application.The project leading to this paper has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 731533