BIM communication waste

Developments in Information and Communication Technology can bring about significant improvements in the efficiency of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction and Facilities Management industry. Building Information Modelling (BIM), is a term which encompasses a type of software but more importantly a set of processes which, at their core, support an approach for integrated project delivery enabled by interoperable software systems. The last three years have seen intensified and coordinated adoption of BIM in the UK mainly as a result of the mandate of the UK government. One facet of these developments is the growing need for BIM collaboration tools which can interoperate effectively with the various BIM software systems, support the required standards and codes of practice and provide for requirements of construction project information production and management such as model-based workflows, model-based communication, model-based procurement, role-based data access and role-based privileges. The pre-requisites for collaboration can be broadly divided into two categories: (1) coordination of information and responsibilities, and (2) communication. This research recognizes the strong focus of recent and ongoing efforts to provide for coordination and aims to support the communication aspect. Additionally, successful collaborative practice results from (1) the "softer" or "human-aspect" issues: collaborative culture, software training and adherence to protocols as well as from (2) the provision of appropriate, intuitive and configurable collaboration tools and, more generally, digital collaboration environments. This research focuses on the latter. Despite efforts from a variety of software-as-a-service (SaaS) collaboration tool vendors to achieve dominance in the market, there is still uncertainty as to what type of solutions would best support BIM collaboration. Additionally, there is considerable variation in software configurations and a lack of a universally applicable method for evaluating the communication capabilities of BIM collaboration tools in a meaningful way. Vendors lack a robust conceptual framework to guide the long-term development of their tools and evaluate them. The process of requirements engineering, which in this context involves a diversity of stakeholders and involves projects at different BIM maturity levels would benefit significantly from a robust, context-specific conceptual model-ontology. The aim of this research is to produce a context-specific conceptual model-ontology which can support the discourse of requirements engineering and provide a robust and widely applicable framework for evaluating the communication capabilities of BIM collaboration tools. It is anticipated that this would help reduce BIM communication waste . To meet this aim, BIM collaboration tools were studied from five perspectives: 1.Users: their opinions, requirements and requests were collected through an online questionnaire survey. 2.Vendor: their perspective was captured through semi-structured interviews. 3.Schemata for interoperability: effectiveness of tools and schemata was evaluated through analysis of software by data fidelity study and scenario-based testing. 4.Tool use: patterns of digitally-enabled communication were explored through an analysis of communication data and meta-data collected from a collaboration tool. 5.Tool improvement: a successful approach in improving a collaboration tool was examined through the development of a context-specific requirements engineering process. This process was evaluated through semi-structured interviews with collaboration tool implementation consultants. Each perspective helped produce more specific requirements from the model as well as elements of the model itself. The end result was the Model for communication waste in BIM process interactions (WIMBIM). WIMBIM has the BIM process transmission as the fundamental unit of analysis and focuses on BIM communication waste and how it results from sub-optimal collaboration tools and schemata. The ultimate purpose of WIMBIM is to support the development of technology which would reduce this waste. This model was converted into a communicable format and was related to BIM standards to aid contextualization and gap identification. To evaluate the validity and utility of this model, interviews with BIM experts were conducted, and the proposed model was found to be a valid approach to address aspects of BIM waste, which is not usually examined and could potentially complement the existing model for BIM maturity. Additionally, the model provides a useful lens for further academic research into BIM collaboration tools

BIM and online collabortion platforms - an investigation into emerging requirements

It is widely documented that productivity in the AEC/FM industry has been hampered by fragmentation, low innovation, adversarial relationships and slow adoption of Information Communication Technologies. The rising recognition of the potential of Building Information Modelling (BIM), combined with online collaboration platforms, provides an opportunity for addressing those industry obstacles. This study reviews existing literature pertaining to how BIM and online collaboration platforms can facilitate the much desired integration within the industry. Subsequently, a scoping study for UK online collaboration platforms is carried out. Despite the expected benefits of BIM technology, it has not been widely embedded within the UK AEC/FM industry. This is mainly attributed to the incompatibility of current practices with BIM. Current collaborative practices still result in some rework, suboptimal design decisions, constructability issues and waste. Factors relating to the introduction of collaborative BIM practices revolve around a shared vision, clear responsibilities and technology ease of use. The essential role of online collaboration platforms for construction organizations reaching full BIM maturity is not yet fully appreciated. Additionally, corporate BIM strategies lack a clear vision. The scoping study identifies some trends in the evolution of online collaboration platform functionalities and sets the ground for a gap analysis

Online and Verification Problems under Uncertainty

In the under uncertainty setting we study problems with imprecise input data for which precise data can be obtained. There exists an underlying problem with a feasible solution, but is computable only if the input is precise enough. We are interested in measuring how much of the imprecise input data has to be updated in order to be precise enough. We look at the problem for both the online and the offline (verification) cases. In the verification under uncertainty setting an algorithm is given imprecise input data and also an assumed set of precise input data. The aim of the algorithm is to update the smallest number of input data such that if the updated input data is the same as the corresponding assumed input data (i.e. verified), a solution for the underlying problem can be calculated. In the online adaptive under uncertainty setting the task is similar except the assumed set of precise data is not given to the algorithm, and the performance of the algorithm is measured by comparing the number of input data that have been updated against the result obtained in the verification setting of the same problem. We have studied these settings for a few geometric and graph problems and found interesting results. Geometric problems include several variations of the maximal points problem where, in its classical form, given a set of points in the plane we want to compute the set of all points that are maximal. The uncertain element here is the actual location of each point. Graph problems include a few variations of the graph diameter problem where, in its classical form, given a graph we want to calculate a farthest pair of vertices. The uncertain element is the weight of each edge

Fig 1 -

Examples from the PEERS subscales: A. Matching Emo, B: Odd One, C. Get This, D. Multiple Morals.</p

Pediatric evaluation of emotions, relationships and socialization.

Pediatric evaluation of emotions, relationships and socialization.</p

Sample demographics.

ObjectiveSocio-emotional skills, including social competence and social cognition, form the basis for robust relationships and wellbeing. Despite their importance, these skills are poorly defined and measured, particularly in children with developmental vulnerabilities. As a consequence, targets for effective management and treatment remain unclear. We aimed to i) phenotype social competence and social cognition in typically developing children (TDC) and in children with neurodevelopmental or mental health disorders (clinical groups) and ii) establish the relationships between these child-direct measures and parent ratings of social competence and behavior.MethodUsing a multi-site, cross-sectional study design, we recruited 513 TDC and 136 children with neurodevelopmental (autism spectrum disorder [ASD], attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]) or mental health (Anxiety Disorder [ANX]) diagnoses (age range 5–15 years). We administered the Paediatric Evaluation of Emotions, Relationships and Socialisation (PEERS) to children, and parents completed standardised questionnaires rating children’s socio-emotional function.ResultsStandardised parent questionnaires revealed a global pattern of everyday socio-emotional impairment that was common to all clinical groups, while PEERS identified disorder-specific socio-cognitive profiles for children with ASD, ADHD and ANX. Compared to TDCs, children with ASD demonstrated global socio-cognitive impairment. Children with ADHD were impulsive, demonstrating difficulties managing speed accuracy trade-offs. Children with ANX exhibited slowed social decision-making, but otherwise intact skills.ConclusionsStandardized parent questionnaires of child socio-emotional function reveal differences between children with typical and atypical development, but do not yield disorder-specific, socio-emotional profiles. In contrast, findings from the PEERS objective assessment suggest that that ASD, ADHD and ANX are associated with distinct socio-cognitive phenotypes, to more accurately guide and target management and treatment of impaired social competence.</div

Comparison of intellectual ability, behavior and social competence across TDC and clinical groups.

Comparison of intellectual ability, behavior and social competence across TDC and clinical groups.</p

Comparisons of PEERS performances between TDC and clinical groups–scaled and composite scores.

Comparisons of PEERS performances between TDC and clinical groups–scaled and composite scores.</p

Comparisons of PEERS performances between normative and clinical samples–raw scores.

Comparisons of PEERS performances between normative and clinical samples–raw scores.</p