A study of BIM collaboration requirements and available features in existing model collaboration systems

Established collaboration practices in the construction industry are document centric and are challenged by the introduction of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Document management collaboration systems (e.g. Extranets) have significantly improved the document collaboration in recent years; however their capabilities for model collaboration are limited and do not support the complex requirements of BIM collaboration. The construction industry is responding to this situation by adopting emerging model collaboration systems (MCS), such as model servers, with the ability to exploit and reuse information directly from the models to extend the current intra-disciplinary collaboration towards integrated multi-disciplinary collaboration on models. The functions of existing MCSs have evolved from the manufacturing industry and there is no concrete study on how these functions correspond to the requirements of the construction industry, especially with BIM requirements. This research has conducted focus group sessions with major industry disciplines to explore the user requirements for BIM collaboration. The research results have been used to categorise and express the features of existing MCS which are then analysed in selected MCS from a user’s perspective. The potential of MCS and the match or gap in user requirements and available model collaboration features is discussed. This study concludes that model collaborative solutions for construction industry users are available in different capacities; however a comprehensive custom built solution is yet to be realized. The research results are useful for construction industry professionals, software developers and researchers involved in exploring collaborative solutions for the construction industry

Evidence of authentic achievement: the extent of disciplined enquiry in student teachers' essay scripts

The purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which undergraduates engage in disciplined enquiry, as one means of operationalising critical thinking. Three hundred essays from second-year students were judged on the indicators of disciplinary concepts, elaborated written communication and analysis. Non parametric statistical tests revealed that disciplinary concepts were more in evidence than was analysis. This was manifest in written communications which were not, overall, elaborated into coherent essays. The results suggest that students need to appreciate that knowledge is an intentional, and perhaps, effortful construction of the human mind and that this involves the use of a knowledge-transforming strategy rather than the coping strategy of knowledge-telling. For this to happen, however, some current pedagogic practices may need to be revise

Managing knowledge in the context of sustainable construction

The 21st century has been a growing awareness of the importance of the sustainability agenda. Moreover for construction, it has become increasingly important as clients are pushing for a more sustainable product to complement their organisations’ own strategic plans. Sustainable development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable construction is therefore seen as the application of sustainable practices to the activities of the construction sector. One of the key factors in making construction projects more sustainable is overcoming the obstacles of capturing and managing the knowledge required by project teams to effect such change. Managing this knowledge is key to the construction industry because of the unique characteristics of its projects, i.e. multi-disciplinary teams, dynamic participation of team members, heavy reliance on previous experiences/heuristics, the one-off nature of the projects, tight schedules, limited budget, etc. Initiatives within the industry and academic research are developing mechanisms and tools for managing knowledge in construction firms and projects. Such work has so far addressed the issues of capturing, storing, and transferring knowledge

Pre-disciplinary and Post-disciplinary Perspectives.

Contributors to this forum are invited to write from their own disciplinary perspective on exciting intellectual developments in their field and to assess their implications for contemporary political economy. They should also address how far political economy is (or should become) an interdisciplinary venture. We find it hard to answer these questions, however, because neither co-author identifies with a single discipline. Indeed, we reject the discursive and organisational construction (and, worse, the fetishisation) of disciplinary boundaries. This means in turn that we cannot describe our approach as inter- or multi-disciplinary in its aspiration�even though, faute de mieux, we draw on concepts,theoretical arguments and empirical studies written from existing disciplinary perspectives. Instead, we describe our shared approach as pre-disciplinary in its historical inspiration and as post-disciplinar y in its current intellectual implications. We are not alone in refusing disciplinary boundaries and decrying some of their effects. Indeed, among the most exciting recent intellectual developments in the social sciences is the increasing commitment to transcending these boundaries to understand better the complex interconnections within and across the natural and social worlds. Thus our own contribution to this forum seeks to bring out some implications of pre- and post-disciplinary analyses of political economy. We advocate the idea of a �cultural political economy� and suggest how it might transform understandings of recent developments in political economy

Innovation: Exploring the knowledge base

New types of knowledge, and new ways of organising the production of it, may emerge as knowledge producers respond to the challenges posed by a changing society. This study will focus on the core knowledge of one such emerging field, namely, innovation studies, i.e. the attempt to understand the social process which enables the continuation of qualitative improvements of products, technologies, and the organisation of economic activities. To explore the knowledge base of innovation, a new data base of references in scholarly surveys of various aspects of innovation, mostly published in “handbooks”, is developed. The paper describes the process that led to the construction of the data base and its exploitation in identifying the core literature on innovation. Furthermore, the characteristics of this literature, the central contributors and the use of the literature (as reflected by references to this core literature in scholarly journals) are analysed. Finally, cluster analysis is used to make inferences about how the field is structured and its links with different disciplinary and cross-disciplinary contexts.Innovation, cross-disciplinarity, emerging scientific field, social science

Polynomial Response Surface Approximations for the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of a High Speed Civil Transport

Surrogate functions have become an important tool in multidisciplinary design optimization to deal with noisy functions, high computational cost, and the practical difficulty of integrating legacy disciplinary computer codes. A combination of mathematical, statistical, and engineering techniques, well known in other contexts, have made polynomial surrogate functions viable for MDO. Despite the obvious limitations imposed by sparse high fidelity data in high dimensions and the locality of low order polynomial approximations, the success of the panoply of techniques based on polynomial response surface approximations for MDO shows that the implementation details are more important than the underlying approximation method (polynomial, spline, DACE, kernel regression, etc.). This paper surveys some of the ancillary techniques—statistics, global search, parallel computing, variable complexity modeling—that augment the construction and use of polynomial surrogates

Collaborative multidisciplinary learning : quantity surveying students’ perspectives

The construction industry is highly fragmented and is known for its adversarial culture, culminating in poor quality projects not completed on time or within budget. The aim of this study is thus to guide the design of QS programme curricula in order to help students develop the requisite knowledge and skills to work more collaboratively in their multi-disciplinary future workplaces. A qualitative approach was considered appropriate as the authors were concerned with gathering an initial understanding of what students think of multi-disciplinary learning. The data collection method used was a questionnaire which was developed by the Behaviours4Collaboration (B4C) team. Knowledge gaps were still found across all the key areas where a future QS practitioner needs to be collaborative (either as a project contributor or as a project leader) despite the need for change instigated by the multi-disciplinary (BIM) education revolution. The study concludes that universities will need to be selective in teaching, and innovative in reorienting, QS education so that a collaborative BIM education can be effected in stages, increasing in complexity as the students’ technical knowledge grows. This will help students to build the competencies needed to make them future leaders. It will also support programme currency and delivery

Debating critical costume: negotiating ideologies of appearance, performance and disciplinarity

In this article, I present an argument for a proposed focus of ‘critical costume’. Critical Costume, as a research platform, was founded in 2013 to promote new debate and scholarship on the status of costume in contemporary art and culture. We have now hosted two biennial conferences and exhibitions (Edge Hill University 2013, Aalto University 2015). These events have exposed an international appetite for a renewed look at how costume is studied, practised and theorized. Significantly, Critical Costume is focused on an inclusive remit that is interdisciplinary and supports a range of ‘voices’: from theatre and anthropology scholars to working artists. In that regard, I offer an initial argument for how we might collectively navigate this interdisciplinary field of practice with reference to other self-identified critical approaches to art and design. By focusing on an interdisciplinary perspective on costume, my intention is to invite new readings and connections between popular practices, such as Halloween and cosplay, with the refined crafts of theatrical and film professionals. I argue that costume is a vital element of performance practice – as well as an extra-daily component of our social lives – that affords distinct methods for critiquing how appearance is sustained, disciplined and regulated. I conclude by offering a position on the provocation of critical costume and a word of caution on the argument for disciplinarity

An Exploratory Study of Online Information Regarding Colony Collapse Disorder

The cause or causes of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) are uncertain. CCD defines specific characteristics of the nationwide deaths of honey bee colonies in the last decade. Adult bees often disappear from the hive and die, leaving the colony weak and vulnerable to disease. Environmental scientists and agriculturalists have developed many different theories about CCD and its origins. The different theories create challenges regarding the effective dissemination of information about CCD to the different realms of public information seekers. There is a need for an exploration of the online communication of CCD information using federal environmental agency web resources. CCD research information dissemination practices are one example of the trans-disciplinary complexity surrounding many current environmental issues. The study addresses different information “packages” offered or not offered for different types of CCD information seekers. The goal of the study is to inform future research addressing the comprehensive construction of federal e-government science information by finding strengths and weaknesses in the current information landscape of CCD resources on the web