Centre for Information Technology in Construction
The Centre for Information Technology in Construction (CITC) is at the forefront of developing Construction IT and has made significant contributions in communication, visualisation, integration, and intelligent systems research, process protocols, product models, knowledge-based systems and numerous integrated computing environments. Current efforts focus on developing modelling and simulation environments for the virtual prototyping of sustainable buildings and cities.
Contact
Professor Vian Ahmed
Acting Centre Director
E v.ahmed@salford.ac.uk
http://www.construct-it.org.uk
The Centre particularly welcomes PhD proposals in the following areas:
- Visualisation
- Augment Reality
- 3D modelling
- Building Information Modelling
- Integrated Project Delivery
- Virtualisation and cloud computing
- e-Commerce
- Organisational eReadiness
- Collaboration Technology
- Communication Technology
- Simulation and modelling
- Product and Process Modelling
- Organisational learning
- Mobile Computing
- Information management
- Artificial Intelligence
- Intelligent Construction Sites
- Human computer interaction
- Agent Technology
- Virtual Prototyping
- Geographic information systems
- Semantic Interoperability
Projects
3D to nD modelling
The 3D to nD modelling project aims to enable and equip the design and construction industry with a tool that allows users to create, share, contemplate and apply knowledge from multiple perspectives of user requirements.
This research differs from other 4D modelling tools as its objective is to develop infrastructure, methodologies and technologies that will facilitate the integration of time, cost, build-ability, accessibility, sustainability, maintainability, acoustics, lighting and thermal requirements.
The tool will allow construction professionals to perform true what-if analysis at a very early stage of a project, based on the manipulation and impact of changes to the aforementioned parameters, so that informed decisions can be made.
CoSpaces
CoSpaces overall objective is to develop organizational models and distributed technologies supporting innovative collaborative workspaces for individuals and project teams within distributed virtual manufacturing enterprises.
DIVERCITY
DIVERCITY was a 30-month project partly funded by the European Union Information Society Technologies Programme.
The goal of DIVERCITY is to develop a virtual workspace that aims to improve the process in three building construction phases:
- Client Briefing: with detailed interaction between the client and the architect
- Design Review: which requires detailed input from multidisciplinary teams, architects, engineers, facility managers, etc
- Construction: aiming to show how to layout the site and construct the building on that site.
Using a distributed architecture, the DIVERCITY system aims to support and enhance concurrent engineering practices for these three phases therefore allowing teams based in different geographic locations to collaboratively design, test and validate shared virtual projects.
Potential users of the workspace have the ability to produce designs that can be quickly viewed within the 3D environment. DIVERCITY offers users the ability to work with the INDUSTRY FOUNDATION CLASSES to produce designs that can be viewed by any stakeholder within the project team.
Users can visualise the most appropriate position of spaces in a building or on a site in a 3D environment to make time and cost savings when the project reaches the 'real' site.
Users are particularly interested in the best place for positioning tower cranes on the site.
Gallicon
Gallicon is a research project funded by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) of the UK under the Information Technology Construction Best Practice Programme.
It was undertaken by the University of Salford during the period of March 1999 to October 2000 in collaboration with Galliford, Welsh Waters, EC Harris and Stamford Homes.
The aim of Gallicon was to demonstrate the benefits of applying integration technologies to the water and housing sectors of the construction industry.
Two integrated systems have been developed by using the OSCON (Open Systems for Construction) integration technology:
- A distributed environment that improves considerably the conceptual design of waste-water treatment plants and minimises development costs by integrating the process of design, cost estimation and project planning
- A back office application that creates a web site for customer relationship management in housing projects by integrating the process of design, cost estimation and project planning.
Both systems have been tested in collaboration with the aforementioned companies and received very positive response.
Innovative Collaborative Work Environments for Individuals and Teams in Design and Engineering
This project is aimed at developing organisational models and distributed technologies for collaborative workspaces for individuals and project teams within distributed virtual manufacturing enterprises enabling effective partnerships, innovation, improved productivity, and reduced design cycles.
The CoSpaces project addresses three scientific and technological objectives:
- Evaluate collaboration at individual, team and enterprise levels, and develop collaboration models emphasising applications of problem solving, creativity, participatory and knowledge based design in innovative collaborative work environments
- Create an innovative distributed software framework that will support easy creation of collaborative work environments for distributed knowledge workers and teams in collaborative design and engineering tasks
- Validate the distributed software framework for creating different classes of collaborative working styles required for collaborative design and engineering in the Aerospace
The research advances in CoSpaces will push the state-of-the-art of collaborative work environments in several key areas:
- New collaboration models addressing the development and deployment of collaborative technologies that empower workers and teams and having a strong human factors and business focus
- A practical collaborative software framework for supporting dynamic organisations that are executing complex processes in order to produce complex products
- Uncovering and addressing real-world constraints and barriers to bridge the gap between industrial engineers and scientific researchers in collaborative working
- Industry workspaces and interfaces based on deploying virtual interface technologies, leading to more practical and usable interfaces for real-world problems and users.
Organisational e-readiness
Despite the widespread acceptance of the role IT can play in supporting organizational effectiveness there is considerable evidence of information systems failing to deliver competitive advantage.
This project examines an organisation's readiness to change and the core skill sets and capabilities needed to be able to adapt to the new working practices leveraged through IT enabling technology.
SPICE (Structured Process Improvement for Construction Enterprises)
In meeting the challenges of the Latham and Egan reports, the SPICE project aimed to address the issues that:
- The construction industry does not have a recognised methodology/framework on which to base a process improvement initiative
- The absence of guidelines has meant that any improvements are isolated and benefits cannot be co-ordinated or repeated
- The industry is unable to systematically assess construction process, prioritise process improvements, and direct resources appropriately
- It is not possible for companies to benchmark and measure their performance relative to other organisations.
SPICE has developed an evolutionary step-wise process improvement framework. The framework was developed utilising experience from the IT sector, which has adopted a similar approach.
The research drew specifically on the use of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). The model is based on the maturity of an organisation's processes.
Each level comprises a set of key processes that, when satisfied, stabilise an important part of the construction process and lays successive foundations for the next level. The model enables effective and continuous improvement to be achieved based on evolutionary steps.
The project concentrated on the lower levels of the model and tested this aspect of the framework in a series of cased studies on live construction projects.
SPICE FM
The SPICE FM project addressed the challenge that around 90% of organisations that develop a strategy fail to implement it effectively.
For most organisations, translating strategic directions into on-the-ground operational terms and communicating them to employees has proved exceedingly challenging. Creating an on-going strategic focus is a continuous process that requires appropriate tools and techniques.
The project resulted in the development of a step-by-step organisational improvement framework for facilities management providers, including in-house departments and external contractors.
The framework has two core components that can be used individually or together, allowing facilities management organisations to continuously review and improve their business performance:
- The Balanced Scorecard Strategic Management Tool can help FM providers understand their role in meeting the needs of the core business. The Scorecard combines financial measures with operational issues and customer and staff issues. All of these are vital to growth and long-term competitiveness.
- The SPICE FM step-by-step process evaluation tool helps FM providers evaluate and continuously improve their service delivery at an operational level
The components can be used together so that improving service delivery is aligned with the strategic objectives of the core business, thereby enabling the facilities management provider to develop its capabilities while assisting the core business to implement its vision.
The SPICE FM framework has been used by several hospitals and a large retail chain.
