How often do you wish you had a 3D model of your home that could connect to furniture stores and builders for your next home improvement projects? Why hasn’t the customer experience changed that much in the built environment and yet so many of our experiences in other transactions have become more convenient with digital tools and apps? Today's episode is all about the customer experience and customer journey in the built environment. I had the great pleasure of speaking to Harri Majala,...

Do we need #blockchain in #construction? "No," says Daniel Hall. Not at least for automation of tasks. Erika sat down to speak to Daniel Hall - Assistant Professor of Innovative and Industrial Construction at the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geomatic Engineering of ETH Zürich. The overarching theme of his research is to enhance governance, productivity, and innovation in construction projects through a transformation from fragmented project delivery methods to new...

By now you will have heard many episodes from BeyondBIM that talk about digital twins, but what about digital threads? In this episode, Dr. Don Kinard from Lockheed Martin explains to us what the digital thread is and how it is used by Lockheed Martin. We also discuss what it means to smaller organisations wishing to embark upon the digital twin thread journey. If you don’t know who Don is he is a Senior Fellow for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Production Operations and has been with LM for...

Many organizations are contemplating on digital twin journey perhaps wondering what the transition looks like from #BIM to #DigitalTwins. Very few know what resources and tools are available to begin designing digital twins to help close the loop of occupant feedback into building designs. We’ve all come across Autodesk Forge - but what about Dasher? Dasher has evolved and is creating that steppingstone towards a digital twins transition in Autodesk. In today’s episode, I am pleased to...

How often do we hear about the problem of interoperability discussed ad nauseam? And how often do we feel as though a discussion on the solution is missing, we’ve all heard about IFC’s and Semantic Web. But what about connection profiles? In today’s episode, we are pleased to bring to you a discussion with Anto Budiardjo on the potential solution to the interoperability conundrum and keeping the digital threads and fabrics of the digital twin in constant connection and integration. Anto...

Today’s episode is a discussion about the evolution of BIM and the transition towards digital twins. Erika Pärn had the pleasure of speaking to none other than David Philp. Listeners in the UK will have come across David as a prominent lead figure in the UK BIM mandate. David was seconded in the UK Cabinet Office in 2011 as Head of BIM Implementation and has been a key contributor to the UK public sector BIM mandate and continues to support through his role as Impact Director at the...

Macro BIM and Beyond by Dr Erika Pärn

Today’s episode is a deeper look into Construction 4.0 from an academics perspective. Erika Pärn wanted to dig deeper and find out if Construction 4.0 is just another consultant catchphrase or is there more to this transition. Erika had the pleasure of speaking to Professor Paul Chan he joined her to share his thoughts on the debates around construction 4.0 and making sense of the changing markets in construction. If you don’t know who Paul is, Paul Chan is a Professor of Design and...

Today you have the pleasure of hearing from all of the authors of a recently published book, entitled: Four Futures, One Choice. Four Futures One Choice is an e-book, written in laymens terms by researchers from the Centre for Digital Built Britain in Cambridge. This book presents four future scenarios for what the construction sector of 2040 could look like, depending on the choices we make today. It provides a future lens enabling us to view, with clarity and detail, four scenarios of what...

Today’s episode is another look into the state of BIM in 2021 and beyond, from an academics perspective. Erika had the pleasure of getting Professor David Greenwood to join her and share his thoughts and projections on the ever-changing landscape of construction management. David Greenwood is Professor of Construction Management in the Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University in the UK. David is a prominent academic and has authored over 150 publications, authored and...

Today’s episode is a look into the future state of BIM in 2021 and beyond, this is a practitioner’s perspective. I had the pleasure of getting Vicki Reynolds to join me and share her thoughts and projections on the ever-changing landscape of the built environment. Vicki is the chief technology officer for i3PT and a UK BIM Alliance Ambassador. She is perhaps best known for her work as an active member of the digital construction community both locally and globally, sitting as global...

In today’s episode, we discuss the state of digitalisation in the built environment and the inevitable transition from BIM to digital twins. A topic we have covered numerous times on this podcast, but today's guest is a widely recognized academic and entrepreneur. I will be speaking with Dr. Issa Ramaji assistant professor at Roger William University and co-founder of Data Arrows. Issa is well-known in the built environment scientific community and is an associate editor of ASCE Journal of...

We're sure many of you when you think about Beyond BIM and the technologies that really push technicians in their day to day jobs, it will inevitably fall upon design automation. Automation with BIM has become increasingly more accessible due to visual programming tools such as Dynamo and Grasshopper. In today's episode, Erika Pärn had the pleasure of speaking with Marcello Sgambelluri on the state of computational design and automation with BIM. Marcello has worked on many BIM projects...

You have probably started 2021 thinking about your career and goals or ambitions for the upcoming year. Today's interview will hopefully give you much-needed inspiration and kick you back into action on making your career path your own. I sat down to speak with Elinor Moshe. Elinor is both ambitious and driven. She is a thought leader in the construction industry. Her passion to guide, inspire and direct future leaders and industry professionals led her to the founding of Construction...

In today's episode, we explore digital twins in more depth. I spoke with a fellow University of Cambridge alumni Dr. Eva Agapaki. Eva is currently working at PTC as innovation lead and senior software developer. There she applies cutting-edge computer vision and deep learning algorithms in engineering applications, most notably in the field of digital twinning. We discuss her most recent innovative research on a system called CLOI-NET and what is needed for making digital twinning of...

When we think of robotics today, there is only one company that almost everyone can agree will come to mind, Boston Dynamics. Whether it was their clever SPOT robot seen on construction sites or their entertaining Christmas dance performed by robots - Boston Dynamics has remained at the forefront of everyone's newsfeeds, entertaining us at times and frightening us at the sheer speed at which robotics has come. To find out more about the future trajectory of robotics in construction, we...

The construction field is being introduced to an increasing number of digital platform solutions. In today's episode, we speak to Andres Kuuse, founder of Fizure, a platform that supports Job costing tools for Real Estate developers & General contractors & Engineering companies. However, this is not his first venture-Andres previously has co-founded a company called DeltaBid, now called SkySelect, which was a marketplace for large aviation companies to source planes repair parts. In...

The digitalisation of the entire building #lifecycle has been talked about for quite some time. But if to reach its vision, it requires transformative services and experiences. In today's episode, we delve into the Digital Building Lifecycle framework introduced to us by Salla Eckhardt. Salla Eckhardt is the Director of Transformation Services at Microsoft. Salla identifies herself as an innovation leader, and an industry change agent specialized in the digital transformation of the digital...

Today’s interview we delve deeper into systems thinking and flourishing systems in the infrastructure domain. I sat down with my fellow colleague Dr Jennifer Schooling who is the Director of the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC), at the University of Cambridge. She is also an important lead academic at the centre for digital Built Britain where we both contribute our research towards national digital twin program. Jennifer is passionate about changing the way...

Today’s interview we delve deeper into knowledge ecosystems and competencies in the wider built environment context. Making sense of noise amidst the technology frenzies is increasingly complex and so is keeping up competencies and skills of workers. Today I sat down with Debbie Carlton, Director of Dynamic Knowledge, to discuss the state of competency development. Debbie is a specialist focused on working with organisations who want intelligent and sustainable solutions to solving...

Today’s interview Erika Pärn sat down with Dr. Ivanka Iordanova, an accredited architect and Professor Construction Engineering Department of École de Technologie Supérieure in Montreal Canada. She is an experienced academic contributing to research related to digital media and building performance, to BIM and know-how modeling. Her research program focusses on construction industrialisation and automation, based on the digital transformation of the industry. If that wasn’t enough to keep her...

In today’s episode we dive deeper into the topic of psychology and technology. I’m really excited to bring this interview with a fellow researcher whom I have had the pleasure to collaborate with. We looked into the future of work and how to incorporate machine vision with the working from home set up to measure psychological impact of the home work environment. But a beacon of insight was always present on the psychological impact of such technology on workers. What do people intuitively...

Over the last decade, as huge advances have been made in digitalisation, productivity growth has slowed in all the major economies. Known as the productivity paradox. Research suggests, a lack of business model innovation is the main culprit, and Dr. Chander Velu is one such academic looking to uncover the connection.In todays episode I speak with Chander Velu a Senior Lecturer in the Cambridge University Engineering Department and a Fellow at Selwyn College, Cambridge. Chander has an...

Todays episode we discuss how competitors and rivals can cooperate to in an ecosystem and how competition has moved from firm to firm into ecosystem vs. ecosystem. I sat down to discuss the ecosystems (of both knowledge and business) in AEC industries with Dr.Gulnaz Aksenova. Gulnaz a lecturer in Building Information Modelling and Management at the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management enlightens us on how these concepts are shaping competitive landscape in construction. She...