March Community Day

Last week COMT held its Spring Community Day in London. It was hosted by COMIT member Computerlinks and 58 people attended, which is a COMIT record.

COMIT community days usually get between 35 and 50 delegates, with 57 being the previous record (Winter 2012, hosted by Bentley in London). COMIT holds community days at various locations around the country to engage as many people as possible, but it is true to say that events in London tend to have a higher turnout.

Computerlinks provided a great venue in Cannon Street. There was a perfect view of the construction site across the road which was quite appropriate for a construction event.

Among the 58 attendees we had guests from 10 non-member technology and construction organisations and we also formally welcomed five new companies into membership. As usual we had a great mix of presentations and plenty of networking opportunities.

In the morning Carl Siddons from Network Rail gave a presentation about Immersive Virtual Reality, followed by one about  RFID and tracking technologies by Marvin Johnson of Bechtel.

After a short coffee break the focus turned to mobile Health & Safety with a presentation from Harrison O'Hara about the potential risks of mobile devices on site and their mitigation. Harrison is a graduate engineer from Costain and is currently working with COMIT as part of his Engineering Doctorate at Loughborough University.

Harrison was followed by COMIT's Stuart Young who announced the formation of a COMIT Mobile IT Health & Safety Working Group. This group will be developing safety protocols for the use of mobile devices on site in cooperation with organisations such as the Health and Safety Executive. Stuart demonstrated a proof-of-concept hi-visibility waistcoat with a pocket for a tablet computer.

Still on the theme of health and safety, there was a guest presentation from Damian Lynes and Roy Brown from OnSite Support. This covered various methods of tethering tools to mitigate some of the risks posed by working at height. This was followed by a mobile health and safety workshop, the results of which will be compiled by COMIT as part of the H&S working group.

After lunch and more networking Jason Philips and Alex Brandon from our host Computerlinks, provided an over-view of their services and some of the technical challenges to be faced in enabling the wide adoption of mobile devices in construction. This was followed by a presentation by Harry Parnell and Simon McGowen from Balfour Beatty about the use of BIM and Mobile Site Forms on the M25.

For more information about the March community day, including 3D printing with silkworms, look out for our 2014 Spring Newsletter which will be available on our website in the next few weeks.

You can now read the full COMIT Spring Newsletter here

CIC BIM Protocol - have you used it?

The CIC BIM Protocol was introduced in February last year (2013). It is a supplementary agreement that can be incorporated into UK construction contracts to provide a legal framework around the use of BIM. In particular it helps clarify certain obligations and liabilities that have previously been cited as problematic when using BIM on some projects.  The Protocol has been drafted for use on all common construction contracts and supports BIM working at Level 2.

COMIT are interested to know if you have had experience in using the CIC BIM Protocol and in particular if it was successful in allaying legal concerns around the adoption of BIM. This interest has been prompted by research being carried out by a student at Oxford Brookes University, which seems to indicate very patchy adoption of the protocol.

You can submit your own experience of the CIC BIM Protocol by completing this ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE. It should take no more than 15 minutes to complete and your input would be greatly appreciated. COMIT will liaise with Oxford Brookes to publicize the results.  

Guest Lecture at Oxford Brookes University

Last night COMIT gave its annual guest lecture on Mobile Computing at Oxford Brookes University. The event was arranged by Dr. Henry Abanda, lecturer in Construction Infomatics in the Department of Real Estate and Construction. It was targeted at second year students enrolled on the undergraduate Construction Project Management Degree.

The lecture was delivered by Jason Scott, who has taken over this role from Neill Pawsey for the last couple of years. Neill delivered the lecture for a number of years but is no longer able to due to work commitments at Crossrail.

"As usual it's a pleasure talking to students at Oxford Brookes. They are a bright, engaging bunch and that makes it a fun evening. It's nice to be able to put some of the recent developments into context for them and dispel some myths" - Jason Scott 

Engaging the next generation of construction managers is an important part of what COMIT does, but it is not just a one-way street.

"They ask some really good questions! Not having any preconceptions can certainly help them see to the heart of an issue and that helps inform my own thinking." - Jason Scott

Oxford Brookes University is a COMIT partner and has previously hosted community days. It is particularly strong in the area of technology and construction and has been offering courses in real estate and construction for more than 40 years. The COMIT lectures are always well received by the students.

"I actually learnt a lot about the construction industry...what COMIT does to help link construction companies to the IT industry is a really beneficial and innovative idea because the two work so well together... a really useful and informative presentation, so thank you very much" - Jessica Dowdy, Second Year Student Rep

Infomobility Conference - London

Conference room at Institute of Physics

On the 7th of November 2013 we held the annual COMIT Mobile IT conference. The theme was Information Mobility and the venue was the Institute of Physics in London. About 100 people booked and over 90 turned up on the day for a packed agenda.

If you attended the event, please let us know what you think by submitting your feedback on our website.

Duncan Evans (Crossrail)

The event was chaired by Duncan Evans of Crossrail and the keynote presentation was by Phil Jackson from the ICE. Phil made the point that it is information that needs to be mobile, not hardware, which means considering more than just the devices from which it is being accessed.

There were presentations from Timico, Costain, CrossRail, The BIM Task Group, MobiBiz, COMIT, Appear and futurist Francis Rabuck. If there was any single thread that tied all the presentations together, it was that mobile IT is increasingly fundamental to the application of initiatives within the construction industry.





Neill Pawsey, who some may remember used to be COMIT's Programme Manager, is now Senior Project Information Subject Matter Expert at Crossrail. With the help of Tom O'Keefe from Crossrail, Neill described the experience of deploying mobile IT on such a large project. He also gave some very conservative examples of the measurable benefits and how they could be used to justify the hardware costs.

Richard Lane (the BIM Task Group)

Thoughts were never far away from BIM, as might be expected during the current UK Government push and Richard Lane from the BIM Task Group gave an over-view of the reasons why.

BIM was also the focus for Harrison O'Hara from Costain, who is currently studying for an Engineering Doctorate at Loughborough University. Harrison is looking at the mobilization of BIM and COMIT is one of his industrial sponsors.

Stuart Young (Comit)

Cloud computing was also raised a number of times in different contexts, including the presentation by Martin Wilson from Appear on the MobiCloud project, of which COMIT is a partner.

The other EU supported project that COMIT is currently part of is Enable My Team, which is also a cloud-based solution. An update on progress was presented by Sandeep Jain from Mobibiz and COMIT's own Stuart Young.

Sharika Fernando (Coins)

Cloud computing is likely to play an increasingly important role in construction - particularly with the need for collaboration on large project data sets as required by BIM.

One memorable moment in the afternoon was when Sharika left the auditorium with the radio mic and treated the audience to her opinion of some slides that Jason was preparing in the foyer. Luckily she was quickly intercepted by Iain before she took it anywhere else...




Overall there was a great atmosphere at the event, with a lot of networking going on and plenty of impromtu debate. Tweets from the event were captured on Storify by Paul Wilkinson, who was one of the media partners. The Institute of Physics is a brilliant venue, with lots of room, helpful staff and good food.

First class biscuits!

Lunch

A big thank you must go to the presenters and sponsors who made the event possible and to all those behind the scenes who put in the hours needed to make it happen - especially Gerry! We are all looking forward to next years conference which is already in the planning.

Finally, not everyone at the conference was equally photogenic, despite the best efforts of Simon Kalp from Objective who took all the photos. You may find a few amusing ones in the following slideshow - apologies to those concerned!

COMIT visit London Bridge with MobiCloud

Left to right: Gerry, Jason, Iain & Stuart

Last month COMIT visited Costain's London Bridge site as part of the MobiCloud project meeting that was held in London and hosted by Costain. The site is a very interesting one to visit, set as it is in the heart of London and posing a number of engineering challenges.

This £400m project is part of the £6bn Thameslink Programme and aims to increase the capacity of the station. It includes the development of a new street-level  concourse and new entrances on Tooley Street and St Thomas Street. There will also be a pedestrian walkway through Stainer Street to connect the north and south ends of the station.

Throughout the 5 year project the station will remain fully operational, which poses significant logistical and planning issues for the redevelopment. The original London Bridge station was opened in 1836 and is among the oldest railway stations in the world. However, the old is definitely meeting the new. Costain are deploying some very modern technology to help meet the challenges including extensive use of  Building Information Modelling (BIM).

Site Diary App running on an Apple iPad

Costain are also using a Site Diary App, which has been developed as part of the MobiCloud project. This uses cloud-based technology to allow site engineers to readily capture events on site using a mobile device such as an iPad. It automatically records local weather information as well as GPS location. It aims to be a replacement for the traditional paper-based site diary records.

MobiCloud Project - free trial of Site Diary App

As you probably know COMIT are one of the partners in MobiCloud, which is an EU supported project that aims to develop a European Corporate Appstore and the technology to develop cross-platform, context-aware applications.

One of the other MobiCloud partners and a member of COMIT is Costain. Appear and Costain have worked together to develop a Site Diary app that is currently undergoing trials on a number of Costain sites.

The App is intended to replace the current paper-based recording of Engineer's site diaries. It overcomes a number of the problems that arise from manual records, including the automatic recording of GPS location and weather information as well as providing an electronic audit trail.

Costain hope that the App will improve the detail and quality of site diary entries, while at the same time reducing the time taken to record them and the overhead of managing the process - particularly that of associating supporting material, such as photographs, with recorded events.

For a limited time the Site Diary app is available on a trial basis for free to other interested parties. If you would like to see what Costain have come up with and try out the Site Diary app for yourself, then you can sign up via the MobiCloud website.

MobiCloud Project Meeting in London

Last week COMIT attended the MobiCloud meeting in London. Our own Technology Chairman Iain Miskimmin helped with the organisation (and moved a lot of chairs and some particularly heavy desks). Bentley kindly allowed the use of their offices in Gracechurch Street for the two-day event.

The view of London from Bentley's offices (which are on the 9th floor of the building) is fantastic.

View from Bentley's offices in Gracechurch Street

Of course, being construction focused we had to try and count the number of construction sites that we could see from the windows. Not an easy task but the general consensus is that there were about 40. Hopefully that bodes well for the UK economy!

COMIT member Costain, who are a partner in the MobiCloud project, were the main host and event organiser. Despite a slight hiccup due to an unplanned fire alarm (false alarm luckily) on the Thursday morning, the meeting went very well. On the Thursday afternoon Costain arranged for a tour of their site at London Bridge which was fascinating and on the Friday morning there was a Breakfast Seminar for those new to the MobiCloud project.

The meeting included an update of progress on the MobiCloud trial projects and a demonstration of Costain's Site Diary App which is currently being tested on site. For more information about these please see the MobiCloud project blog.

Waterloo station from the London Eye

Of course it was not all work. Costain arranged for the visiting MobiCloud partners who come from Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands to see some of the London sights, including an evening meal and a trip to the London Eye. Of course, the view from there was even better than the one from Bentley's offices. From the London Eye at night, even Waterloo station looks cool!

A few night-owls even made it out for a drink on the evening before the meeting. One or two of us utilised mobile technology in getting there - and learned the hard way that when it comes to addresses and a city with London's rich history, omitting words like "new" or "old" in a street name can lead to a very long walk indeed.

Stuart, Mark, Martin, Katy, Vladimir & Patrick