AECCafe Voice 
Susan Smith
Susan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More » AECCafe Voice Industry Predictions 2021 – Part IIIFebruary 11th, 2021 by Susan Smith
An interesting by-product of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the reworking of technologies to fulfill requirements presented by the need to work remotely, as well as address the way we will work on face-to-face projects that are essential to the AEC industry. The need to visualize large amounts of data will propel the expansion from data acquisition to data analytics and business and operational insights. Office spaces of the future may be repurposed for additive manufacturing as the maker community takes off with more entry-level machines, making it more accessible to more people. Drones are becoming smarter, and more field personnel are able to make use of them.
David Brian Ward, founder and CEO of Safe Site Check In, Technology Evangelist at GSC, Jeff Setzer; and Yariv Geller, CEO and co-founder of vHive bring their insights and industry predictions to us from their vast trove of industry knowledge.  David Ward, founder and CEO of Safe Site Check In Safe Site Check In Digital workplace safety technologies introduced during the pandemic will evolve and become part of business as usual, even after vast amounts of the population are vaccinated. This is especially true for the AEC community, where projects and job sites rely on face-to-face interactions with multiple people. For example, the rise in digital check-in apps on smartphones originated as a way to run private health screenings and contact tracing on construction job sites. Realizing the time and cost savings of eliminating paper-based check ins and providing a way to more efficiently manage the number of workers, subcontractors, and visitors on a job site or in an office, AEC businesses are seeing longer-term benefits from this category of apps. This explains why the apps have evolved to accommodate state and local guidelines, and businesses are customizing them to address specific office needs. That customization includes multiple language support and employee and visitor notifications. With check-in data, administrators can quickly pull up reports to prove the business is abiding by union or OSHA requirements. They can also reconcile hours worked with invoices and contracts, and have better insight on project profitability, especially with respect to subcontractor management. From a job site or office management perspective, workplace safety apps allow employers to also increase security through a more formal and verified sign in process that goes beyond visitor sign in logs. A digital check in that includes a health screening is important not just for COVID-19, but any virus, including influenza. While much of design, architecture and engineering work can be done virtually, progress updates, changes, walk-throughs, and inspections require being onsite. As construction projects continue to move forward and architects and engineers return to the office, they’ll rely more on digital check-in apps. David Brian Ward is the founder and & CEO of Safe Site Check In. David’s nearly four decades of experience has centered around the business of technology management for organizations ranging in size from Fortune 500 companies to startups in their infancy stages.  Jeff Setzer, Technology Evangelist, GSC GSC Everyone knows what kind of a year 2020 was, which humbles people like myself when asked to make industry predictions for the upcoming year. Even so, we’ve been through enough “forced change” early on, and “new norms” have started to take shape, that I feel there are a few things I can predict for 2021. Working From Home Will Stick Before the pandemic, many companies were already starting to employ people from their homes; 2020 accelerated that evolution out of necessity. Companies that originally resisted WFH — but were forced to adopt it — found there were many benefits, and are already implementing WFH in their long-term plans. For our industry, that means distributed data access becomes more important, but we are seeing that offline capabilities are also still needed — especially for those workers in remote areas without highly-reliable and speedy Internet access. For those with good Internet access, or occasional access, the ability to do real-time collaboration is a powerful draw that will push the adoption of CAD-friendly tools in that space. All of this will change the nature of human resources and employment opportunities, and physical location will become less important when hiring white collar team members. Additive Manufacturing Will Accelerate The benefits of additive manufacturing are now largely self-evident in the traditional manufacturing enterprise, but with the geographic distribution of the engineering and design workforce, additive manufacturing will reach into more spaces. Prototyping at home will bring entry-level machines to individual designers. Corporate “maker space” geographic hubs may spring up, using repurposed or downsized office spaces. Partnership Becomes More Important As technology and features converge across software brands, and we move from disparate applications to integrated platforms, support and service will be the driver of successful technology adoption. Companies will place greater emphasis on the competence and availability of their vendors, making the competition among technology providers less about software and more about service quality. No matter what comes to pass in 2021, I think we can all agree that it simply must be a better year than the last, and new opportunities will likely present themselves that we have not seen before. As Technology Evangelist at GSC, Jeff Setzer loves showing customers new ways to use software and complementary tools to make their jobs easier. He has been working with SOLIDWORKS since its first release in 1995 and he has been with GSC from the very beginning. Jeff has a wide variety of SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE certifications, and has been speaking at SOLIDWORKS/3DEXPERIENCE World since the first such event in 1999.  Yariv Geller, CEO and co-founder, vHive VHive 2020 has been an unprecedented year for many reasons, as parts of the world came to a standstill, essential industries like telecom and construction were required to continue operating their critical infrastructure without interruption. We have seen drone technology quickly embraced as the ultimate tool to provide efficiency, insights and worker safety. The acceleration of the drone industry in 2020 is absolutely a trend that will continue in 2021 and beyond. As we might see the end to COVID thanks to vaccines, the value realized by critical infrastructure companies operating drones during the pandemic paves the way for further drone adoption and scale. Some of our top insights for the year to come: Expansion from Data Acquisition to Data Analytics: AI and computer vision solutions are making drones smarter, resulting in improved data acquisition that can be gathered by non-expert users. Contextual awareness and dynamic mission control, enable capturing rich and precise field information, with little to no required input from users. Field personnel can effortlessly join the digital workforce through drone autonomy, with minimal training. Less time in the field will mean higher capacity to complete tasks, at a lower cost. Data Integration and Consolidation: We will see enterprises connecting between various information systems to generate a holistic view of their assets. There are significant synergies that can be achieved by sharing and consolidating data across systems will enable the generation of even more powerful insights by integrating actual data from the field with systems that otherwise require manual updates. In summary, as the rapid industry adoption of drones continues in 2021, we will see an ecosystem surge ahead to innovate and meet the rush of various enterprise needs. Building upon the success of 2020, we will experience a new wave of collaboration that will result in diverse offerings, improved workflows, and more integrated solutions than ever before. Yariv Geller, CEO and co-founder of vHive brings years of expertise in developing markets for innovative products, technology strategy and execution. Geller was previously CMO of Comverse (NASDAQ: CNSI), a large IT corporation for the telecom industry . Before that, Geller managed marketing and business development of Polychromix (acquired by Thermo-Fischer Scientific), a technology startup in the domain of advanced material sensing. Before that, he was a Team-Leader at POC Consulting, managing strategy, marketing and business development for tech startups and corporations. Geller holds degrees in Physics and Business Administration from Tel-Aviv University (TAU) and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Tags: 2030 Districts, 3D, 3D printing, AEC, architects, architecture, BIM, building, building design, building information modeling, CAD, collaboration, construction, covid-19, design, e-Builder, engineering, engineers, facilities management, generative design, infrastructure, laser scanning, point clouds, visualization Categories: 3D PDF, 3D printing, AEC, AEC training, AECCafe, apps, architecture, BIM, Civil 3D, civil information modeling, collaboration, construction, construction project management, convergence, drones, engineering, field, field solutions, file sharing, IES, IFC, infrastructure, integrated project delivery, interactive display, Internet of Things, IoT, lidar, mixed reality, mobile, mobile printing, openBIM, plant design, point clouds, project management, reality capture, simulation, site planning, subscription programs, sustainable design, video, virtual reality, visualization, wearable devices |
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