Sanjay Gangal, CEO and president of AECCafe, recently interviewed Jason Hallett, CEO of Digital Construction Works (DCW).
Founded in 2019, DCW is a separate services company offering digital automation, integration and digital twinning services and fit-for-purpose solutions. The aim is to simplify digital transformation for the construction industry. DCW solutions span every phase of the project – from planning to construction and operations through to asset management – creating a digital thread that connects technologies and workflows. Because DCW is a completely new separate company, it can be agnostic to technology and process improvement. This way, technology follows the operational process change but doesn’t lead it.
Sanjay: Thank you so much for joining us, Jason. Tell us a little bit about Digital Construction Works?
Jason: DCW was founded in 2019 as a joint venture between Topcon group and Bentley Systems. Our staff is comprised of construction industry subject matter experts and application developers. We’re focused on trying to really integrate the technologies that are out there used on construction projects and make the flow of information more seamless while executing construction.
Nathan Patton, Product Manager, Trimble spoke with AECCafe Voice about the FieldLink MR, a new mixed reality solution for construction layout that runs on the Trimble XR10 with HoloLens 2.
Trimble Introduces Mixed Reality for Construction Layout with FieldLink MR
Predictions for the coming year are shaped by history and the current moment, and where we see the future unfolding. Both Adam Klatzin, vice president, Business Development for the iTwin Platform at Bentley Systems and Allison Scott, director of Construction Thought Leadership, Autodesk Construction Solutions, write about what realities have shaped catalysts for current and future development.
At the heart of content creation are the machines that we run programs on.
On the cutting edge as usual, NVIDIA presented at CES a couple of weeks ago in Las Vegas, bringing with them a plethora of new developments. Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of NVIDIA’s GeForce business, announced more than 160 thin-and-light laptops using RTX 30 Series GPUs in a smorgasbord of mobile designs.
Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of NVIDIA’s GeForce business
Much of 2021’s important news had to do with response to climate change, coupled with the Covid-19 response for businesses. Technologies have been in place for many years to respond, but the time is now, and actually the time is yesterday, to respond to these critical social and environmental issues. Digital twin technology and artificial intelligence are front and center in addressing these challenges. Reducing the world’s carbon footprint is a major priority for most organizations and technologies are being lined up to address this priority.
This year’s online Bentley Year In Infrastructure Conference has a somewhat different format, with the emphasis being on the awards distributed from the get-go, rather than at the end of the event. Replicating the experience of finalists’ presentations and speaking to the finalists in person were part of a tradition at YII. Not to mention an awards dinner that we all used to look forward to in person pre-pandemic, in such exotic locations as Singapore, London or Amsterdam.
CEO Jensen Huang presented the keynote at the recent GTC21 NVIDIA Conference, November 8-11, sharing with the audience the importance of accelerated computing and much more. The announcements were so prolific and not all pertinent to the AEC industry, thus I will share those that would be of most interest to our audience. One of the most profound announcements came at the end of the talk, wherein Huang announced that they are building a digital twin of the earth.
Andrew Anagnost, President and CEO of Autodesk gave the keynote at the general session of the second Autodesk University 2021 Virtual in October. He spoke of how customers and employees had to experience a decade of change in 18 months that some were not ready for. “Even before social distancing and remote – platforms were connecting consumers and producers, and mobile devices were bringing everyone together,” said Anagnost. “Sometimes it’s felt like technology has kept us apart. We saw human ingenuity at a greater pace and scale. We face uncertainty. You make things that make tomorrow a better place. Everyone here are innovators and solve big and small problems, and technology is a force multiplier of your ingenuity.
“What are digital twins and specifically urban twins?” This was the question is posed at the beginning of the webinar by Michael Jansen, founder and CEO of CityZenith in a recent webinar hosted by CityZenith and ABI Research. They are virtual replicas of buildings, infrastructure and physical assets, fully interconnected with the data in and around them. Digital twins can provide actionable insight for optimization in design, engineering, construction and operations through simulation and prediction of future outcomes.
Deltek announced recently its acquisition of ArchiSnapper – a SaaS and mobile application designed to help architects and engineers automate field reports, easily create digital site inspection and improve collaboration.