Burcin Becerik-Gerber

Application Areas and Data Requirements for BIM-Enabled Facilities Management

Facilities management (FM) encompasses and requires multidisciplinary activities, and thus has extensive information requirements. While some of these needs are addressed by several existing FM information systems, building information modeling (BIM), which is becoming widely adopted by the construction industry, holds undeveloped possibilities for providing and supporting FM practices with its functionalities of visualization, analysis, control, and so on. This paper explores how BIM can be a beneficial platform for supplementing FM practices. An online survey and face-to-face interviews were conducted to assess the current status of BIM implementations in FM, potential applications, and the level of interest in the utilization of BIM. Interactions between BIM and FM are defined by illustrating application areas and data requirements for BIM-enabled FM practices. Highlighting the synergy between the two, this paper can help professionals recognize potential areas in which BIM can be useful in FM practices.

Understanding Construction Industry Experience and Attitudes toward Integrated Project Delivery

Integrated project delivery (IPD) seeks to improve project outcomes through a collaborative approach of aligning the incentives and goals of the project team through shared risk and reward, early involvement of all parties, and a multiparty agreement. Although there has been a huge interest in IPD in principle, the current adoption status by the construction industry is unknown. Several professional organizations are supporting the advancement of IPD, and several projects have demonstrated its benefits; however, the amount of projects using IPD remains relatively small. This research is based on the results of a web-based survey that was designed to target a wide range of construction professionals in an effort to shed light on current status of IPD use and its future widespread adoption by the construction industry. The paper attempts to provide hard data concerning the knowledge and experience levels of construction professionals regarding IPD as well as their opinions concerning its benefits and problems as a project delivery method.

Performance-based evaluation of RFID-based indoor location sensing solutions for the built environment

Indoor location information is of great value to the building industry in improving the utilization and maintenance of facilities. The paper identifies previous academic accomplishments of radio frequency identification (RFID)-based indoor location sensing (ILS) solutions. The paper summarizes the major location sensing methods used in previous RFID-based solutions, and provides a review of 21 research projects, with their algorithm design, devices, test setup, and performance evaluation presented in detail. Based on this review, the paper summarizes the intensive use of the proximity method in RFID-based ILS, and analyzes the underlying rationale. The findings point out that no single solution satisfies all criteria for widespread implementations, and that the adaptability of these solutions to built environments need to be further justified. Finally, the paper outlines the gaps for future research, including modifying ILS solution design, developing a seamless outdoor/indoor location sensing solution, and building a context-aware information delivery mechanism for the building industry.

Building Information Modeling in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction: Emerging Research Directions and Trends

Currently, the architecture, engineering, and construction industry is facing enormous technological and institutional changes and challenges including the proliferation of information technology and appropriate application of sustainable practices. The 21st century engineer and architect must be able to deal with a rapid pace of technological change, a highly interconnected world, and complex problems that require multidisciplinary solutions. This paper focuses on research directions and trends around building information modeling (BIM) through interdisciplinary endeavors: how BIM research topics could be explored; their relevancy; and their potential future impact. It identifies BIM research topics that are considered to be important to a wide range of practitioners and future practitioners, both architecture and engineering students. It also assesses the relevance of current research projects to the industry and categorizes future BIM research topics. It aims to formulate research ideas and methodologies to pursue them and to explore how an industry/academic partnership for exploring exciting research opportunities could be established.

A systematic approach to occupancy modeling in ambient sensor-rich buildings

With ever-rising energy demand and diminishing sources of inexpensive energy resources, energy conservation has become an increasingly important topic. Building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are considered to be a prime target for energy conservation due to their significant contribution to commercial buildings’ energy consumption in the US. Knowing a building’s occupancy plays a crucial role in implementing demand-response HVAC controls, with a corresponding potential for reduction of HVAC energy consumption, especially in office buildings. This paper evaluates occupancy modeling (both binary detection and multi-class estimation) using twelve ambient sensor variables. Performance of six machine-learning techniques is evaluated in both single-occupancy and multi-occupancy offices. Of the six, the decision-tree technique yielded the best overall accuracy (i.e. 96.0% to 98.2%) and root mean square error (RMSE) (i.e. 0.109 to 0.156). The contribution of each individual ambient sensor variable is evaluated via information gain. It is found that CO2, door status, and light variables have important contributions to the final modeling results. It is observed that the overall accuracy generally increases as the number of sensors increases. This paper also examines the possibility of building a global occupancy model, and explores the reasons for low performance of global occupancy estimation. Lastly, the occupancy model is used to estimate and visualize the accumulative room and thermal zone usage in an office test-bed building for three months. The results reveal that the effective vacancy accounts for a substantial portion of the operational hours, varying from 19.8% to 29.8% with an average of 23.3%, which bears significant potential for energy savings. Furthermore, the authors simulated HVAC energy consumption of the test-bed building for three months in DesignBuilder and EnergyPlus, and compared energy consumption of occupancy-based demand-response HVAC controls using the authors’ occupancy-modeling results to the conventional HVAC controls currently implemented in the test-bed building. The results demonstrate that 20% of gas and 18% of electricity could be effectively saved if occupancy-based demand-response HVAC control is implemented.

BIM-Enabled Virtual and Collaborative Construction Engineering and Management

Todays construction engineering and management (CEM) graduates must have strong communication and teamwork skills; they must have the ability to work efficiently within colocated teams; and finally, they must know how to apply fundamental engineering, man- agement, and computer skills in practice. However, the traditional CEM education does not equip future engineers and managers to deal successfully with such issues. The authors describe experiences from a course that focuses on modes of learning involving virtual collabo- ration, problem-oriented project-based learning, and role-based learning. The aim of this course is to combine experimental and experiential learning into a research driven experience. The course was codesigned and cotaught by two instructors from two universities. The learning outcomes and lessons learned during the introduction of this building information modeling (BIM)-enabled virtual and collaborative con- struction engineering and management course are discussed. Specifically, it is shown that the introduction of BIM in a virtual collaborative setting allows instructors to design a course that incorporates the use of more realistic scenarios that better simulate real-world challenges. Such experiences teach students how construction projects are executed in practice, how different disciplines rely on one other for infor- mation, what type of information is needed from relevant disciplines, and when and how this information could be exchanged/shared between tools and processes. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EI.1943-5541.0000098.

Unsupervised Approach for Autonomous Pavement-Defect Detection and Quantification Using an Inexpensive Depth Sensor

AbstractCurrent pavement condition–assessment procedures are extensively time consuming and laborious; in addition, these approaches pose safety threats to the personnel involved in the process. In this study, a RGB-D sensor is used to detect and quantify defects in pavements. This sensor system consists of a RGB color image, and an infrared projector and a camera that act as a depth sensor. An approach, which does not need any training, is proposed to interpret the data sensed by this inexpensive sensor. This system has the potential to be used for autonomous cost-effective assessment of road-surface conditions. Various road conditions including patching, cracks, and potholes are autonomously detected and, most importantly, quantified, using the proposed approach. Several field experiments have been carried out to evaluate the capabilities, as well as the limitations of the proposed system. The global positioning system information is incorporated with the proposed system to localize the detected defects...

A Research Outlook for Real-Time Project Information Management by Integrating Advanced Field Data Acquisition Systems and Building Information Modeling

The paper aims to investigate the current research gaps in the application of advanced field data acquisition technologies (e.g. 3D Laser Scanning and Radio Frequency Identification) in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. It starts with an overview of past research done in the area and outlines the processes required to implement these tools. It provides a discussion on related challenges and presents a discussion on potential applications of these tools. The paper suggests an outlook for integrating these systems and Building Information Modeling (BIM) for real-time project information management as a response to the industrys low productivity rates.

Towards Optimization of Building Energy and Occupant Comfort Using Multi-Agent Simulation

The primary consumers of building energy are heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting systems, which maintain occupant comfort, and electronics and appliances that enable occupant functionality. The optimization of building energy is therefore a complex problem highly dependent on unique building and environmental conditions as well as on time dependent operational factors. To provide computational support for this optimization, this paper presents and implements a multi-agent comfort and energy simulation (MACES) to model alternative management and control of building systems and occupants. Human and device agents are used to explore current trends in energy consumption and management of a university test bed building. Reactive and predictive control strategies are then imposed on device agents in an attempt to reduce building energy consumption while maintaining occupant comfort. Finally, occupant agents are motivated by simulation feedback to accept more energy conscious scheduling through multi-agent negotiations. Initial results of the MACES demonstrate potential energy savings of 17% while maintaining a high level of occupant comfort. This work is intended to demonstrate a simulation tool, which is implementable in the actual test bed site and compatible with real-world input to instigate and motivate more energy conscious control and occupant behaviors.

Continuous Sensing of Occupant Perception of Indoor Ambient Factors

Ambient factors such as temperature, lighting, and air quality influence occupants’ productivity and behavior. Although these factors are regulated by industry standards and monitored by the facilities management groups, occupants’ perceptions vary from actual values due to various factors such as building schedules and occupancy, occupant activity and preferences, weather and climate, and the placement of sensors. While occupant comfort surveys are sometimes conducted, they are generally limited to one-time or periodic assessments that do not fully represent occupant experiences throughout building operations. This study proposes a new methodology for gathering real time data on a continuous basis through participatory sensing of occupant ambient comfort in indoor environments based on a smart phone application. The developed application is presented and validated by a pilot study in a university building. Occupant perceptions of temperature are compared to actual temperature records. No correlation is found between perceived and actual room temperatures demonstrating the potential of a participatory sensing tool for adaptively controlling building temperature ranges.