Communication, Technology and Organizational Practices (CTOP) Lab
The CTOP Lab studies how teams of people work together with technology. We use engineering management and social science concepts to understand the dynamics of industry adoption and use of new technologies. We have developed critical analyses of how people envision technologies, how practitioners must reconfigure their practices, and how broader industry norms shift in response to these pressures to change. The portfolio of technologies includes Building Information Management (BIM), Energy Modeling, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Smart (Intelligent) Buildings, the Internet of Things, and Digital Twins.
Workplace Questions that Matter
The CTOP Lab pursues answers to organizational and work process questions that matter to the architects, engineers, contractors, and owners (AECO):
- How can AECO teams collaborate in more efficient and innovative ways?
- How can firms efficiently and effectively integrate new technologies into the workplace?
- How can AEC teams make information meaningful to decision-makers?
- What does the future hold for collaborative technology in the building industry?
Impacting How the Industry Works
Recently, the CTOP lab has:
- Defined the New Work related to IoT and Digital Twins
- Developed strategies and practices for Cybersecurity in the Built Environment
- Developed the Building Owners Assessment Tool for decision-making
- Supported the National BIM Standard-V4 in general and the Project BIM Requirements Standard Module specifically.
- Skanska Building USA, Inc.
- Turner Construction
- Sound Transit
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- General Services Administration (GSA)
New Work
2024 CM 515 Class Book: Construction Innovation
Students
CTOP Posts:
The New Work of Building Operations in the Digital Age
The UW Campus Sustainability Fund supported investigation into the New Work of Building Operations in the Digital Age. Students interviewed staff from across campus facilities to understand the impact of the Internet of Things technologies on facilities management and operations. These reports summarize both the organizational and technical impacts these new technologies have on work….
BIM Cybersecurity: Vulnerabilities and Mitigating Risk
Memo Created for Port of Seattle Executive Summary The increased sophistication of networked Building Automation Systems (BAS), integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices into new construction and legacy buildings, and the creation and maintenance of Building Information Model (BIM) data and information located within a common data environment (CDE), heightens security risk and provides…
CM Faculty Research Updates
Ahmed Aziz published and presented “The USA PPP Payment Mechanisms – the Path Toward Comprehensive Systems” at the Construction Research Congress in New Orleans, Louisiana. Bill Bender published “A Model for Collecting Replacement Cycles of Building Components: A Hybrid Approach of Indirect and Direct Estimations” in ASCE’s Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering. Carrie Dossick…
Innovation Through Practice
The Messy Work of Making Technology Useful for Architecture, Engineering and Construction Firms and Teams WATCH PRESENTATION VIDEO Through the study of visualizations, virtual worlds, and information exchange, our research reveals the complex connections between technology and the work of design and construction. Our studies focused on architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) teams as they…
Integrated Project Delivery: An Action Guide for Leaders
On June 5th, IPDA, CIDCI, and the Charles Pankow Foundation released: Integrated Project Delivery: An Action Guide for Leaders. This guide offers practical information for project leaders concerning the commencement and execution of IPD projects and represents IPD as it is currently practiced throughout the industry in Canada and the United States. This guide itself is the…
Rebaselining Asset Data for Existing Facilities and Infrastructure
DOWNLOAD REPORT In this report, we introduce rebaselining as a workflow for collecting and verifying data for existing assets based on evolving or emerging data needs or changes in the status of assets. We conducted two action research projects in two public owner organizations in the U.S. to explore the rebaselining tasks that owners need…
What is BIM & Why Should Construction Lawyers Care about It?
DOWNLOAD POWERPOINT This PowerPoint presentation was created for the WSBA Construction Law Section–Annual Dinner and CLE. Learning objectives include: BIM definition BIM history Common current uses BIM Execution Planning Contracts and Data Requirement Specifications Hands on Demonstrations
MBEst A Technical Report on Standardization of Model-Based Estimating
DOWNLOAD REPORT Project cost estimating is an important part of construction project management. Traditionally, estimators use project drawings and specifications to create quantity takeoffs (QTO) and subsequently calculate sub/total costs based on their judgments and historical cost information. During the past decade, BIM practitioners in academia and industry have aimed to leverage BIM capabilities for…
The Future is Here: Virtual Reality as a Training Tool for Building Operators
DOWNLOAD REPORT This report features an applied research consortia project that analyzed the potential value of VR for operations staff training. To accomplish this task, the project team developed a Virtual Environment (VE) for the West Campus Utility Plant on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus. We used this VE to compare conventional switchgear training with…
Record Modeling Industry Practices
DOWNLOAD REPORT This technical report presents a review of current Record Modeling practices in the building sector of the construction industry. Our Center for Education and Research in Construction (CERC) research team collected and reviewed Record Modeling specifications from large public and private institutional owners from across the U.S. These specification documents consisted of published…
Learning to Create a Better Built Environment: Chapter 8
VIEW BOOK The Global Collaboration initiatives related in this book are examples of how educators have experimented with different mechanisms to provide science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education programmes through information and communication technologies. In many cases, these programmes have looked at the allied personal communication and collaboration skills that students of these subjects…
Design and Construction Innovation Through Collaboration, Lean Construction and Building Information Modeling
DOWNLOAD PAPER The construction industry has long tried to improve the efficiency of its outcomes and maximize the value to owners by improving the team integration and applying manufacturing-oriented production philosophies. We studied a successful example of the recent approach to project delivery in the industry and interviewed key project participants to understand their working…
Building Strong Teams: A Guide to Effective AEC Communication and Collaboration with BIM
DOWNLOAD REPORT This report is the culmination of several years of research about collaboration with BIM and integrated design and construction teams, as well as a synthesis of best practices from Skanska professionals. Our study focused on construction management and owner/developer perspectives; however, many of the collaborative techniques are relevant to all parties in an integrated…
What can we do better? Convening the best minds to re-imaging capital construction at UW and WSU (2016)
Researchers at the Center for Education and Research in Construction supported an effort by UW and WSU to explore capital construction costs. DOWNLOAD WHITE PAPER Why do university buildings cost so much? Most capital project groups have a series of pat answers to this question, but at the UW and WSU we think it is…
Implications of New Construction Technology for Western Washington Mechanical Contractors (2011)
This research was supported through generous funding from the Mechanical Contractors Association of Western Washington, the University of Washington Royalty Research Fund, the College of Built Environments and the Departments of Construction Management and Communication. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0823338. Any opinions, findings, conclusions…
Lean and IPD Case Studies Show Striking Uniformity of Project Success
Construction Management faculty, Dr. Carrie Dossick, joins colleagues from the University of Minnesota and the University of British Columbia in releasing findings from IPDA/LCI funded study. “The overall findings are consistent with the larger body of research showing that teams using IPD and Lean are more reliable in terms of the schedule and cost and in…
Modular Prefabricated Residential Construction: Constraints & Opportunities (2013)
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT In 2012/2013, CERC received a Skanska Innovation Grant to study the potential for modular prefabricated construction for mid- to high-rise residential buildings in Seattle. The current practices in the construction industry are labor-intensive and surrounded by significant risks associated with market, site and weather conditions. In addition, the construction industry has been…
