3D MOVE demonstrated at Crossrail young engineers event in London

Posted on by

On Thursday the 25th September 2014, Dr Maxwell Mallia-Parfitt, Ed Norman (EPSRC summer placement student) and Professor Jennifer Whyte demonstrated the Mobile Visualization Environment (3D MOVE) to 400 young engineers from Crossrail in Westminster.

This event showcased the University’s research capacity and engineering research in this area. The 3D MOVE is a mobile version of the University of Reading’s CAVE facility, which enables a group of users to stand within a 1:1 scale simulation of built environments, in this case Whitechapel station – part of the Crossrail network.

Ed Norman’s contribution was essential to this demonstration, both in preparing models and scripts, as well as liaising with young engineers and senior directors from Crossrail. His work over the last 10 weeks has driven our software capabilities to new heights and has enabled many new features not seen before in immersive virtual reality. His work, funded by the EPSRC, will continue to be used for future demonstrations as well as strengthen research output from the Design Innovation Research Centre.

Pictures from the event:
P1050922 P1050921 P1050919
P1050923 P1050925 P1050938

BIM technology showcase

Posted on by

The Design Innovation Research Centre is hosting the next Thames Valley BIM Hub meeting on the 6th October 2014.
Dr Chris Harty will give a short introduction and overview to BIM-related research currently underway in the School of Construction Management and Engineering, followed by demonstrations by seven technology providers to show the capabilities of their products.

Visit the BIM CAVE: Dr Maxwell Mallia-Parfitt
Dr Mallia-Parfitt will be giving visitors the chance to experience total immersion within a BIM model. In the BIM CAVE (Collaborative Automatic Virtual Environment) graphics are projected in stereo onto three walls and the floor and viewed with active stereo glasses equipped with a location sensor. As the projector screens form a room-sized environment, it is possible to have multiple users stand within one-to-one scale recreations of BIM and CAD models, which enables collaborative discussion, viewing and navigation of the model in real-time.

Only small groups can visit the CAVE at any one time, so places really are limited.

To book your place please email: Julian@secbe.org.uk

There is no charge for this event. If you book but are subsequently unable to attend, please let us know.

Technology, Strategy and Business Models Workshop

Posted on by

The latest in the series of ‘Technology, Strategy and Business Models’ workshops was held at Cass Business School, City University London from 2-3 September 2014. Dr. Sunila Lobo presented her work on her thoughts regarding the potential for co-creating and capturing value in the complex business ecosystem of construction megaprojects; so firms in ‘loosely coupled networks can share complex and usually un-codified knowledge and co-evolve their capabilities to create more value and improve efficiency’ (Williamson and De Meyer, 2012). These workshops are organized by the business models group at CENTIVE, Cass Business School and are for junior faculty across Europe to present their work and receive feedback from the community. Senior faculty also present their leading edge work and the sessions are highly interactive. Participants from France, Austria, Switzerland, and the UK attended.

This 2-day workshop was preceded by a meeting called ‘Better Business Models’ on the 1st of September 2014, to update senior faculty on work carried out since the December 2013 conference on Business Models and to discuss next steps regarding research on business models. Dr. Sunila Lobo updated this senior group on work being carried out at the Design Innovation Research Centre, on behalf of Prof. Whyte.

For more information, please contact s.lobo@reading.ac.uk.

ICCCBE Conference

Posted on by

The International Society for Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ISCCBE) 2014 Conference in conjunction with the 2014 CIB W078 conference has just concluded in Florida, and was attended by Dr Dragana Nikolic and Dr Maxwell Parfitt. ICCCBE is a leading forum in the area of information technology in civil and building engineering. It is organized by the ISCCBE and is run bi-annually.
Dr Parfitt presented his work at the conference on Visualization of Built Environments using a Mobile Immersive Visualization Environment (3D-MOVE).

A video of the presentation can be viewed here.
For more information, please contact Dr Parfitt.

EPSRC Vacation Bursary

Posted on by

Following the success of our summer placement students last year [1] [2] we have recruited another student, through the EPSRC Vacation Bursary program, to help develop software to support user interaction within the Fully Immersive Virtual Environment (the CAVE).

Ed Norman, a 3rd year MEng student studying Artificial Intelligence, will join the Design Innovation Research Centre team for 10 weeks this summer to work on Digital Model Interaction: Towards a virtual reality toolbox for BIM data interaction.

International Workshop on “Visual Decision Practices”, (Loughborough University, 12-14 May)

Posted on by

Within and across organisations, visual tools (e.g., charts, diagrams, models) are being increasingly adopted by managers, policy makers and project teams to inform their decision making. And yet our understanding of the role of visual tools in decision practices is still limited. An international workshop set up by Professor Alberto Franco (Loughborough University) aimed to fill this gap, by drawing on the knowledge, perspectives and experiences of scholars from different disciplines. An attempt was made to leverage insights from disciplines as diverse as strategy as practice, system dynamics, geovisual/geospatial planning, communication research, and operations management. Topics of discussion included, but were not limited to, i) the role of visual tools in the formation of strategy, ii) the use of 3D/4D visualization in design and decision making, and iii) the generation of options through simulation modelling. This workshop laid the foundation for an international research network on visual decision practices, by providing participants with opportunities for learning, networking, and collaborating.

International Workshop on “Giving visual and material forms to ideas, identity and imagination: Architecture, urbanism and sustainable construction” (WU Vienna, 12-13 May 2014)

Posted on by

Along with the diffusion of digital technologies such as Building Information Modelling, architects, urban designers and construction managers are increasingly using visual and material objects to give shape to their ideas, identities, and imaginations of the future. And yet our theoretical understanding is still inadequate to grasp the significance of the visual and material turn, not just in architecture and design but also in management and organization. This workshop sought to advance our understanding of how organizational actors engage with visual and material objects to turn ideas into reality, and to involve audiences in the (de-)construction of such reality. Organized by Renate Meyer, Candace Jones, Eva Boxenbaum and Silvyia Svejenova, the workshop brought together leading scholars sharing an interest in visuality and materiality. An attempt was made to develop novel insights by cutting across theoretical perspectives, and to understand how research in architecture and design could inform theories of organization and management. We joined the debate by presenting the findings of our fieldwork in an architectural practice in London, and by articulating the practices by which professionals use visual objects to construct a “shared vision” across organizational boundaries. A closing panel identified directions for future research on visuality and materiality, suggesting i) to address questions of visibility and invisibility in visual research, ii) to understand the coupling of materiality and symbolism in organizational life, and iii) to develop a more comprehensive methodology of the senses, including not just vision but also smell, taste, and sound.