̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction

£5.4 million centre will help transform the UK’s construction sector for the digital age

sc604 — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 13:19:13 +0000

̽��ֱ��Centre is a partnership between the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the ̽��ֱ�� to support the transformation of the construction sector using digital technologies to better plan, build, maintain and use infrastructure. It will focus on the ongoing transformation of the built environment through the digital tools, standards and processes that are collectively known as Building Information Modelling (BIM). BIM enables the people building and managing our transport networks, cities and major infrastructure projects to take advantage of advances in the digital world to intelligently deliver better services and end products for UK citizens.

Led by Professor Andy Neely, Pro-Vice-Chancellor: Enterprise and Business Relations, the Centre builds on the expertise and experience of faculty from the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC), Cambridge Big Data, the Distributed Information and Automation Lab (DIAL), the Cambridge Service Alliance (CSA) and the Institute for Manufacturing. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge researchers work with a team of specialists from Digital Built Britain Programme and partners from industry and academia to develop and demonstrate policy and practical insights that will enable the exploitation of new and emerging technologies, data and analytics to enhance the natural and built environment, thereby driving up commercial competitiveness and productivity, as well as citizen quality of life and well-being.

" ̽��ֱ��Centre for Digital Built Britain will work in partnership with Government and industry to improve the performance, productivity and safety of construction through the better use of digital technologies," said Professor Neely.

“ ̽��ֱ��achievement of the BIM Task Group in delivering the Level 2 BIM programme has provided both the UK and increasingly a worldwide platform for the digitisation of the construction and services sectors. We welcome the vast experience and capability Cambridge brings to the team and the creation of the Centre for Digital Built Britain,” said Dr Mark Bew MBE, Strategic Advisor to the Centre for Digital Built Britain.

“ ̽��ֱ��construction and infrastructure sector are poised for a digital revolution, and Britain is well placed to lead it. Over the next decade advances in BIM will combine with the Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics, data-driven manufacturing and the digital economy to enable us to plan new buildings and infrastructure more effectively, build them at lower cost, operate and maintain them more efficiently, and deliver better outcomes to the people who use them,” said Dr Jennifer Schooling, Director of the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction. “This is a wonderful opportunity to put the breadth of research and industry engagement expertise from Cambridge at the heart of Digital Built Britain.”

̽��ֱ��UK is leading the world with its support of BIM implementation in the construction sector through its commitment to the Digital Built Britain Programme. By embedding Level 2 BIM in the government projects such as Crossrail, the programme has contributed significantly to Government’s £3 billion of efficiency savings between 2011 and 2015. Since 2016, all UK centrally funded projects require Level 2 BIM, which has achieved considerable cost savings for its construction procurement to date. Tasked with supporting innovation in the construction sector, the Construction Leadership Council has also put BIM at the heart of its sector strategy Construction 2025; which commits to cut built asset costs by 33 percent, and time and carbon by 50 percent. ̽��ֱ��Centre will continue and build on this transformative approach.

̽��ֱ��Centre for Digital Built Britain will be based in the Maxwell Centre in West Cambridge and will be formally launched in Spring 2018.

̽��ֱ��Government have announced £5.4 million in funding to launch the Centre for Digital Built Britain at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, which will help people make better use of cities by championing the digital revolution in the built environment. ̽��ֱ��Centre is part of a landmark government-led investment in growing the UK’s construction sector.

This is a wonderful opportunity to put the breadth of research and industry engagement expertise from Cambridge at the heart of Digital Built Britain.

Jennifer Schooling

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How does your smart city grow?

sc604 — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 13:08:19 +0000

It can be tough getting people excited about infrastructure because we often don’t notice it until something goes wrong. We expect to turn on the tap and have clean, drinkable water come out. We expect the underground to work. We expect to flick a switch and have the lights come on.

But just think how different expectations were for people living in Victorian London. ̽��ֱ��‘Great Stink’ in 1858, caused by untreated human and industrial waste flowing directly into the Thames, led to near-constant cholera outbreaks. Eventually, the smell in the Houses of Parliament became so bad that the windows had to be covered with heavy curtains, which goaded the politicians of the day into action. Engineer Joseph Bazalgette came to the rescue by creating a sewer network for central London, which relieved the city from cholera epidemics.

Fast-forward 150 years, and London, and the rest of the UK, is generally in fairly decent shape infrastructure-wise. However, literal and figurative cracks are rapidly appearing. ̽��ֱ��London Infrastructure Plan 2050, launched in 2014, states that the capital should be able to accommodate its growth, at least until 2025, within existing boundaries, but estimates that £1.3 trillion will need to be invested in the city’s infrastructure between 2014 and 2050, an amount more than half of the UK’s current GDP.

“Infrastructure, both existing and future, is of paramount importance for supporting economic growth and productivity – and so we must anticipate and plan effectively for the changing needs of society,” says Professor Lord Robert Mair of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering.

“We can’t just build our way out of this – we simply don’t have enough space,” adds Dr Jennifer Schooling, Director of the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC). “We have to use the existing infrastructure we’ve got and get more and more out of it, and when it’s appropriate, we can build new infrastructure alongside that.”

CSIC, an Innovation and Knowledge Centre jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Innovate UK, works to bridge the gap between ̽��ֱ�� research and industry in the area of ‘smart’ infrastructure.

Thanks to technological advances over the past two decades, sensors can now be embedded directly into the fabric of our cities, providing valuable information about the ‘health’ of a particular road, tunnel, bridge, building, or any other piece of infrastructure. This information can help identify problems before they become serious, and help get the most out of existing infrastructure, which is particularly important in a small, crowded country like the UK.

CSIC works with different companies and organisations throughout the complex infrastructure supply chain: from owners and operators, designers and builders, to contractors and maintenance personnel, helping them maximise the potential of sensing technology and, by extension, that of the infrastructure we rely on every day.

Since it was founded in 2011, CSIC has built up a network of more than 40 industry partners, including some of the biggest companies in the construction industry, including Laing O’Rourke, Arup and Atkins. It has also worked on some of the largest infrastructure projects in the UK, such as Crossrail and the National Grid power tunnels.

“Because the construction industry is judged on reliability and safety, it is a conservative one, and so we have to really demonstrate our technologies and approaches, to show that they work,” says Schooling. “A conservative industry finds it difficult to grab hold of complex projects, and so we’ve worked really hard to develop consistent methodologies so that we can train industry to use the technologies we’ve developed.”

One of CSIC’s major industry partners, the construction and development company Skanska, has recently established their own company that will make CSIC-developed technology available commercially, after having successfully used it on a project they recently undertook in London. ̽��ֱ��company was demolishing a 12-storey building to replace it with a 16-storey building in central London, on top of a complex subterranean web of tunnels, transport, foundations, sewers and more.

Skanska worked with CSIC to embed fibre optics in the building pile foundations before it was demolished to determine whether the existing piles could be used again or had to be completely replaced to support the new building. ̽��ֱ��fibre optic data showed that the foundations did not have to be completely replaced, as is common practice, which not only saved the company £6 million and six months in added project time, but also won the company a sustainability prize for avoiding pouring the massive amounts of concrete required for completely new piled foundations.

Another CSIC project maximising the value of existing infrastructure is one that is looking to extract the heat from the London Underground to heat and cool the buildings above it. Researchers in Dr Ruchi Choudhary’s group in the Department of Engineering are modelling the amount of heat that can be extracted from the Tube, how many buildings can be heated or cooled, and how that might be affected by future climate change. These geothermal systems offer a potential energy-efficient cooling solution compared with energy-intensive conventional cooling.

“A city’s infrastructure generates many waste streams: the heat generated in the London Underground is a classic example, leading to severely overheated Tube stations,” says Choudhary. “Simulation models allow us to quantify the waste energy that can be usefully harnessed through geothermal boreholes, which makes it possible to demonstrate feasibility and the benefits of operating our infrastructure in more synergistic ways.”

“If there’s one thing we really excel at in this country, it’s making our Victorian infrastructure – such as that designed by Joseph Bazalgette – work well,” adds Schooling. “We need to think about the value that infrastructure brings to our cities, which will help us figure out where and when we should be making new investments, and what impact that will have on a city. If we really understand our infrastructure through data, there’s a huge opportunity to really make a difference to how our cities perform in the future.”

Adds Mair: “Our cities will define the future of society, and smart city infrastructure equipped with modern sensors is essential to achieve the required transformational impact.”

Inset image: geothermal modelling; credit: Ruchi Choudhary.

̽��ֱ��Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction is building on advances in sensing technology to learn everything possible about a city’s infrastructure – its tunnels, roads, bridges, sewers and power supplies – in order to maintain it and optimise its use for the future.

Infrastructure, both existing and future, is of paramount importance for supporting economic growth and productivity

Professor Lord Robert Mair

Crossrail

Crossrail tunnel

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Funding boost for infrastructure research at Cambridge

sc604 — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 02:00:29 +0000

Research at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge to support the UK’s infrastructure and cities has received further backing in the form of two major funding initiatives. ̽��ֱ��Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) has secured a further five years of funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Innovate UK; while the UK Collaboratorium for Research in Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC), of which Cambridge is a partner, has secured £138 million of funding, to be match funded from other sources, as part of last week’s spending review.

̽��ֱ��additional funding to CSIC will allow it to build on its significant achievements over the past five years to become a widely-recognised hub for the infrastructure and construction industry, bringing together leading academics and industrialists, developing a faster route for innovation adoption, providing an ecosystem for building confidence in new innovations and enabling their timely implementation and exploitation.

“CSIC will continue to engage with business leaders and decision makers in key markets to ensure that our work continues to meet industry needs, and that industry leaders are well informed of the value that ‘smart’ innovations in infrastructure and construction can bring to their business,” said Jennifer Schooling, Director of CSIC. “CSIC’s ability to deliver value is unrivalled. Our outputs present real opportunities to make major improvements in how we create new infrastructure.”

There has already been substantial impact of CSIC’s activities in terms of the wide variety of tools and technologies - including fibre optic strain measurement, UtterBerry ultra-low power wireless sensor motes, vibration energy harvesting devices and CSattAR photogrammetric monitoring system - recently deployed on some of the largest civil engineering projects including Crossrail, National Grid, London Underground, CERN and the Staffordshire Alliance.

̽��ֱ��application of CSIC’s capability and knowledge is now being broadened to new markets including water infrastructure, highways and power.

“Securing this funding for the next five years offers a wide range of opportunities to take CSIC’s work forward and embed a culture of innovation adoption in the infrastructure and construction industries,” said Schooling. “CSIC cannot achieve this alone – working with industry is the key to our success to date and we always welcome approaches from industry partners seeking to collaborate.”

Professor Philip Nelson, CEO, EPSRC, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Centre will continue its leading role within the UK by increasing the lifetime of ageing infrastructure, making it more resilient, and making construction processes more efficient by using smart sensing technology. This collaborative research between academia and industry will increase the UK’s competitiveness, lead to savings quantified in millions of pounds and provide technology that can be exported for UK based companies.”

Kevin Baughan, Director of Technology and Innovation at Innovate UK said: “ ̽��ֱ��work of CSIC has helped to demonstrate the value of smart infrastructure to the construction industry, and this is reflected in the recognition of innovation at the heart of the future plans of the construction leadership council. By extending funding for a further five years, we underline our support for their commitment to raise the commercialisation bar even higher. This will help companies of all sizes grow through leveraging the excellent UK science base in smart infrastructure.”

UKCRIC is a collaboration of 14 UK universities which aims to provide a knowledge base to ensure the long-term functioning of the UK’s transport systems, energy systems, clean water supplies, waste management, flood defences and the development of SMART infrastructures.

Outside national security and medicine, UKCRIC will be one of the largest collaborative research projects in the UK. Current national and international partners include: Bristol City Council, Network Rail, Mott MacDonald, Buro Happold, Atkins, National Grid, DfT, EDF and Thames Water, with many more partners to follow. In order to tap further into the UK’s expertise and creativity UKCRIC’s founding core of 14 universities will be expanded over the coming years.

Cambridge will receive funding through UKCRIC which will be used to support research in the application of advanced sensor technologies to the monitoring of the UK’s existing and future infrastructure, in order to protect and maintain it.

UKCRIC programmes will integrate research on infrastructure needs, utilisation and performance through experiments, analysis, living labs and modelling. This will provide a new combination of decision support tools to inform infrastructure operators, planners, financiers, regulators, cities, and government on the optimisation of infrastructure capacity, performance and investment.

Two new funding initiatives at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge will support the UK’s infrastructure and cities.

Diliff

̽��ֱ��skyline of London viewed along the Thames from Waterloo Bridge in London, England.

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Cambridge awarded £18 million in funding to support UK infrastructure research

sc604 — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 15:59:05 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge will receive £18 million in funding to ensure that the UK’s infrastructure is resilient and responsive to environmental and economic impacts, as announced by the Chancellor in last week’s budget. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge funding will be used to support research in the application of advanced sensor technologies to the monitoring of the UK’s existing and future infrastructure, in order to protect and maintain it.

̽��ֱ��funding is part of the wider UK Collaboration for Research in Infrastructure & Cities (UKCRIC), which is a £138 million capital investment that will be centred around the Olympic Park in Stratford and will include 13 university partners from across the UK. A formal business case will be developed over the next few months.

̽��ֱ��proposed research stems from a need for UK national and local infrastructure (such as transport, water, waste, energy and ICT systems) to be fit for purpose for supporting societal development in a changing world.

UKCRIC will integrate knowledge, tools and methods from a wide range of disciplines. Its initial case proposes four strands:

(A) Investment in capital equipment and facilities (national ‘Laboratories’) that underpin transformative research for all partners and stakeholders

(B) A national ‘Observatory’ and living laboratories that will establish a network of linked infrastructure ‘observatories’ to test current and proposed urban infrastructure systems, and to enable rapid trialling of solutions

(C) A multi-level modelling and simulation environment that allows ‘what if’ experiments to be carried out in a high performance computing environment

(D) Creation of a Coordination Node (CN) to integrate activities and industry collaboration across UKCRIC

Once a business case for UKCRIC has been agreed, the Collaboration will hear further details on funding allocation and capital investments.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge funding will be used to build a National Research Facility for Infrastructure Sensing on the West Cambridge site, which will build upon the expertise of the ̽��ֱ��’s Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC). ̽��ֱ��new building will be an interdisciplinary centre for sensors and instrumentation for infrastructure monitoring and assessment, spanning scales from an individual asset, such as a tunnel, building or bridge, to a complex system such as a railway or a city district. More advanced sensors and appropriate data analysis will ensure better product quality, enhanced construction safety, and smarter asset management.

“Building a UK infrastructure research community like UKCRIC is important to help us design, build and maintain infrastructure which is resilient, adaptable and sustainable,” said Professor Robert Mair, Head of Civil Engineering and of the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. “ ̽��ֱ��UK needs to do more to invest in its infrastructure and infrastructure services, which are so important to its citizens. This is an issue which cannot be ignored, so we welcome this new investment as a positive way to engage academia and industry in protecting and growing the UK’s infrastructure base.”

EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)’s Chief Executive, Professor Philip Nelson, said: “EPSRC welcomes any additional investment in science and engineering, as these are the drivers of innovation and growth. We are particularly pleased to see the need to continue support for research in areas such as infrastructure and energy recognised, as they are so critical to ensuring the economic growth and prosperity of the UK. These announcements will build on our previous investments and provide the expertise and skills we need for the future.”

Cambridge is one of 13 universities receiving funding from UKCRIC. ̽��ֱ��consortium is being coordinated by ̽��ֱ�� College London.

Funding announced by the Chancellor in last week’s budget is part of a wider £138 million programme to support the UK’s infrastructure and cities.

This is an issue which cannot be ignored, so we welcome this new investment as a positive way to engage academia and industry in protecting and growing the UK’s infrastructure base

Robert Mair

Jim Nix

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Designing our Tomorrow: Resources to inspire the next generation of engineers

sjr90 — Thu, 08 May 2014 09:16:55 +0000

Designing our Tomorrow (DOT) is a joint project of the Department of Engineering and the Faculty of Education at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Working in partnership with leading engineering companies and local schools, DOT has developed a distinctive teaching approach and a unique set of resources, ‘DOT in a Box’, for teachers to use in Key Stage 3 Design and Technology classes.

̽��ֱ��three boxes being launched today are: Inclusive Design, Sensor Circuits and Picture Holders.

Each box includes a complete set of teaching resources, which would normally cover 12 D & T lessons.

“Inclusive Design” sets the challenge of designing more inclusive cutlery. ̽��ֱ��BOX includes a set of gloves and glasses that mimic the effects of human aging - the gloves restrict dexterity in a similar way to arthritis; while the glasses mimic the way vision declines from the age of 47.

Immersion in these and other creative/analytical tools contained in the BOX become the starting point to authentic engineering design challenges.

To help ensure that the case studies and challenges are authentic, leading engineering companies helped to develop the teaching resources:

Cambridge Design Partnership contributed real-world industry case studies to inspire the students, including the design of Dulux PaintPod, a self-cleaning powered painter; and the Waterpebble, a small device with complex electronics to measure water usage in the shower. “We enjoyed the opportunity to demonstrate how interesting product development and engineering work can be, and share this in the classroom,” a spokesman said.
Heba Bevan, PhD Researcher in Low-power Wireless Sensor Networks at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, said: “Engaging with students in a creative and relevant way at the age of 13 and 14 is critically important to develop analytical skills and a lifelong love of problem solving. These workshops create a different atmosphere for learning, encouraging teamwork, innovation, and thinking about problems in a multi-dimensional way rather than in a linear input-output manner. I believe that widespread implementation of DOT will lead to an significant increase in the number of students that pursue careers in science and engineering.”

BT, Marshalls and Chesapeake also supported the development of DOT in a Box.

̽��ֱ��project has been piloted in a range of schools, including a number from Cambridgeshire to make sure that the resources work for teachers and pupils.

̽��ֱ��most recent pilot was funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering through its Ingenious grant scheme.

Ian Hosking, Senior Research Associate at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Engineering Design Centre, said: "Everything is designed. It is how we shape the world around us. Designing Our Tomorrow is about equipping students to design their futures and in particular address the global challenges of population ageing and environmental sustainability."

Bill Nichol, Lecturer in Design Education at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, said “Although 71% of 13 and 14 year olds interviewed for the project said that engineering was ‘cool’, less than half felt challenged by their lessons and only 38% said they were considering a career in design and technology.

“By developing and delivering inspirational resources for teaching Design & Technology at Secondary level, DOT hopes that all Key Stage 3 students will enjoy challenging lessons and be inspired to consider design as a real and rewarding career path.”

New resources designed to inspire the next generation of engineers by bringing authentic engineering challenges into the classroom have been launched today by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

These workshops create a different atmosphere for learning, encouraging teamwork, innovation, and thinking about problems in a multi-dimensional way.

Heba Bevan, PhD Researcher in Low-power Wireless Sensor Networks, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction,

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