Research Activities

  • Web-based project management systems

  • Drawing recognition techniques

  • Standard for drawing layers and data protocols

  • Integration of Value Management and IT

  • Computer aided and web-enabled learning
Technological Services

  • Consultancy study on the use of Virtual Reality to do virtual experiments Web-based project management systems

  • Cost-benefit analysis of IT investments

  • Application of Value Management and decision support system for design briefing preparation

  • Computer assisted learning

Co-ordinator:

 Professor Heng Li
Researchers: Prof. Stephen Mak
  Prof. Geoffrey Q.P. Shen
  Dr Andy K.D. Wong
   
Selected Past Projects

  1. Virtual experiment of innovative construction operations (PI: Professor Heng Li)

  2. E-Commerce application in construction (PI: Professor Heng Li)

  3. Intelligent CAD system (PI: Professor Heng Li)

  4. Automatic measurement of quantities based on drawing recognition (PI: Professor Heng Li)

  5. Development of an integrated computer system for construction management (PI: Dr Andy K.D. Wong)

  6. Development of a group decision support system for Value Management (VM) studies (PI: Prof. Geoffrey Q.P. Shen)

  7. SMILE technologies (PI: Prof. Stephen Mak)
  1. Virtual experiment of innovative construction operations (PI: Professor Heng Li)
    Experimenting with innovative construction technologies/processes in the real-life situation is very risky and expensive. Computer supported Virtual Reality technology, however, is an inexpensive and safe alternative enabling 'virtual experiments' in construction to be conducted. Virtual experiment requires a computer-supported environment in which important properties of construction objects, processes and plant can be simulated so as to enable a realistic understanding of the impacts of the innovative construction operations/technologies to be obtained before they are adopted in real-life construction projects.

Advantages

  • The experiment is much less expensive than a real-life experiment

  • There is no risk involved as opposed to the high risks in real-life construction experiment

  • The virtual reality based presentation offers better visibility

  • The experiment is repeatable

  • Be able to conduct 'what-if' analyses so as to consider different scenarios

What can we do?
We can provide consultancy services on evaluating the usefulness, risks and practicality of innovative construction technologies / methods through virtual experiments in our Virtual Reality laboratory.

An example: Experiment of 4D construction cycle with prefabricated bathrooms

  1. E-Commerce application in construction (PI: Professor Heng Li)
    The value of materials required for purchase and use for any construction contract is a large proportion of the total contract sum. Typically materials account for 40-45% of the cost of all construction work. E-commerce, a rapidly proliferating business practice, has been applied in the construction industry, mainly in the area of material trading. Because almost all construction materials used in Hong Kong are imported, the use of E-commerce systems to support construction material procurement will result in significant time and cost savings.

In order to develop better E-commerce systems for applications in construction, we are currently applying advanced techniques such as intelligent agents, ASP (Application Services Provider) -enabled applications and data mining techniques to enhance the performance of E-commerce systems.

Advanced technologies applied to E-commerce systems

  • Intelligent support to users on various aspects such as information retrieval

  • Provision of instant access to construction-related applications to users via ASP

  • The ability to generate useful knowledge based on data mining techniques

  • Integrating GIS with E-commerce system to provide better navigating capacities.

Strengths of BRE Department
We have accumulated experience/expertise on the following aspects:

    • Development and application of intelligent agents

  • Technical know-how in the implementation of ASP enabled applications

  • Integration of GIS with E-commerce systems

  • Application of data mining techniques in E-commerce systems

Example of an application in construction


  1. Intelligent CAD system (PI: Professor Heng Li)
    In current practice, a CAD system is only used as a platform for preparing and presenting a model which has only geometrical and textural information of a product under design. The information contained in the model does not support all the activities involved in the engineering design, analyses and construction processes.

An intelligent CAD is an integrated system which can not only represent the basic geometrical and textural information of an engineering object, but also other engineering properties useful to engineering design and analyses. The system should also be able to generate cost estimations, virtual walkthrough, and other analyses so that the whole project delivery procedure can be better supported.

Advantages of an intelligent CAD system

  • Generation of photo-realistic image of designs before the commencement of construction

  • Automatic measurement of quantities and costs

  • Conduct "what-if" analysis in order to reduce unnecessary design changes from clients

Application in construction

  • Intelligent CAD systems are particularly useful to Design-and-Build projects, as these systems allow design and design changes to be entertained efficiently

  • Intelligent CAD systems can produce cost estimates in the form of a Bill of Quantities

  • In combination with virtual reality technology, intelligent CAD systems can help users to conduct constructability analyses of designs so as to avoid impractical structures

  1. Automatic measurement of quantities based on drawing recognition (PI: Professor Heng Li)
    Taking off quantities is the most time consuming activity, as it requires the manual measurement of the dimensions and quantities of components such as steel reinforcement in a structure that is presented in the three perspectives of plan, elevation and cross section (see Figure 1 and 2). A middle size project normally needs 4-5 man-months to take off the quantities. This amount of time increases exponentially with the size of project. In order to reduce the time and to improve the efficiency in quantity measurement, we developed a technology which can automatically measure the quantities based on drawing recognition of 2D drawings provided to the system. Instead of manually taking-off and measuring quantities from engineering drawings, the system can automatically recognize drawing entities based on graphic representations and annotations in the drawings.

One of the applications of this project is VHStation, a rule-based expert system for automatic measurement of steel reinforcement. VHStation is a rule-based expert system which has a knowledge base of rules to mimic the behaviour of experienced quantity surveyors in recognizing and taking-off/measuring steel reinforcement.


Advantages of the VHStation

  • Productivity increased by 30 times (20 mins VS 8 ~ 10 hours)

  • Better accuracy & consistency

  • Identification of partial discrepancies between drawings

  1. Development of an integrated computer system for construction management (PI: Dr Andy K.D. Wong)
    One of the most significant influences to construction management is the use of information technology to satisfy the information demand internally for project performance assessment and externally for fulfilling the contractual obligations. The use of information technology techniques has much to offer for processing and analysing large volume of information quickly, accurately and economically. In a fast-changing environment, the value of management decisions depends firstly on the quality of information available and secondly the ability to access the information effectively. The development of information technology in both hardware and software has been little short of astonishing, and this creates an environment, which enables computerisation of construction management to exploit the development of information technology.

One of the applications of this project is quick glance of CIMS system. CIMS stands for 'Co Construction Management System', which is based on the models developed in Dr. Andy Wong's PhD research completed in 1993. Construct IT (Hong Kong) Ltd. supports the implementation of these modules to develop an integrated system for their company. The system uses Visual Studio as the development tool for integrating with other Microsoft OfficeÒ applications. The main features of the system include information control, material control, cost control, progress control, human resources management and quality assurance. The beauty of the system is the integration of the information flow among these management functions.

 
  1. SMILE technologies (PI: Dr Stephen Mak)
    SMILE Technologies is providing web-based application development, facility management and data Centre services to the HKSAR government and a few international corporations. Landmark projects of the company include an e-learning cum e-assessment platform, an e-property valuation system and a construction personnel demand and supply computer model.

As a spin-off initiative of the Department, The SMILE Technologies is supported by two academic staff members who are seconded from BRE. A e-learning system has been developed and applied to support web-based learning and teaching activities in the local schools in Hong Kong.