von In the series “Im Dialog” (english: In Dialogue), I engage with experts on exciting and innovative topics within the construction and real estate industry. Today, I am thrilled to welcome my very esteemed colleague Ioannis Brilakis, Laing O’Rourke Professor of Civil and Information Engineering at the University of Cambridge. With his extensive expertise in digital transformation in construction and as Principal Investigator in the “Digital Roads of the Future” (DRF) initiative, he offers us valuable insights into the future of the industry.
CK: Ioannis, we have known each other since your time at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where I had a research stay at the Scheller College of Business. Could you briefly share your career journey and what led you to focus on digital transformation in construction and engineering?
IB: I received my Civil Engineering Diploma in Greece, in 2001. I completed my MS and PhD at the University of Illinois by 2005. I think spent 7 years as an academic in the US at University of Michigan and GATech. I have been at the University of Cambridge since 2012. I decided to focus on the digital side of civil engineering when I realized as a student that the physical side was over-researched, and the digital side was up and coming.
CK: I completely agree with you. From your perspective, why is the digital transformation of the construction and real estate industry so crucial today, and how far along do you think these sectors are in adopting new technologies?
IB: Digitizing our infrastructure is all about better information management. And this is important because managing information better can help us improve across every performance dimension. We have made some progress in this direction, but it is still well behind the progress of the physical side. We need design engineers who understand how to plan and design information management systems, and construction engineers who understand how to construct and maintain them. We also need information systems that can act as an information marketplace, a YouTube of sorts, to maximize their value to industry.
CK: That sounds like we need necessary activities in both education and in technological development. Let’s talk about the latter, technological development. You are deeply involved in Digital Twins research, and you are Principal Investigator in the Digital Roads of the Future Initiative. Can you tell us some details about this?
IB: DRF [Editor’s note: Digital Roads of the Future, an introductory video is at the end of the interview] is about looking at assets as a combination of physical and digital, and processes and products. Along these dimensions, we are driving innovation along the physical products, e.g. smart materials, the physical processes, related to automation, the digital products via digital twins, and the digital processes with data science. This is done though a series of loosely connected projects across these dimensions that have built an ecosystem of activity in Cambridge that is unique in the world.
CK: That is indeed exceptional. How do you envision Digital Twins reshaping the construction industry, and what are some of the biggest challenges we still need to overcome to fully integrate this technology?
IB: Digital Twins will be a step change in information management performance, thus in the performance of every physical metric. The challenge is to enable them, in example to come up with methods to plan, design, construct, operate and maintain them.
CK: You just mentioned the relevance of operation and maintenance. Given the increasing focus on sustainability in construction, how do you see digital technologies, such as Digital Twins and AI, playing a role in minimizing the environmental impact of building processes?
IB: I see sustainability as another key performance dimension, just like safety, cost, time, and quality. Better information management can help us measure and predict carbon performance a lot more precisely, thus allow us to pick lower carbon solutions in relation to all other measurable parameters.
CK: We’ve had the opportunity to collaborate in my fore:sight VET2035 workshop. From your experience, how do cross-disciplinary collaborations between academia, industry, and government shape the future of construction technology?
IB: They help teach industry how to do research. And this is a very valuable lesson in the industry with no R&D tradition like construction [Editor’s note: R&D = Research & Development].
CK: I like your answer. It’s a very polite way to phrase it. I would like to talk about another important point that is often discussed in relation to digital innovations. Automation is often seen as a threat to jobs. In your opinion, how will automation in the construction industry affect the workforce, and do you see it as more of a challenge or an opportunity for creating new types of jobs?
IB: I see it the same was as automation has been for over a century. It helps us be more productive, in example the same person can do more work for the same amount of effort. Yes, this requires reskilling, but this is not the same as upskilling. Doing something completely manually is often much harder than learning how to use an automated system that does it for you.
CK: In this context, the use of Artificial Intelligence is also a topic as Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly relevant in construction. What role do you see AI playing in the future, and are there any specific AI applications in your current projects that stand out?
IB: AI unlocks the value of information held in Digital Twins. It will sit side by side with information systems, helping us manage the built environment in a more informed way. The best application I have seen so far is predicting black swan events in construction projects. This was not possible in the past, without AI.
CK: Can you tell us what you mean with black swan events?
IB: A black swan is a term in economics for unexpected and unlikely future events with significant consequences. The black swan describes this phenomenon as so unusual that even the probability of its occurrence is impossible to calculate. That’s the reason why the black swan event is normally unknown. And AI enables us to predict these black swan events.
CK: This sounds like a great achievement for risk management in projects. Besides this, there are many digital tools and platforms emerging in the construction sector. Do you think the lack of standardization could become a problem, and how do you suggest addressing this potential issue of technological fragmentation?
IB: I see standardization itself as a problem. We as an industry do not like to follow standards very much, especially information standards. The solution to this is companies taking over and encapsulating these elements of the work, so that engineers can focus on delivering and not on importing and exporting information. I built one such company last year, called Didimi [Editor’s note: a video about BIM interoperability with Didimi is at the end of the interview] .
CK: Before we come to the end of our interview, I would like to know, if you look to the future, what developments or innovations in the construction industry excite you the most, and what do you personally hope to achieve in the next decade?
IB: I am most excited about solving the interoperability challenge, and I am aiming to do this with Didimi. This is my goal for the next decade.
CK: By doing this you will fill an important gap in industry needs but you connect industry also with the world of academia. Given your position at the intersection of academia and industry, do you think there is in general enough synergy between the two when it comes to driving digital innovation in construction? How can these two worlds collaborate more effectively?
IB: Via large collaborative grants and spin-off companies. They are a necessity given how our current ecosystem operates.
CK: I think that’s a nice way to end our interview. A call for cooperation between industry and academia to create a better built environment and a better, livable world for all of us. Ioannis, thank you so much for taking the time to share your insights today. It’s always a pleasure to learn from you, especially given our shared history and previous collaborations. I look forward to seeing the continued impact of your work on the construction industry, and I’m excited about the innovations and advancements you’ll bring to the field in the years to come. Thank you again for this wonderful conversation.
IB: It was a pleasure for me, too.
For more information about Ioannis Brilakis and his work just have a look at the following websites:
Introductory video to the Digital Roads of the Future initiative
Video about BIM interoperability with Didimi Solution
Schlagwörter: Digitale Transformation, Digital Transformation, Bauwirtschaft, Construction Industry, Ioannis Brilakis, Digital Twin, Automation, Sustainability, Nachhaltigkeit, Innovation, Artificial Intelligence, Künstliche Intelligenz
Diesen Beitrag zitieren: Karl, C. [Christian K. Karl]. (2024). Im Dialog: Ioannis Brilakis on Digital Transformation in Construction and the Future of the Industry [Blog-Beitrag]. 13.12.2024. BauVolution, ISSN 2942-9145. online verfügbar
