2019 CCSS: COMPUTING IN CONSTRUCTION SUMMER SCHOOL

The Computing in Construction Summer School (2019 CCSS) was held in Italy (Senigallia, AN) from July 14th to 20th, 2019. It was sponsored by Trimble Solutions Corporation (https://www.trimble.com/) and  Polytechnic University of Marche (UNIVPM) - Department of Civil and Building Engineering and Architecture (https://www.dicea.univpm.it/ ) as part of the award “Dipartimento di Eccellenza 2018-2022”. Endorsing associations were the Association of Italian Engineering, Architectural and Technical-Economic Consulting Organizations – OICE (https://www.oice.it/279184/what-is-oice), European Council on Computing in Construction – EC3 (https://ec-3.org/), International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction - IAARC (http://www.iaarc.org/), and the National Association of Italian Municipalities – ANCI (https://www.ancimarche.it/). The Directors of the 2019 CCSS were Ioannis Brilakis from the University of Cambridge, Rafael Sacks from Technion in Israel, and Berardo Naticchia from UNIVPM in Italy, and it was chaired by Alessandro Carbonari from UNIVPM in Italy. Cooperation among industry, academy, and involved associations facilitated the organization of a variety of sessions including lectures, readings and masterclasses in the field of Computing in Construction.

The summer school was attended by 67 people around the world, including students, practitioners and academics. The list of country origins of the attendees included Italy, Finland, Spain, UK, France, Switzerland, Cyprus, United Arab Emirates, Austria, USA, Lebanon, South Africa, Israel, Nigeria, Estonia, Belgium, Thailand, and Hong Kong.

The lectures were given by well-known academics from top universities around the world: “Computer integrated construction” by Žiga Turk from the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), “BIM thinking - Fundamentals of BIM and the BIM ecosystem” by Vishal Singh from Aalto University (Finland), “Behavioural design and modelling” by Enrico Quagliarini from Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy), “BIM: collaboration, interoperability and standards” by Rafael Sacks from Technion (Israel), “Research methodology” by Ioannis Brilakis from the University of Cambridge (UK), “Digitising infrastructures and buildings” by Burcu Akinci from Carnegie Mellon University (USA), “Linked data in AEC” by Pieter Pauwels from Ghent University (Belgium), “Lean management for restoration projects of historic buildings” by Francesco Rossini from La Sapienza University (Rome, Italy), “Robotic systems for inspection” by Carlos Balaguer from the University Carlos III (Madrid, Spain), “Deep learning” by Lucio Soibelman from the University of Southern California (USA), “Big data analytics” by Domenico Ursino from Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy), “Supply chain management” by Tony Thorpe from Loughborough University (UK), “Leveraging technology to assess and improve productivity” by Carlos Caldas from the University of Texas at Austin (USA).

During the reading sessions, students were asked to develop their own project on specific topics and then defend the projects to a panel of experts in those fields. The first session was “Block-chain technology”, chaired by Luca Spalazzi (from Polytechnic University of Marche in Italy) and Shabtai Isaac (from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel); the second session was “Cyber physical systems for construction” which was chaired by Andrea Bonci (from Polytechnic University of Marche in Italy) and Shabtai Isaac (from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel). Furthermore, an essay competition on “How can computing increase the productivity of the construction industry?” was held, and the winner was Julia Reisinger from Technical University of Wien (Austria). Other than the reading sessions and the essay competition, a joint session on “Proactive site management and Computational real-time safety management” that included laboratory demonstrations was held by Berardo Naticchia and Alessandro Carbonari of UNIVPM at the Digital Construction Capability Centre (DC3) of UNIVPM. The last two lectures of the summer school were provided by two experts from the industry: “Mixed reality in the real world” by Kim Nyberg from Trimble Inc. (Finland), and “Removing the barriers for technology adoption” by Scott McGovern from Laing O’Rourke (UK).

In a more informal setting, two masterclass sessions were held at the end of Wednesday and Thursday to provide students with the opportunity to interact and discuss any research topics in more detail with the professors. Leisure activities, where students challenged themselves in a beach volleyball tournament and other sports, helped to build relationships among participants. The happy hour was held at Portonovo Bay (Ancona, Italy) on Tuesday evening, and the gala dinner with the award ceremony in Senigallia ended the 2019 CCSS.