Data-driven decision support systems for integrated project delivery on structural steel projects

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Despite tremendous technological advances from modular construction and offsite prefabrication, Building Information Modeling (BIM), to field application of mobile computing and sensor technologies, the practice of construction engineering and project management has remained much unchanged. The long-standing mismatch in level of granularity between detailed cost estimating and rough cost control is not yet resolved on the majority of construction projects. In reality, practitioners still rely on the rule of thumb and "gut-feelings" to make critical decisions, instead of data-driven, quantitative analytics. The numerous benefits for design-construction integration as supposed to be enabled by new technologies were only demonstrated in research papers but rarely materialized in the real world. Proposing this CRD project is motivated by all those real-world challenges and research opportunities presented to the partner company and the Canadian construction industry at large. Instead of taking a "piecemeal" approach, the PI and the company management have concurred on an "Integrated Project Delivery" approach to tackle the interrelated "parts and parcels" in construction engineering and management, through aligning people, systems and data involved in critical decision-making processes at various levels and at different times in estimating, planning, and project control. The proposed CRD will (1) define currently ill-structured problems in the partner company, (2) design the data-centric infrastructure in line with those problems, and (3) develop effective analytics to process data for better visibility, better intelligence, and better decision. Through the mutually-beneficial, academia-industry collaboration in tackling challenging problems and training highly-qualified personnel, the deliverables of this CRD will sharpen the competitive edge of the partner company in structural steel engineering, fabrication, and erection in both national and global arenas, while significantly contributing to discovering knowledge, advancing practice and growing talent. The ultimate beneficiaries of this CRD project will include construction engineers and managers in the partner company and the Canadian structural steel industry at large.