CyberGRID Net

Collaboration with  

John E. Taylor  

Professor, Columbia University

Ashwin Mahalingam

Professor, Indian Institute of Technology - Madras

Debra Noumair

Professor, Columbia University

Riitta Smeds

Professor, Helsinki University of Technology

Building Information Modeling - Collaboration in the AEC Industry

(Image: Dossick and Gramer 2008)

Collaboration with Dr. Gina Neff, Department of Communication 

Office: 120E Architecture Hall

Assistant Professor
Department of Construction Management
University of Washington
Architecture Hall 120, Box 351610
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 221-4894
cell (206) 491-3623
cdossick@u.washington.edu
https://faculty.washington.edu/cdossick

Prof. Dossick's research generally falls into the areas of Emerging Technologies, BIM, Integrated Practice, and the impact thereof.  Current research topics include BIM technologies and collaboration for Green Buildings, Developing BIM for existing buildings, and the Virtual Coach.  Previous work includes the Royalty Research Fund and the evaluation of exterior cladding systems sponsored by Ceraclad. 

National Science Foundation, Division of Information and Intelligent Systems, Award No. 0943069, 10/1/2009 - 9/30/2012

This research entails: (1) CyberGRID Net - developing a research data collection and analysis tool integrated into an existing global virtual engineering team working environment, and (2) CyberGRID Networks – utilizing that tool to develop fundamental insights into how globally distributed engineering teams enact complex design work together and with affordances in the virtual environment.  The CyberGRID Net will be a research tool that augments an existing virtual environment developed by the investigators for global design work. It will extend current pedagogical tool functionality with the following research-oriented features: (1) the existing TeamWall model-sharing display will detect and track locations of object referencing actions (e.g., pointing to a feature in a design) and functionality will be added for participants to self-indicate when phenomena of research interest occur, (2) virtual environment recordings will be time-stamped when researcher-specified interactions take place, (3) avatar-avatar and avatar-object interactions will be detected along with metadata about the interaction, and (4) functionality will be added for collaborative discussion, data analysis and annotation across a global virtual research team.

In a series of experiments, the CyberGRID Net research infrastructure will be used to engage critical organizational research questions: How are Building Information Models (BIM) in the virtual environment used as a boundary objects to resolve conflicts in the knowledge system of global virtual engineering teams? How do conflicts emerge in avatar-avatar interactions? How are conflicting obligations resolved in virtual teams by emergent virtual team leaders? How are boundary objects used in a cross-cultural context? How do leadership styles and community of practice formation vary when team members come from different countries representing different cultures and standards of practice?  These questions will be explored in three separate experiments employing a multi-method approach which includes ethnographic observation, social and interaction network analyses, and user reflection. They will involve international activities and will include graduate engineering students in the U.S., India and Finland, as well as industrial participants utilizing the CyberGRID in an industrial test case.

This research will utilize computational thinking to develop a new research tool to transform the way global virtual teams are researched, and to link avatar-object interactions into network analyses to transform approaches to modeling knowledge systems in global virtual teams. The CyberGRID Net tool will be used in experiments to expand knowledge system dynamics theory as well as theories of virtual team network formation and leadership. This research may lead to fundamental transformations in design pedagogy which, in turn, can provide new exciting engineering career paths. The research may also improve strategies of engineering firms and policymakers concerned about the leadership role of U.S. engineers in the global workforce.

National Science Foundation, Division of Social and Economic Sciences, Innovation & Organizational Sciences (IOS), Award No. SES-0823338 7/1/2008 – 6/30/2011

Collaborators Gina Neff and Carrie Sturts Dossick:  Building on the Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator's previous and current work in computer-mediated communication and technology for industrial and building construction, we will analyze the organizational process of commercial construction using case study ethnographic observations and interviews with 50 leaders in the field to augment our current research of two case study projects and 150 interviews on technology and communication. We will develop typologies of collaborative structures and technology use that reflect our rich ethnographic data. To test the theories we generate from this qualitative research, we will use and augment a national database of green building projects to analyze whether and how collaboration and the use of new technologies helps make buildings greener. Using the scorecards for the LEED green certification process for at least 100 projects in the database, we will measure which aspects of sustainable building design and construction required increased collaboration, the introduction of new IT, or on a combination of the two.

U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), CERL-15 Research Area, 1/1/2008 – 9-30-2008  & 1/1/2009 - 9/30/2009

Faculty: Eddy Rojas, Carrie Sturts Dossick, John Schaufelberger

Current BIM technology is capable of capturing existing facility data, but the cost and time of developing a complete BIM model for each existing facility would be prohibitive and is not needed to achieve the life cycle benefits of having as-built, current, engineering data for all facilities.   In lieu of a complete model, a subset of a complete BIM model could be developed for an existing facility that could capture the minimum amount of information the DPW would need to maintain and manage its facility.  The data captured in this subset could adhere to the National BIM Standard (NBIMS) so that, if the need ever arises to develop a complete BIM of the facility, should it undergo a major renovation or recapitalization, the cost and time effort would be greatly reduced.  The objective of this project is to provide a comparative analysis of alternative methodologies/scenarios of capturing as-built BIM information for existing facilities at the Fort Lewis Army base in Fort Lewis, Washington.

U.S. Department of Education, Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), Comprehensive Program, Grant P116B060047, 1/1/2007 - 12/31/2009

Faculty: Eddy Rojas, Amlan Mukherjee (Michican Technological University), Carrie Sturts Dossick

The Virtual Coach project will develop and demonstrate situational simulations for problem-based learning by construction engineering students. Situational simulations using many of the engaging features of video games help learners further develop decision-making skills. These simulations are created with the Virtual Coach, a desktop software tool that will be revised for use on the Internet. The project will produce a simulation development kit for non-programmers.

UW Royalty Research Fund, 7/1/2007 – 6/30/2008

Collaborators: Gina Neff and Carrie Sturts Dossick

We seek to analyze how people adopt and adapt to new technology in a field where these technologies challenges deeply entrenched work practices. We aim to understand how the introduction of a radical new technology, Building Information Models (BIM), will change collaboration among architects, engineers, and builders within what we call the Building System Coordination process—the months-long problem-solving stage in which designers and builders collaborate on a building's structural, electrical, and mechanical systems. Using a comparative case study method, we will observe two building projects over an eight-month period (one with and one without this new technology), analyze the ramifications of the existing frameworks of standards of practice and occupational boundaries for collaboration, and identify the potential of new technology to change these frameworks. Will the introduction of new technology support collaboration, disrupt established ways of working, or fundamentally restructure work processes? Detailed empirical data combined with rich qualitative analysis of technological and organizational change in this particular setting will help us answer these fundamental social science questions.