Grant: Alliance Grants

The global construction industry has experienced minimal increases in productivity over the last 20 years. This phenomenon has been attributed to the under-digitization of this sector, with the construction industry remaining one of the least digitized industries in the world. The development of technological solutions designed to maximize the value extracted from digital information represents a key area of improvement within the global construction sector. The proposed research aims to capitalize on this opportunity by developing a comprehensive, simulation-based platform capable of integrating a variety of data streams, considering multiple aspects of project performance, and supporting important decisions across the entire lifecycle of a project. The proposed solution centers around the development of a federated platform for construction simulation representing a federation of standalone systems (i.e., federates) capable of interacting with one another through a shared communication infrastructure. This innovate federated construction simulation platform expands the decision-support capabilities of current technologies by enabling comprehensive "what-if" scenario evaluation and predictive analytics that extend beyond what is possible using traditional standalone tools. Once applied in practice, the proposed solutions are expected to enhance project planning, control, and optimization---ultimately resulting in improved project performance and increased competitiveness. Such advancements, coupled with the training of HQP, are expected to place our research and the next generation of industrial practitioners at the forefront of technological innovations in construction project delivery world-wide, offering our partners a unique competitive advantage within both the international and Canadian construction markets.