DRAFT v3 Tim Broyd
28sep15
Proposed UCL Institute for Digital
Innovation in the Built Environment (iDIBE)
What is the Built Environment?
There is no uniformly agreed definition of the term ‘Built Environment’,
Google for example giving over six million hits against ‘definition of built
environment’. For the purposes of this paper I have taken a wide
definition of the built environment consisting of the planning, design,
construction and operation of buildings, built areas and the public
realm, and including the economic infrastructure required to enable
built areas to function (ie energy, water, waste, transport and ICT). So
defined, the built environment has a market size of conservatively 10% 15% GDP in a developed country such as the United Kingdom.
Preamble:
The rapid growth in computing power is enabling radical changes in
the ways that the Built Environment (both buildings and infrastructure)
are developed and operated. Some particular issues include:
• Data over the internet is currently growing at a 30% annual rate,
with machine to machine mobile data growing at 90%;
• The UK central government mandate that all central
procurement of buildings and infrastructure facilities be
undertaken using Level 2 BIM (Building Information Modelling) is
reducing procurement costs by 20% compared with benchmark
costs. As a result of this, plans for BIM Level 3 (concerned with
operational management and performance of buildings and
infrastructure) are well advanced, with development likely to
start within the next 6-9 months.
• Elsewhere, similar advances in digital techniques are being
made in such things as Building Management Systems (BMS),
energy measurement and interpretation, Telecare, Facility/Asset
Management techniques, the development and application of
sensors, telemetry, data analysis, etc, coupled with a need to
ensure that fast emerging areas of cyber security are also
suitably addressed.
• Much of this progress is good, but there is a significant
fragmentation between these and other relevant research
areas, which has resulted in little or no ability to gain an
integrated, holistic understanding of built environment facilities.
Possible Vision:
UCL to be clearly positioned as the global leader in digital innovation in
the built environment, expanding and developing its existing strengths
in the Bartlett and Engineering faculties, while also incorporating social
and behavioural sciences.
DRAFT v3 Tim Broyd
28sep15
Background:
Physical assets – buildings and infrastructure and their equipment - are
increasingly dependent on digital systems for their effective design,
construction, management and operation. ‘Big data’, the ‘Internet of
things’ and mobile devices are already delivering masses of real time
data for producers and consumers to better utilise these assets, with
substantial growth forecast. Platforms such as BIM promise to change
significantly the way in which the built environment is produced and
operated. The UK government is seen as a global leader in some of
these trends, and UCL is already at the heart of advising Treasury on
economic benefits arising from further digital innovation, for example in
being contracted to develop the spec for Level 3 BIM (led in UCL by
Professors Broyd, Marmot and Watson).
Yet many challenges remain, that demand research both pure and
applied, and industry at large is data rich but knowledge poor in how it
needs to address both current and future issues. The UK Government,
acting through BIS and its subsidiary organisations EPSRC and
InnovateUK, signaled before the General Election that significant new
funding will be made available for work in this domain. That has yet to
be ratified by the new government but the need is clear.
Who will be involved within UCL?
Over the last few months I have met with and taken soundings from a
range of senior individuals across UCL. The level of interest to date in
helping to create, develop and be a part of iDIBE can be broadly
summarised as follows:
The Bartlett Faculty – strong support across nearly all the faculty’s
departments and centres, addressing both technical and behavioural
issues
Engineering Sciences Faculty – strong support from particularly CEGE,
Computer Sciences and STEaPP
Social and Historical Sciences Faculty – strong support from the
Geography Department
Additional parts of UCL are likely to become engaged if development
of iDIBE proceeds.
Who will be involved outside UCL?
Potentially, any or all stakeholders involved in or engaged with the built
environment, including:
• Building and infrastructure owners and users
• Providers of professional services – including ‘non traditional’
areas such as finance and infrastructure
• Constructors
• Facilities and Asset Management providers
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28sep15
Construction materials suppliers and product manufacturers
Relevant parts of government, including policy makers and
regulators
Governance of iDIBE:
iDIBE is envisaged to be largely a virtual institute, with a small central
team to provide an information hub and co-ordinate activities and the
development of events and courses as required. The Director of iDIBE
should be a senior member of UCL staff, with the post perhaps held on
a rotating basis. The Director should be answerable to a Management
Group composed of UCL staff from departments engaged in iDIBE
activities as well as to a non-executive board composed of some UCL
staff but mainly of senior staff from both private and public sector built
environment stakeholder organisations.
iDIBE activities:
A non-prioritised and almost certainly non exhaustive list of activities is
as follows, all of course within the scope and remit of iDIBE:
Internal to UCL:
• A repository of information on:
o Previous and current research
o Previous and current taught modules
o Previous and current PhD and Masters projects and theses
o Research funders and current/forthcoming funded
programmes and areas
• A network of
o Research staff
o PhD students
o Administrators
• A diary of events, both within UCL and elsewhere
• Ideas for research projects, academic programmes and short
courses
• Development of new, multi-discipline research projects,
academic programmes and short courses
External to UCL:
• A gateway to UCL
• An iDIBE member ‘club’, with the following activities identified
and prioritized by club members:
o Events
o Workshops
o Identification of candidate research requirements
o Kick-started research activities and proposals
o Co-funded research
• Breakfast and evening meetings involving topical discussions,
UCL and/or external speakers, etc
• CPD and short courses – including those open to all and also
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those tailored to a specific organisation’s needs
Topic (and topical) status reports
Research showcases
Summer schools (and/or similar)
Potential sources of revenue:
Practically all of the above activities can be viewed as sources of
revenue, with for example breakfast and evening events being cost
neutral by being sponsored. Indicative (and conservative) revenues
for some of the activities are as follows:
• Club membership – 50 members @ £3k/yr = £150k/yr
• Summer schools – One school for 40 people @ £1.5k per person =
£60k each
• CPD – 10 one day topic courses given twice a year to 30 people
@ £300 per day = £180k/yr
• CPD - 5 one day strategic/policy courses given twice a year to
20 people @ £750 per day = £150k/yr
• Consultancy – say £200k/yr
• Multi-disciplinary research – say two new research programmes
per year at £1m each = £2m/yr at steady state
In addition there is good scope for:
• New multi-disciplinary academic courses
• In-company short courses
• Tailored, single company Masters programmes
• Online courses and MOOCs
• Etc
Fit with UCL research strategy:
iDIBE sits well within the UCL Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities and
overlaps with that of Human Wellbeing , with digital feedback and
operations being a key to delivering livable, affordable built assets for
both national economic and social infrastructure – especially schools,
hospitals and residential care environments. UCL Strategy 2034 also
emphasizes enterprise links.
UCL is well attuned to government, research and industry activities in
the areas of greatest relevance across the world. There is a fast
developing need to expand and integrate digital innovation in the Built
Environment, and a belief that iDIBE would be unique in the world.