Construction Needs “Breakthrough Innovation” – CII’s Call to Action from Industry Conference

Construction Needs “Breakthrough Innovation” – CII’s Call to Action from Industry Conference

There was a great deal of learning and sharing taking place last week in National Harbor, Maryland at the annual Construction Industry Institute (CII) conference. Each year at this event, CII brings together its members consisting of owners, contractors, and academics to elevate the construction industry by sharing best practices and insights.

Enstoa participated in full force, along with clients and leading organizations worldwide in capital project delivery, including: Saudi Aramco, DTE Energy, and Pioneer Natural Resources. As an integral part of developing CII’s own technology platform, we are energized by the call to action to continue to support breakthrough innovation for the industry as a whole.

Here are 7 important highlights from the event:

  1. Ann Marie Sweet-Abshire, from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, served as the chair for the conference.
  2. CII unveiled its new Knowledge Base which allows members to quickly search and retrieve resources from over 30 years of research.
  3. Brendan Bechtel (President & COO of Bechtel) discussed the future of construction, highlighting advances in virtual reality, robotics, automation, and human augmentation.
  4. Craig Martin (Jacobs Engineering, retired) called on the membership to renew its efforts to build safety into our culture.
  5. Joseph Brewer (Vice President at the Dow Chemical Group) demonstrated the power of team alignment at work at the Sadara Program.
  6. Bernard Amadei was the recipient of the Carroll H. Dunn Award of Excellence. Dr. Amadei is the founder of Engineers without Borders USA and challenged the audience to become "Engineers for Peace."
  7. Stephen Mulva, Director of CII, closed the conference with an inspiring challenge to the membership for breakthrough innovation.

In addition to these highlights, it was exciting to hear the readouts from the Industry-Academic research teams that included:

  • Front End Planning: Project Definition Rating Index for Small Infrastructure Projects
  • Design: Engineering Deliverables – Get it Right the First time
  • Safety: Precursor Analysis to Prevent Low Frequency, High Impact Events
  • Project Controls: Improving Project Progress and Performance Assessment
  • Construction: Finding Leading Indicators to Prevent Premature Starts to Construction
  • BIM: Future Construction Needs of Virtual Design Models
  • Human Resources: Preparing for the Great Succession Recession

We are looking forward to seeing everyone again next year, and in the meantime, we are heads down working on breakthrough innovations!