Domain Taxonomy for Construction Concepts: Toward a Formal Ontology for Construction Knowledge

With the advancement of the semantic web, the construction industry is at a stage where intelligent knowledge management systems can be used. Such systems support more effective collaboration, where virtual teams of skilled users, not software, exchange ideas, decisions, and best practice. To achieve that, there is a need to create consistent semantic representation of construction knowledge. Existing representations, in the form of classification systems and product data models, lack effective modeling of concept semantics—a fundamental requirement for human-based exchange of knowledge. Toward this objective, this paper presents a domain taxonomy that was developed as part of the e-COGNOS project. The taxonomy was developed as a first step in the establishment of domain ontology for construction. The taxonomy was developed to be process-centered and to allow for utilization of already existing classification systems (BS6100, Master Format, and UniClass, for example). The taxonomy uses seven major domains to classify construction concepts: Process, Product, Project, Actor, Resource, Technical Topics, and Systems. The taxonomy was developed and validated through extensive interaction with domain experts. The taxonomy was used to develop a prototype ontology for the construction domain including semantic relationships and axioms. The ontology was used to support several applications in semantic knowledge management as part of the e-COGNOS portal, including semantic indexing and retrieval of information and ontology-based collaborative project development.     

Distributed Ontology Architecture for Knowledge Management in Highway Construction

The ongoing plethora of rehabilitation in the infrastructure domain requires more planning and integration during design and construction. To achieve this, there is a need for developing and using semantic (ontology-based) mechanisms for the exchange of development knowledge among all project stakeholders. This paper presents a distributed ontology architecture for knowledge management in highway construction. With every other utility tied to the highway geometry, the architecture is intended to be the base for a cross-discipline knowledge exchange in the infrastructure domain. The architecture presents highway knowledge on three levels: domain knowledge (an umbrella for infrastructure shared knowledge), application knowledge (representation of highway-specific knowledge), and user knowledge (an enterprise-specific representation of highway knowledge). The proposed architecture models highway concepts using six major root concepts: project, process, product, actor, resources, and technical topics (attributes and constraints). The architecture was developed using rigorous knowledge acquisition and ontology development techniques. It was developed as an extension for the e-COGNOS ontology. The architecture was validated through input from domain experts.     

Domain Ontology for Processes in Infrastructure and Construction

With the increasing demands for domain-wide integrated construction and infrastructure development, there is a need for developing a domain ontology to build a knowledge model that describes the multistakeholder project development process. This paper presents a domain ontology for supporting knowledge-enabled process management and coordination across various stakeholders, disciplines, and projects. The ontological model is composed of concepts, relations, and axioms. Concepts represent the “things” in the domain of interest; relations establish the interconcept links; and axioms specify the definitions of concepts and relations and constraints on their behavior and interpretation. The ontology models the most fundamental concepts in the domain in a structured, extendable, and flexible format to facilitate future evolution and extension of the ontology for representing application-specific and/or enterprise-specific knowledge. The ontology was evaluated through technical evaluation and user evaluation. User evaluation was conducted through one-to-one expert evaluation interviews.     

Ontology-Centered Knowledge Management Using Information Retrieval Techniques

The paper argues that an effective solution to information and knowledge management (KM) needs of practitioners in the construction industry can be found in the provision of an adapted knowledge environment that makes use of user profiling and document summarization techniques based on information retrieval sciences. The conceptualization of the domain through ontology takes a pivotal role in the proposed knowledge environment and provides a semantic referential to ensure relevance, accuracy, and completeness of information. A set of KM services articulated around the selected ontology have been developed, using the Web services model, tested, and validated in real organizational settings. This provided the basis for formulating recommendations and key success factors for any KM project development.     

Building Integrated Architecture/Engineering/Construction Systems Using Smart Objects: Methodology and Implementation

Integrated project systems hold the promise for improving the quality while reducing the time and cost of architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) projects. A fundamental requirement of such systems is to support the modeling and management of the design and construction information and to allow the exchange of such information among different project disciplines in an effective and efficient manner. This paper presents a methodology to implement integrated project systems through the use of a model-based approach that involves developing integrated “smart AEC objects.” Smart AEC objects are an evolutionary step that builds upon past research and experience in AEC product modeling, geometric modeling, intelligent CAD systems, and knowledge-based design methods. Smart objects are 3D parametric entities that combine the capability to represent various aspects of project information required to support multidisciplinary views of the objects, and the capability to encapsulate “intelligence” by representing behavioral aspects, design constraints, and life-cycle data management features into the objects. An example implementation of smart objects to support integrated design of falsework systems is presented. The paper also discusses the requirements for extending existing standard data models, specifically the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), to support the modeling of smart AEC objects.     

Dynamic Knowledge-Based Process Integration Portal for Collaborative Construction

There is a need to support collaborative coordinated construction through the integration of work processes across various stakeholders, disciplines, and projects. Due to the fast-growing complexities of domain-wide coordination and collaboration, coupled with the emerging opportunities of knowledge sharing, a knowledge-based approach is believed to be the way to go. Knowledge-based process integration takes into account explicit and formal semantics (meaning) of processes. It aims at supporting seamless integration of knowledge-carrying processes. This paper presents a prototype collaborative portal for domain-wide process integration. The portal is ontology-based: semantic process representation is enabled through ontologies, and knowledge-based process integration is facilitated through an ontology merger. The portal aims at offering an efficient value-adding collaboration platform through multidimensional process integration for producing a common workflow that goes beyond listing of processes to a knowledge-enabled view. The prototype was evaluated through a focus group.     

Development of IFC Modeling Extension for Supporting Drawing Information Exchange in the Model-Based Construction Environment

The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) has been known as a common product model that has interoperability between similar and dissimilar IT systems for the architecture, engineering, construction, and facility management (AEC/FM) industries covering all life cycle phases. Continuous efforts have been undertaken regarding the development of standardized specifications based on the IFC, a product model used in the AEC/FM industries. In accordance, the XM-4 project has been initiated by the Korea Chapter of the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) organizations to develop a two-dimensional (2D) extension model for IFC. The XM-4 project aims to add to the IFC2x platform the ability to exchange 2D computer-aided design data within representations of virtual building models, including annotations and styles mainly adapted from the ISO 10303. The focus of this research has been on developing a 2D extension model for the IFC as part of the IAI XM-4 project. This paper provides the scope and rationale of the model extension, major modeling concepts, defined high-level entities and row-level entities, and implementation issues to be considered.     

Knowledge-Enabled Decision Support System for Routing Urban Utilities

This paper presents a Web-based system for supporting the selection of the most suitable routes for buried urban utilities. The aim of the proposed system is to support (not make) decisions through a collaborative semiautomated environment, in which stakeholders can share information and/or study the impacts of different routing alternatives with respect to decision constraints. First, the knowledge relating to route selection for urban utilities is represented through an ontology. The ontology defines the types and attributes of infrastructure products and the surrounding areas. It also defines the impacts of routing options on surrounding areas through a set of decision criteria adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of any route in terms of its potential impacts. A set of constraints are also defined to help represent/study the decision criteria. Second, a GIS-based system has been created to help visualize route data, interact with users, and support the needed discussions among stakeholders. The portal also achieves data interoperability through wrapping existing geospatial data with ontology structures. Finally, a set of reasoners have been created to help quantify/augment some of the constraints. The system is capable of (1)?extracting the attributes of each routing option, (2)?testing the interaction/conflicts between route attributes and the constraints of the surrounding area, (3)?studying the impacts of a route as stipulated in the ontology, (4)?referring users to existing best practices to help enhance routes or address conflicts and, when needed, (5)?develop objective measures for comparing different routes. On the microlevel (street level), route options are evaluated through a “constraint-satisfaction” approach. On the macrolevel (city level), route options are evaluated through a fuzzy inference scoring system. The proposed system focuses on facility life cycle, sustainability, and community impacts. Construction costing, scheduling, labor, and equipment along with other management issues can either be added to the system or, better, analyzed through integrating the system with four-dimensional (4D) modeling tools.     

发布/订阅系统语义Web匹配算法

将语义Web技术引入发布/订阅系统中,结合领域本体,提出一种智能匹配算法.以双索引哈希邻接表,结合谓词表、变量约束表和变量类型表作为订阅条件RDF图模式的数据结构,采用元语句级匹配计数方法,使原子订阅条件仅匹配一次,原子订阅条件间\     

What Information Can or Cannot Be Exchanged?

What information can or cannot be exchanged between different systems? Since the dawn of the computer-aided design and engineering era, interoperability has been an issue. The exchangeable set of information between different systems has been loosely defined as the intersection of information. Yet, as information flow has directionality, a general definition of “intersection” is inadequate to define an exchangeable set of information. This paper proposes a new directive set operation, semantic intersection, and discusses which information can or cannot be exchanged between different systems using the concept of semantic intersection. This opens up the possibility of predetermining or calculating the exchangeable set of information between two or more systems or the possibility of automated generation of a standard product model between different systems. This paper focuses on data exchange between systems, but the proposed theory is also applicable to data exchange between human beings.     

Determinants of International Architectural, Engineering, and Construction Firms’ Project Success in China

As China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization, many international architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms are undertaking or expected to undertake projects there. This study identifies the significant factors that contribute to the successful performance of projects undertaken by international AEC firms in China. Data were collected using structured questionnaires from foreign (non-Chinese) AEC firms that have completed projects in China. Personal interviews with 27 experts were also conducted to supplement and test the survey findings. The findings reveal that the variable that affects the most number of success measures is the AEC firm’s ability to understand the client’s requirement. Achieving this brings about good project quality performance and owner satisfaction. Furthermore, firms that have superior product or service quality would also achieve better project performance. The interviewees also exhorted the importance of having core competencies as a critical success factor for projects in China. Practitioners may use the findings to help them manage their projects in China, so as to achieve higher levels of success.     

Rationale and design considerations for a semantic mediator in health information systems

Rapid development of community health information networks raises the issue of semantic interoperability between distributed and heterogeneous systems. Indeed, operational health information systems originate from heterogeneous teams of independent developers and have to cooperate in order to exchange data and services. A good cooperation is based on a good understanding of the messages exchanged between the systems. The main issue of semantic interoperability is to ensure that the exchange is not only possible but also meaningful. The main objective of this paper is to analyze semantic interoperability from a software engineering point of view. It describes the principles for the design of a semantic mediator (SM) in the framework of a distributed object manager (DOM). The mediator is itself a component that should allow the exchange of messages independently of languages and platforms. The functional architecture of such a SM is detailed. These principles have been partly applied in the context of the HELIOS object-oriented software engineering environment. The resulting service components are presented with their current state of achievement.     

Applying Concept Similarity to the Evaluation of Common Understanding in Multidisciplinary Learning

The success of an architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) project largely depends on the effective collaboration of project participants. This characteristic of the industry requires that AEC education shall foster multidisciplinary collaboration skills of students. On the other hand, many AEC education programs have started using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to facilitate teaching and learning such as distance learning. One of the challenges in a computer-mediated learning environment arises from the need for computer systems to determine whether a common understanding regarding a certain subject is established among a group of students. To achieve this goal, ICT needs to be able to detect changes in the knowledge structure of students in order to provide better mediation. This paper presents a study on the development of a concept similarity measure that has less computational complexity than graph-based similarity analyses. The similarity measure is intended to determine the similarity of multiple knowledge structures [e.g., concept maps (CMAPs)] of students. The concept similarity measure is developed based on the feature-based method in which propositions associated with a concept are considered as features of the concept. Therefore, the similarity of concepts can be measured by comparing the propositions of the concepts. In addition, since concepts are the key component of a knowledge structure, the common understanding of students can be determined by measuring the similarity of concepts in the knowledge structure of the students. The proposed measure is evaluated by (1) comparing it with the Dice coefficient for analyzing two sets of concepts; (2) analyzing its performance in a generic case of four CMAPs; and (3) applying it to a case using “photovoltaic system” as an example. In this case, results are intuitively obvious so that calculation results can be corroborated by human judgment. Finally, the concept similarity measure is applied to derive the similarity of CMAPs in the case study. Based on the initial evaluations, this study shows that the proposed measure has demonstrated promising features for determining the similarity of multiple knowledge structures or the common understanding of students. However, when the number of knowledge structures increases, concept similarity analyses become more complicated because uncertain situations arise due to ambiguous human perception to propositions that are shared by multiple concepts. Future research is thus needed to understand and clearly define concept similarity in those situations. In addition, other studies are also identified for future research.     

基于图分析的领域知识获取技术

知识获取技术制约着知识系统的研究和应用,有效地从文本中提取领域知识成为知识获取的重要途径.本文提出了基于本体和图分析的领域知识获取技术,分析了本体数据结构、本体概念的实例化以及基于图分析的语义场构造方法.建立了具有广泛适用性的文本知识获取系统框架,实现了原型系统.通过针对中医医案的中医领域知识获取实验验证,取得了较好的效果.     

E-Society Portal: Integrating Urban Highway Construction Projects into the Knowledge City

Community involvement is an important factor for sustainable highway construction. Information and communication technologies provide a new and more effective approach to facilitate community involvement. However, there are too many parameters with conflicting and subjective definitions related to sustainability and too many stakeholders with varying degrees of interest and sophistication. There is a need for an effective tool to communicate project impacts on sustainability to local communities. This paper presents an ontology for stakeholder management and sustainability in highway construction. An ontology is a conceptual semantic model that attempts to capture human knowledge (both explicit and tacit) in a consistent manner. Ontologies include three main elements: a taxonomy (common vocabulary presented in concept trees), set of relationships (linking concepts across trees), and axioms (limitation/constraints on the behavior of concepts). The ontology was used to develop a portal for broadcasting highway design features to local communities. By browsing through the portal, a user can learn about project elements, the impacts of each element on sustainability issues, who is sponsoring such element, and what efforts have been made to reduce any impacts of such elements on local communities.     

Using Digital Socialization to Support Geographically Dispersed AEC Project Teams

In the field of knowledge management research, socialization means to convert individual into group tacit knowledge. This process matters from the outset of an architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) project to enhance collaborative work. Face-to-face meetings and phone calls undoubtedly facilitate socialization. However, meetings can be hard to timetable and expensive when AEC teams are geographically dispersed, whereas phone calls are cheap but offer limited capabilities for problem solving. Further, both media are not good at supporting asynchronous socialization. This study investigates the extent Internet-based media can promote cross-firm socialization and enhance collaborative work. The cross fertilization of findings from an exploratory case study with theory in computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) informs the development of a conceptual framework on digital socialization. This framework underpins IDRAK—a proof-of-concept of a rich Internet application prototype to promote socialization in AEC projects. Our main contribution is the design of a novel methodology to evaluate the usability of digital systems to support socialization at the early design stage of an AEC project. The results from our lab experiments suggest that IDRAK can satisfactorily and efficiently enhance collaborative work. However, more research is needed, first, to evaluate the effectiveness of IDRAK to improve design quality and asynchronous socialization; and second, to investigate how other CSCW features can improve the performance of IDRAK-like systems.     

Resistance to IT Change in the AEC Industry: Are the Stereotypes True?

Information technology (IT) change is difficult to implement successfully. Cultural (people) issues are a major barrier to IT implementation in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry and existing change models have limitations, particularly with respect to cultural issues, which directly affect the ability of companies within the AEC industry to successfully implement IT change. This paper discusses research exploring the relationships between a resistance to change index (RTCI) and the demographics of individuals to understand different AEC participants’ resistance to IT change. Identifying individuals that exhibit different intensities of resistance to IT change efforts and their attendant demographics provides benchmark data to organizations. The ability to identify potential resistors is the first step in helping ensure that new technology implementations succeed. Data was collected from a 156-person sample of the AEC population to determine the relationships among different demographic groups within the AEC population and differences in their RTCI. The data analysis found several demographic groups that were different in their likelihood of resistance, including profession, gender, computer understanding and experience, and awareness of past or future changes occurring in their company. Age and education level were expected to have relationships with RTCI, based on industry stereotypes. The data analysis found that these stereotypes have no scientific basis. Two other stereotypes, gender and computer understanding and experience, were supported by the data analysis.     

Formalization of Construction Sequencing Rationale and Classification Mechanism to Support Rapid Generation of Sequencing Alternatives

Resequencing construction activities is a critical task for project planners for effective project control. Resequencing activities require planners to determine the impact or “role” an activity has on successor activities. They also need to determine the status of activities, i.e., which activities may or may not be delayed. Distinguishing the role and status of activities in turn requires planners to understand the rationale for activity sequences. The current critical path method (CPM) framework, however, represents sequencing rationale using precedence relationships and distinguishes activities only with respect to their time-criticality. Thus, planners find it difficult to keep track of individual sequencing logic, and manually inferring the role and status of activities becomes practically prohibitive in complex project schedules. The research presented in this paper addressed this limitation of the CPM framework by formalizing a constraint ontology and classification mechanism. The ontology allows planners to describe their rationale for activity sequences in a consistent and intuitive way, whereas the classification mechanism leverages the ontology to automatically infer the role and status of activities. The ontology and mechanisms were implemented in a prototype tool. With this tool, users can quickly verify which activities to delay to expedite critical milestone or bottleneck activities, thus making it possible to quickly evaluate and generate sequencing alternatives in CPM-based schedules.     

Enablers That Help Foreign Architectural, Engineering, and Construction Firms Win Construction Contracts in China

With China’s fast economic growth and entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), more foreign architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms are expected to venture into this huge and attractive market. This paper explores the important strategies to help foreign AEC firms clinch construction projects in China. Using a questionnaire survey approach complemented by in-depth interviews, it was found that firms need to pay more attention to the market and working conditions in China and to strengthen their own capabilities. To win projects in China, foreign AEC firms should also be able to offer project financing services. The findings are useful to foreign AEC firms because it may help them win projects in the Chinese construction industry.