Constructing a Virtual Reality revolution

A Teesside audience will be treated to an insight into Construction Innovation and the use of Virtual Reality (VR) in construction planning at the next in the free professorial lecture series hosted by the University of Teesside.

The illustrated talk by Professor Nash Dawood, Professor in Construction Management and Information Technology, takes place in the University Cinema in the Europa Building, off Woodlands Road, Middlesbrough, on Wednesday 7 March, at 6.30pm. The event is open to the general public and light refreshments will be available from 6pm.

Professor Dawood joined Teesside in 1991 and recently helped to lead a successful bid for a £750,000 collaborative research contract from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council. This has seen the University’s Construction Engineering group and Virtual Reality Centre build a system to recreate the construction process using VR applications to pinpoint potential problems before moving on site.

Professor Dawood’s lecture ‘Construction Innovation – a Revolution: The Teesside Contribution’ will explore how Teesside’s Virtual Construction site-planning system could help revolutionise an industry which has been around since before the Egyptians built the Pyramids.

Said Professor Dawood: “The UK construction industry is big business and employs about 1.4 million people, but it is not as efficient as it could be and needs to change its traditional methods of procuring, working and running construction projects. Utilising Information Technologies could play an important role in improving business practice in the industry and the VR models we have developed to rehearse construction schedules could have a major impact in reducing costs and improving good practice.”

The lecture will also explore other current research projects related to the construction industry taking place on Teesside, including a project concerned with ‘re-engineering’ of brickwork construction, by developing suitable strategies for both pre-assembled and on-site conventional construction brickwork.

---