FIATECH, a member-led, industry consortium that provides global leadership in identifying and accelerating the development, demonstration and deployment of emerging and innovative technologies and practices, recognized and honored 13 organizations and individuals for their extraordinary work in developing and deploying innovative engineering and construction technologies last night at the 5th annual CETI Award Gala in Chandler, Arizona. FIATECH established the CETI (Celebration of Engineering & Technology Innovation) Award in 2006 to promote and showcase innovative construction-related technologies that benefit the capital projects industry. The CETI Award is given annually to organizations that have conducted new and emerging technology implementations as well as research and development.

The panel of jurors who reviewed and evaluated the nomination included John McQuary, vice president, knowledge management and technology strategies, Fluor, (CETI chair); John Fish, director of project support services, Ford, Bacon & Davis; Mani Golparvar-Fard, Ph.D., assistant professor, Virginia Tech; Lisa Grayson, program advisor, ExxonMobil; Kevin Hart, vice president and business information officer, Kaiser Permanente Information Technology; Tom Sawyer, information technology editor, Engineering News-Record; S. Shyam Sunder, Ph.D., director, Engineering Laboratory, NIST; Duane Toavs, director, Human Centered Design Institute, Emerson Process Management.

2010 CETI Recipients

SCENARIO-BASED PROJECT PLANNING CATEGORY: Patient Care Pavilion IPD Team Next Level Hospital Planning

This project used an integrated project delivery approach coupled with the philosophies of scenario-based planning on the patient care pavilion at the Alta Bates Summit medical campus in Oakland, California. The project team utilized the latest BIM tools to continually coordinate the multitude of disciplines needed in a state-of-the-art healthcare facility.

All team members were able to access the live model through the use of multiple off-site servers. The entire team met early in the process to identify the key elements to be included in the model relative to the projected value from coordinating that information. Team members were able to collaborate, in person or virtually, in real time while identifying conflicts and design priorities. By keeping the model live, changes were streamlined, reducing the design schedule even further.

The team invested a significant amount of time to model and coordinate the exterior wall system, a scope historically not modeled. More than 4,000 clashes have been identified and resolved. The team undertook a cost study based on the top 17 clashes that were identified as issues that would have been otherwise undetected and consequently unresolved prior to on-site installation and construction. That study resulted in an estimated cost savings of more than $1.8 million in problems that the team resolved prior to construction starting. Due to the phased-review process, the team adjusted the construction drawings during permitting, saving an estimated $500,000 in change orders.