Civil engineering structures, which by their nature tend to be unique, provide few if any opportunity for mass production because of the "one of a kind'' production environment. This in turn creates a special need for innovations in design and construction processes that are peculiar to this profession. Today, in most cases, planning, design, construction operation and maintenance are separated by disciplines and executed in phases, in an adversary environment and with little interaction between phases and disciplines. The vertical and horizontal fragmentation of the design/construction industry reduces quality and increases the life cycle costs of the final product. Our research in this area is concerned with the structural engineering aspects of facility engineering, but from the viewpoint of integration with all other disciplines involved in the process. Research in design construction integration is conducted in the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE), the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center and the Project-Based Learning Laboratory.

Current areas of research include:

• Development of knowledge-based systems to incorporate construction knowledge into the design process in order to improve constructability.
• Design, construction and performance of nonstructural components.
• Development of probabilistic functions to simulate their performance based on structural response parameters.
• Application of new sensing technologies based on micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) together with wireless communications and smaller and more powerful microprocessors to monitor construction operations in real-time.
• Development of new efficient structural systems that result in structures that have better performance and are easier to build, operate and maintain.
• Advanced simulation and visualization of erection construction processes for the development of computer-assisted erection systems.
• Development, testing, deployment, and assessment of new workspaces and information technologies, processes, learning and work cultures and approaches to foster cross-disciplinary, multi-cultural, collaborative, geographically distributed teamwork and eLearning.
  

For more information on the Design Construction Integration Program please see their website.

PBL (Problem-,Project-,Product-,Process-,People-Based Learning)

The master builder's atelier in the information age is the vision behind the integrated research and curriculum in architecture/ engineering/construction (A/E/C) global teamwork program (CEE222/122). CEE222/122 is one of the core courses in the DCI program and engages students from the S&G, CEM and DCI students. This program was established in 1993 and has evolved from an experimental Stanford course into a global teamwork learning environment. Its current goal is to become a world leader in A/E/C global teamwork. Its mission is to educate the next generation of professionals who know how to:

• Team up with professionals from other disciplines, and
• Leverage collaboration and information technologies to produce higher quality products, faster and more economical.

The A/E/C master builder's atelier, i.e., the PBL Lab and the A/E/C global teamwork program are based on a PBL pedagogical approach, where PBL stands for Problem, Project-, Product-, Process-, People- based LearningTM. The objectives are to develop, test, deploy, and assess radically new work spaces, information and collaboration technologies, processes, learning and work culture and approaches for cross-disciplinary, collaborative, geographically distributed teamwork.

The core atom in the A/E/C global teamwork program is the A/E/C team. One of the innovative features of this program is the role each of the participants play, i.e., undergraduate students play the role of apprentices to MSc students who play the role of journeyman in the A/E/C team. Faculty and industry practitioners play the role of mentors, owners, and sponsors. Over the years global partners have joined the program from Europe, Japan, and US. Students from architecture, structural engineering, and construction management from several countries have been involved: United States - Stanford University, UC-Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Kansas University, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; Japan - Aoyama Gakuin, Tokyo; Stanford Japan Center, Kyoto; Europe - TU Delft, Netherlands, ETH Zurich and FHA in Switzerland, Bauhaus University Weimar Germany, University of Ljubljana Slovenia, KTH Stockholm in Sweden. All the A/E/C teams are geographically distributed over two to four locations and time zones. This authentic experience challenges students to cross four chasms: A/E/C cross-disciplinary project-based teamwork, use of information and collaboration technologies, team coordination over time, space, and culture. The PBL Lab integrates cutting edge information technology and mature research software prototypes developed at CIFE, at Stanford. It offers a wide range of information and collaboration technologies, such as video conferencing, video streaming, project Web portals, team discussion forums, building modeling, visualization and direct interactive manipulation applications and devices, Internet2, wireless network for seamless roaming on campus and mobile devices.