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The Connector Lab: Advancing Field Construction Practice at SAIT
THE CONNECTOR LAB: ADVANCING FIELD CONSTRUCTION PRACTICE
By Julie Sengl
Mixed-reality technology introduces virtual 3D model animations or holograms to a physical space.
There’s a construction project under way at SAIT that aims to go way beyond transforming a physical space on campus. While enhancing both teaching and learning experiences by introducing emerging technologies and digital skills development, the Connector Lab is also set to service the lofty goal of advancing field construction practices themselves — here in Calgary and beyond. As part of the existing Founding Builders House Lab, this new learning space provides handson opportunity for students, faculty, and industry to connect and experiment with a full range of advanced digital technologies. Flexing algorithms (think artificial intelligence) and tweaking physicality (think virtual, augmented, and mixed reality) can and will change the way we see things. Seeing things differently can inspire doing things differently: safer, faster, more accurately, and with greater costefficiencies.
SAIT Instructor Fred Bretzke has already started seeing and doing things differently. With support from his Dean, Reva Bond Ramsden, and the School of Advanced Digital Technology (SADT), Bretzke got his hands on Microsoft’s Hololens2, a mixedreality device with which he can introduce a virtual 3D model animation or hologram to a physical space (a room or “holodeck”). The technology enhances the students’ normal line of sight by visually (virtually) penetrating walls, floors, and other physical impediments. Formerly abstract ins and outs of the subtrades — plumbing, HVAC, and electrical — become clear. The complexities of how everything works and interconnects become evident at a glance.
Apprenticeships have long been a staple in the construction industry. Handson is handsdown the best way to accelerate individual uptake when learning the trades. Visual, experiential learning provides context, and that helps make things make sense. With new digital technology, handson makes light work of the heavy lifting.
“I can make the 3D models sit in the palm of my hand, or I can augment it to
a full onetoone or onetoten scale,” says Bretzke. The Hololens2 turns the user’s fingers into digital avatars that can effortlessly manipulate the animation. “I can walk my students through the buildings. They see what I see on their computers and can ask questions. It’s the perfect teaching tool.”
Bretzke designed mixedreality 3D models complete with power, water, and drainage systems for his entire fourthyear curriculum. “I did it manually on my computer with each twohour lesson taking about two weeks for me to build.” While that’s not a sustainable approach, he has since found the solution in leveraging additional advanced digital technology already available elsewhere on campus.
New 360degree digitizing cameras used in Building Information Modelling (BIM) can build digital models in under an hour. “You plant one of these cameras in the middle of a room and it digitizes the whole space for you in no time.”
Bretzke put a different spin on ‘mixedreality’ for another tool in his arsenal. He had tradespeople design and build a wooden dollhousesize structure that students in the subtrades could use to practise plumbing and electrical roughins. He then started 3Dprinting a stockpile of various pipe fittings made to scale. High tech can have lowtech applications. “Students can put it together like Lego.”
The Connector Lab is expanding on Bretzke’s work in the pipe trades. It will have an interdisciplinary reach that includes all of SAIT’s preemployment and technology students from architecture, engineering, and construction, having a big positive impact for facility management in the owneroperator industry.
“We are opening up the space for industry to bring forward their problems so we can explore solutions together,” says Ramsden. It will be a welcoming hub to touch and try out digital technology for multiple applications. In addition to registered programming and industrydriven events, the space will host exploration and experience sessions, and brain exchanges where industry people can come to share their ideas, their challenges, and their insights.
“By embedding digital technology in how we teach, we’re also embedding it in how we build,” says Ramsden. “We’ll be graduating students who have that mindset and experience when they enter the workforce. And we have evidence that, because they know exactly what they’re
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building, they build faster and more accurately, which translates into a safer workplace and cost savings for companies.”
Industry faces two fundamental roadblocks when navigating the digital transformation. Digital equipment tends to be very expensive, and finding a crew that knows how to optimize its use can be a challenge. By embedding the technology in the curriculum and apprenticeship training, SAIT is making sure its graduates have and can carry those skills and capabilities into the workforce. By equipping the Connector Lab and opening it up to the community, it’s enabling access to advanced tech.
“Wherever you are in your journey, SAIT can help build your confidence, capacity, and capabilities,” says Ramsden. Reach out with questions, or see for yourself by booking some time in the lab at construction.info@sait.ca. n
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