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Session 1606 Implementation of Project Specific Web Sites in a Capstone Design Course

Douglas C. Stahl, Michael McGeen, Craig Capano, J. Michael Hassler, Larry Groser Milwaukee School of Engineering

Abstract

Project Specific Web Sites (PSWS) promise to revolutionize the way designers, constructors, and owners process and transmit information regarding a design/construction project. The PSWS can be thought of as a clearinghouse for project data, including text, graphical, and video data ranging from contracts and meeting minutes to final drawings and construction images. It can also be the center for real-time collaborative work, with participants in remote locations sharing and modifying images and other data. The capstone projects in the Architectural Engineering and Building Construction Department at Milwaukee School of Engineering are an ideal forum within which to experiment with this new mode of communication. During their entire senior year, our students work in multidisciplinary teams with a group of faculty specialists to develop a complete architectural, engineering, and construction management solution to a real client’s building needs. The PSWS is the mode for faculty and students to communicate regarding course and assignment requirements, but more importantly it is the mode for students to organize, archive, and display their work. This paper describes some of the issues we have addressed during implementation of PSWS in the capstone projects. These include creation of hierarchies of data and hierarchies of rights to see or modify data in the PSWS, as well as strategies for presenting the concept of PSWS to students and faculty.

I. Introduction

Financial realities have encouraged the growth in popularity of the “design-build” concept, where planning, design and construction of a building take place simultaneously. The design- build team may consist of hundreds of people representing dozens of specialty design and construction firms. Successful implementation of this method requires quick and accurate transmission of information, responses to questions, and notifications of changes. Ninety-four percent of architectural firm principals responding to a recent study said that automating the collaboration process is a primary goal for the next five years.6 Some of the key players in the building and civil structures construction field are beginning to recognize the power of the World Wide Web as a communication tool. The most progressive firms are beginning to use the web as a network for multimedia communication among the design/construction team members. “By erasing distances, small firms are becoming big firms; barriers between disciplines are falling; and work that used to mean getting on an airplane and flying to a meeting or endlessly shuttling drawings back and forth by FedEx is being done in, as they say, real time.”1 This idea has been implemented to various levels of sophistication as “project-specific web sites.” Faculty

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McGeen, M., & Groser, L., & Hassler, J. M., & Stahl, D. C., & Capano, C. (1999, June), Implementation Of Project Specific Web Sites In A Capstone Design Course Paper presented at 1999 Annual Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina. 10.18260/1-2--7716