Steven J. O’Neill Lectures on Risk Management in Construction

Steven J. O’Neill Lectures on Risk Management in Construction

Steven J. O'Neill, a lawyer specializing in construction law and litigation, recently provided us with what may well be described as the one of the most important guest lectures for the professional careers of for our students. He spoke about risk management in construction and provided many examples to underscore his points. Synopsis A practical and legal overview of the risks involved in design and construction projects and how to successfully manage them. Links Presentation Slides Blog post: Risk Management – How to Avoid the Construction Wheel of Misfortune Law Offices of Steven J O'Neill ...
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UMass RCMC Team Takes 11th Place at International Builders Show

UMass RCMC Team Takes 11th Place at International Builders Show

BCT's National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) student chapter worked relentlessly through the 2017 Fall semester on their submission of the Residential Construction Management Competition (RCMC) proposal. The 26-student team broke top 11 out of 35 schools in this national competition, after presenting their project at the International Builders Show (IBS) in Orlando, FL. Each year, the NAHB holds the RCMC competition, in which 2-year and 4-year college teams are given an open-ended problem statement that serves the basis of their proposal and presentation at the International Builders Show. This year’s problem statement offered a 7-lot site in Okemos, MI of which teams had to develop and assess the feasible profitability. The team decided to develop 151 houses and declared that the project would ultimately be profitable. The proposal included sections on market analysis, sales, project management, sustainability, design, finance, and estimating. The UMass team consisted of architecture, BCT, civil, real estate, and marketing majors, and each student brought unique strengths to...
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BCT’s ‘False Color’ Exhibit is Open!

BCT’s ‘False Color’ Exhibit is Open!

From now to October 28th, 2017, UMass students, faculty, and the general public are invited to visit the UMass Design Building Gallery during opening hours (9am - 4pm on weekdays) to view BCT's latest exhibition on all things related to "False Color" visualizations. Showcasing work by our faculty and graduate students, this exhibition visually (and interactively) explores the various technologies of our research: stress analysis, energy analysis, thermography, laser scanning, and more... BCT would like to especially thank Trimble Inc. for their support through our Trimble Technology Lab. We are also tremendously grateful to Peter Chrzanowski, Sharon Mehrman, and Alexander Okscin for their invaluable hands-on help in putting this exhibition together. The following synopsis explains our thoughts on this exhibition: As engineers, scientists and designers we are often faced with data that is not immediately comprehensible in its raw form, consisting solely of numeric values and ranges. Either the volume of such data is too large to lend itself to easy evaluation or it is too limited...
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Photos: Design Building and Trimble Technology Lab Opening Celebration

Photos: Design Building and Trimble Technology Lab Opening Celebration

With the UMass Design Building official opening celebration a little more than a week ago, it is finally time for us to post some pictures. The event also saw the opening of the new Trimble Technology Lab. Most of the images below are by UMass photographer Thomas Kendall and the rest is from us. If you are interested in seeing more of the press coverage of the event, check out our Design Building press review. Links: Design Building Trimble Technology Lab ...
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Schreyer Authors New Edition of ‘Fundamentals of Residential Construction’

Schreyer Authors New Edition of ‘Fundamentals of Residential Construction’

Alexander Schreyer, director of the building and construction technology (BCT) program, has revised and expanded “Fundamentals of Residential Construction” to produce the fourth edition of the guide to professional construction of single-family and multifamily homes. Schreyer joins Edward Allen, formerly of MIT, Yale University and the University of Oregon, and Robert Thallon of the University of Oregon, who wrote the book’s previous editions. The new edition, which is being published by John Wiley & Sons, promises to be essential to the process of learning about residential construction, according to the publisher. “Construction is a slow-changing industry, but it changes, and keeping up with that is really important,” said Schreyer. “It was really exciting to be able to join this book as one of the authors so we can keep pushing the envelope and teach about residential construction. There are lots of people that need to know about it, want to know about it, and want to be builders or build their own...
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