WEBCAST PRESENTATIONS

Moderator: Ken Young, AIA, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, HOK

Ken Young is senior vice president and chief information officer for HOK, a global architectural firm that specializes in planning, design and delivery solutions for buildings and communities. He is a member of HOK’s Board of Directors. As chief information officer, his primary focus is strategic leadership in evolving the practice to integrate and leverage technology. He leads HOK’s 60-person Advanced Technology Group. Ken is a co-founder of the AEC Information System Roundtable, a peer-to-peer network of IT leaders from technologically focused design industry firms and a member of the AIA Large Firm Roundtable on IT.

Building Better Projects and Client Relationships Using Integrated BIM and IPD
David Odeh, PE, SECB, Principal, Odeh Engineers, Inc.

New technology and contract delivery methods are transforming AEC industry. When properly implemented, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) can help AEC professionals build better projects, but also better client relationships. These new tools allow the architects and engineers to become better integrated into the overall process of design and construction. Architects and engineers can assume a more central role in the decision-making process, and influence the fundamental nature of a building’s design and construction. This presentation will explore several models for design and construction integration using BIM and IPD and demonstrate how they can help to build stronger business relationships for project team members.

David Odeh is a principal at Odeh Engineers, Inc., a leading structural design and consulting firm in the New England region. His experience includes high rise structures, academic and institutional buildings, forensic engineering and structural investigation, and the adaptive reuse and preservation of historic buildings. Over the last three years, he has helped manage the firm’s transition to Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology for most of its design work. David is on the adjunct faculty in Engineering at Brown University in Providence. He also teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design and he has delivered guest lectures at the Boston Architectural College and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Social Media and the AEC Industry
Jim Jacobi, PE, Senior Principal & CIO, Walter P Moore

The AEC industry is experiencing the entry of various social media venues for communicating in new and unique ways. This presentation will explore the perceived and realized benefits of different social media types as applied to the business model used by the AEC industry. The presenter will explore the following areas, among others: catalog/statistics of social media technologies; computing risks and security issues associated with social media sites; legal considerations; electronic communication expanded and redefined; examples of social media sites and their business use in AEC; sustainable content management models; and the value proposition for AEC players.

Jim Jacobi is a senior principal and chief information officer for Walter P Moore, one of the leading engineering consulting firms in the nation with offices nationwide. In this position, he is responsible for the firm’s overall information technology strategy and programs. He has over 30 years of experience in engineering design, project management and construction with a special expertise in application of information technology to this field.

Adopting High-Performance Virtual Workstations (HPVW) for the Design Industry
Chris Pinckney, Chief Information Officer, Psomas

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) has never been closer to working for the design industry. Not only are the technologies catching up, but the recession has placed an onus on controlling fixed costs, including minimizing office rent, going mobile where the work is, supporting geographically dispersed project teams, eliminating small office server storage, downscaling workstation/laptop refreshes, and cloud computing collaboration. Adding to the motivation is a drive to be more “green” — with this approach requiring fewer high-performance desktop computers. This presentation will explore VDI from various perspectives and corporate motivations. The presenter will discuss both the technologies and the change leadership necessary in adopting truly high-performing virtual workstations.

Chris Pinckney has been in the IT business for over seventeen years. Starting with a background in GIS at ESRI, Chris was at the forefront of dynamic Internet Map Services. As Psomas’s first Webmaster, Chris led the development efforts of the company’s award-winning Intrane. Chris became Psomas’ Chief Information Officer in 2005. Responsible for all facets of Psomas information technology, Chris brings to the role a strong sense of innovation, collaboration, and a healthy mix of project management and process improvement philosophies.

Improving Disaster Recovery at Remote Locations: Critical Processes and Technologies
Wes Owen, Senior IT Performance Manager, Black & Veatch, LLP

Data protection is one of the most important elements of any disaster recovery strategy. To improve data back-up and replication processes, reduce costs, and mitigate the very real risk of data loss, HNTB embarked on a strategic initiative to eliminate tape-based back-up at its 70 remote sites. In this session, the speaker will examine the various phases of implementing network attached storage, de-duplication and replication technologies. The presenter will share how HNTB is quickly, consistently and reliably virtualizing, de-duplicating, backing up and replicating 90 Terabytes of data from remote offices over the Wide Area Network. The speaker will also examine both the cost-avoidance and cost-savings impact of their approach.

Wes Owen is senior IT performance manager for Black & Veatch, LLP. Previously, he served as manager of infrastructure services for HNTB, a Kansas City based engineering and architectural firm, where he worked in different IT Management roles for 14 years. Wes has been involved with projects including storage implementations of SAN, NAS, and CAS, along with de-duplication projects with EMC/Data Domain products to centralize and eliminate tape from the backup environment.

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