This question sparked an idea and a discussion.

It begged another question, what is a Construction Technologist now, anyhow?

With many teams trying to leverage technology within their organization, it seems wise to begin a discussion and forum centered around defining the role of a Construction Technologist.

Below there is a list of attributes and “duties” that have been thrown out as characteristics and tasks of a Construction Technologist. This is not intended to be a complete list, but just a starting point. A seed to begin more dialogue.

Is this role to be filled by someone from tech? From construction? From elsewhere? What are key traits needed now? How will it evolve in the future?

With those questions posed, let’s look over a quick list of initial thoughts:

A Construction Technologist:

Strives to assure the team has the technology necessary to drive precise, timely, and efficient outcomes for customers
Continually curates tech and workflows that are nimble and fit the business needs to drive better outcomes for customers, employees, and the business.
Experiments with new technologies that fit the jobs the team is trying to complete for the customer
Tackles opportunities for automation that allows team members to focus on customer centric activities — both in the back office and in the field
Assures that data from both internal and external applications all talk, and can be harnessed in a way that allows the business to measure impact, drive new insights, and continuously learn (Becomes Data Sherpa)
Understands technology spend, utilization, and impact
Leverages a toolset and/or team of internal and external resources that assess and implement improvement opportunities
Value stream mapping, metrics based business process mapping, lean, 5S, design thinking, etc.
Has learned the right questions to ask of stakeholders in order to find the true pain points or business needs then is able to translate those back to feature sets of existing technologies or build them into requirements for an internal or external resource to develop
Has to build a network across both technology and construction from all sections and levels, competitors and peers, that allows for the sharing of ideas, concepts, and best practices. Doesn’t need to give away the special sauce, but must open to sharing with others to better the organization and industry.

Technologies being leveraged:

Function specific software applications with open standards of communication
BIM
AR/VR (In the field, In Planning, In Design)
Edge Connectivity — Sensors/IoT (Use cases are broad and will vary by AEC subsegment)
Drones collecting advanced data as an extension of teams
Advanced dictation/audio, camera, and early stage robotics
Exoskeletons
“Smart” tools

The construction technologist should NOT be doing:

LAN/WiFi setup
PC setup
VDC design/management
Job trailer setup
Mobile device management

We tend to try to wear multiple hats in the construction industry. As a result, the “NOTs” tend to blend and get blurred into the “WILLs”, but this is not the best use of the Technologists time and skills.

How do you see the role of the Construction Technologist evolving?

This is merely meant to be a discussion starter. Please comment, share, discuss, and challenge.