Heriot-Watt University, the first British university to set up a campus in Dubai International Academic City in 2005, and with a five-star rating in the Higher Education Classification by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), today announced the launch of its Centre of Excellence in Smart Construction (CESC) at its Dubai campus. Targeted at providing a creative environment for collaboration between multidisciplinary research teams, industry and the UAE government to solve challenges facing the construction sector, CESC will undertake internationally recognised research and industry engagement, aim to be a hub for stakeholder engagement as well as be a model for collaborative research and business discussions.
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Ammar Kaka, Provost of Heriot-Watt University Dubai said, “As one of the leading universities with a campus in the UAE, we offer world-class research expertise. At the same time, we work hard to share this expertise and lead and participate extensively in knowledge transfer activities which helps local businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity. Our newly launched Centre of Excellence in Smart Construction is an excellent example of this, and we hope to help the construction industry overcome key business challenges as well as prepare the next generation of qualified construction professionals.”
The research themes at CESC will be aligned to the key sector challenges and will therefore focus on the themes of Productivity and Performance, Sustainability and Health and Safety and Welfare. With a focus on enabling technologies, the first theme of Productivity and Performance will aim to improve the efficiency of the construction industry by promoting and sharing information relating to the latest trends and technological developments, which in turn will lead to improvements in quality, reliability and reduction in project variations, their duration and costs. As part of the Sustainability objective, CESC will work to increase the levels of social, economic and environmental sustainability of the construction industry, leading to a reduction in energy consumption and carbon emissions across the full life cycle of a project. And finally, CESC is also committed to enhancing the construction industry’s health and safety performance and workforce welfare standards.
Following its launch, a number of companies have already committed to be part of CESC, including ASGC, Jacobs, Mott MacDonald and ALEC, with more to soon follow.
Abdul Aziz Mohamed Bin Shafar, Vice President and Executive Director of ASGC, one of the leading construction groups in the UAE, said: “We strongly support the idea of building connections between academia and industry. A collaborative approach will enable us to better learn from one another, addressing the future challenges and finding innovative solutions to the construction sector, and thus establishing a solid foundation for the next generation to achieve new highs. ASGC’s relationship with Heriot-Watt University is long-standing, and we will continue to support the educational sector in order to nurture the talents of tomorrow.”
Jim Parker, Country Manager at Mott MacDonald and one of industry partner at CESC said, “We are proud and delighted to be an inaugural member of the Centre of Excellence in Smart Construction; and look forward to incubating and developing innovative solutions to the perennial challenges of digital connectivity, physical mobility and spatial proximity in one of the most exciting cities with a world class university.”
Commenting on the programme, Severin Tenim, Strategic Project Manager at ALEC and another member of CESC said, “Collaboration unlocks enormous potential and is an essential ingredient for any stakeholder wishing to remain relevant in today’s rapidly changing world.”
This initiative will provide the industry with access to the University’s academics from multiple programs who are experts in their respective subjects as well as access to existing research centres, prototyping and test equipment.
The CESC initiative is part of Heriot-Watt University’s commitment to industry-academia collaboration – the University believes that industry partnership succeeds only when both parties have a shared goal and it does this by undertaking funded research which is aligned to the needs of industry. Research* indicates that the UAE construction market is expected to register a CAGR of 5.5% between 2019 and 2024, and that the combined value of active construction projects has exceeded USD 818.2 billion or approximately AED 3 trillion.