Conducted special lectures regarding the leading practices of i-Construction Day3 (November 20, 2020) started with a special lecture on "Promotion of i-Construction" by Mr. Kenjiro Hirose, Construction Productivity Improvement Promotion Officer, Technical Research Division, Minister's Secretariat, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. First, he touched on the current situation surrounding public technology, such as the aging of construction workers and the movement to review long working hours, and explained the prospects for solving problems by utilizing i-Construction and new technologies. In addition to expanding the types of ICT construction work, improving the efficiency of on-site work, and leveling the construction time, he also introduced the method of introducing new technologies, new construction methods, and new materials by connecting the entire construction project with 3D data and the movement towards the international standardization. Overall, he explained the importance of system development and support for the entry of small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, he introduced comprehensive efforts, including topics such as promoting the use of digital technology for remote work triggered by COVID-19, and digital transformation in the infrastructure field.

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister's Secretariat Engineering Affairs Division Director for Construction Productivity Improvement Mr. Kenjiro Hirose

In the first half of the afternoon of Day3, a special lecture entitled "Recent Efforts for National Resilience" was given by Mr. Yasushi Yamamoto, Counselor of the National Resilience Promotion Office of the Cabinet Secretariat. He introduced the outline and implementation status of "three-year emergency measures" that are being promoted in the wake of a series of major disasters occurred in recent years, including the "necessity of national resilience" and its definition, which are shown based on the data of disasters that have occurred so far. He also explained the ongoing activities in the future, providing examples such as excavation of rivers, raising of embankments, deployment of private power generation equipment in hospitals, measures against inundation of airport terminals, and expansion of mobile base stations. Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of cooperation between local governments and private companies as an initiative to promote national resilience, introducing the promotion of "mutual assistance" including the support for local governments utilizing on-site lectures, BCP formulation by calling on the private sector, provision of disaster prevention products and services, dissemination and enlightenment, and human resource development.		Cabinet Secreteary National Resilience Promotion Office Counsellor, Minister's Secretariat Mr. Yasushi Yamamoto

In addition, the person in charge of our company gave a presentation to introduce the latest functions and application examples in each of the three fields of VR / UC-1 design series / FEM analysis, with product demonstrations.

In "IM & VR ~ VR Digital Platform for Improving Productivity in the DX Era ~" focuses on the details of the VR digital platform that is the core of FORUM8's DX solution, including our latest solutions Data Eraser Suite, Construction Accounting Software Suite, and the Virtual Showroom. In "UC-1 Design Series BIM / CIM Initiatives and Future Prospects", we explained attribute information, number of construction works, guidelines and requirements, online electronic delivery, etc. as the readiness for CIM, and introduced the new product Parametric Tools as our future prospects. Furthermore, in "FORUM8's FEM analysis solution", we explained latest development examples combined with Engineer's Studio® functions, analysis examples from BIM models by FEMLEEG and examples considering construction step, liquefaction support of Geo Engineer's Studio and analysis examples of the impact of neighboring construction.

Award winners

Juries (from the left): Prof. Hiromichi Yoshikawa, Prof. Masaru Morita, Prof. Akihiko Wakai

Rational and proprietary technical proposals accumulate, expecting further expansion

Prior to the event, the jury chairman Prof. Hiromichi Yoshikawa (Professor Emeritus, Tokyo City University), and the jury members Prof. Masaru Morita (Vice President and Professor of Urban Environmental Engineering Laboratory, Civil Engineering Department, Shibaura Institute of Technology) and Prof. Akihiko Wakai (Professor of Science and Engineering Department, Gunma University) conducted a final review on the nominated works related to structural analysis (civil engineering / architecture), geotechnical engineering, water engineering, and disaster prevention. After careful consideration by the juries, Grand Prix, 2nd Prize, and 3 Honorable Judge Award have been selected, and the award ceremony was held on November 20th, Day 3 of the FORUM8 Design Festival.

The Grand Prix was awarded to Nihon Suiko Consultant Co.,Ltd in recognition of their outstanding work “Comparison of seismic test result by using 2D and 3D model of existing water tank - Validity of analysis and verification in different models –“ that demonstrated excellent use of Engineer's Studio® for designing a strong water tank structure in terms of seismic stability and for conducting a seismic test. 2D section models are often used for designing water tank structure, but the validity of the models are sometimes unreliable when the shape is complex or the size is unique. In this work, the test is conducted by using 2D section models as usual at first. After that, as a proposal, 3D models using plate element same as the actual structure are created and analyzed to compare the results between 2D model and 3D model. The jury chairman Prof. Hiromichi Yoshikawa commented “There are many consultants that are having a hard time deciding whether to use 2D models or 3D models for designing water tank structures or structures on a pond, and this work specifically presented a good example of how to combine 2D models and 3D models together to get excellent results to such consultants. This is what makes this work so great.”

The 2nd Prize (Excellence Award) was awarded to Naigai Engineering Co., Ltd. in recognition of their excellent work “Seismic performance test using observed seismic motion - Seismic performance test for headworks and comparison of damage –“. They explained “With the increasing demands for seismic test and seismic countermeasure in recent years, it is necessary to understand the degree of lack of seismic performance of each facility in order to determine the necessity and priority of seismic measures among many facilities. At that time, the assessment based on the actual situation will result in the efficient seismic measure and cost reduction.” They used Engineer's Studio® to demonstrate an excellent example of verifying the seismic performance of the headworks by using actual observed seismic motion and comparing the consistency of damage status between the actual damage situation and the test result. Prof. Morita commented “The close examination that they demonstrated through their work, and the high degree of perfection that they brought their work to should be credited, and this is why they were selected as a winner of the Excellence award.”

Lastly, the jury chairman Prof. Yoshikawa summarized the significance of NaRDA by stating “The whole objective of NaRDA is to demonstrate a specific theme that contributes to disaster prevention and national resilience through your project and present that theme on a single panel, rather than in an academic paper or on a design calculation sheet.” Next year, he expects to see more projects that present their ideas in an even more understandable way using schematics and numerical values skillfully, as he expressed his hopes for further participation in the coming year.