we’re excited to seeing you here at Aalto University’s BIM summer school on Monday. We wish you a comfortable and pleasant journey to Helsinki. So we thought we should give you some useful information to help you find yourself around the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

The first thing you would want to know is that the Helsinki Metropolitan Area is composed of four cities, Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Kauniainen that used to be separate from one another in the past but could be seen as the same city today.

The airport is located at Vantaa while the university is at Espoo. You can come to Espoo with a bus, train or taxi and the main location in Helsinki that has many routes to Espoo is called Kamppi.

You can always find information about the best routes from one location to the other with https://www.reittiopas.fi/lahellasi

You can also use this Android application f0r the same thing: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.akiware.andropas

Some even use Google Maps.

More information can be found here:

http://www.aalto.fi/en/about/contact/route_otaniemi/

http://studyguides.aalto.fi/welcomeguide/arrival-and-settling-in/entry-and-residence/continue-your-journey-from-the-airport.html

Regarding the weather conditions, be sure to check this website everyday:

http://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/

See you soon!

AaltoBim research team

Follow us on Twitter @AaltoBim

We hope to see you all in the next BIM breakfast which will be during the summer school on 3rd of June, 2017.

Here we will share some of the pictures of the event.

Please stay in touch with us by our Twitter and Facebook pages: @AaltoBIM and https://www.facebook.com/AaltoBIM/

The DIGIBUILD project will generate added value by combining concurrent strands of digital technology and operational knowledge business models that systematically target performance improvement. This project includes the active development of digitalization solutions, such as energy monitoring, internet of things (IoT), data analytics, together with the dynamics of AEC business and operations. The goal is a technology and performance driven business ecosystem where buildings and building systems in use are continuously improved and renewed to make use of best available solutions. The DIGIBUILD project will develop a roadmap on the design of systems and operational processes for the continuous improvement of the built environment. The project addresses the requirements for systems and processes as well as the principles of implementation.

In DIGIBUILD project, it is proposed to make the performance gap visible – to reveal the gap – as well for different aspects of performance, such as energy and indoor air quality. When this gap is made public for more buildings in use it offers opportunities and implementing improvements. The challenge is to enable businesses to target services and new solutions to those instances where better solutions exist or where potential improvement is greatest, that is, how do we facilitate more efficient allocation of development efforts by designers and service providers while, at the same time helping owners to focus their investment on the most profitable solutions and services.

DIGIBUILD is coordinated by Aalto University School of Science, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management. Jan Holmström, Prof. of Operations Management, is leading and coordinating the interdisciplinary work of the project participants. Since the DIGIBUILD started, there is a continuous and collaborative support to the project by the Finnish companies. The active involvement of Granlund Oy, TA. FIRA Oy and Gravicon will be validating the added value of DIGIBUILD project for the industry via real case studies, business model implementations, and related IT-based developments.

In addition, the strong research background and expertise of Aalto BIM Collaboration will support for the know-how and innovative technology background for DIGIBUILD. The strong collaboration of DIGIBUILD with the state-of-the-art research projects at Aalto BIM Collaboration, such as DRUMBEAT linked data platform, bIoTope open internet of things (IoT) integration and messaging ecosystem and VisuaLynk collective and analytical platform of linked-building data, will contribute DIGIBUILD in terms of its technological advancement and applicability.

In DIGIBUILD, we are looking for new candidates to join our project who have interest/experience/background in operations management, energy systems/management, machine learning, internet of things, web development and built environment for potential the master thesis works, case studies and digitalization developments with our industry partners. Besides, everyone is more than welcome to our internal hackathon event which will be organized in the beginning of December. For more information please contact at Mehmet Yalcinkaya or Jan Holmström

Overview

Digitalization offers new business opportunities that can rapidly grow and scale up within no time. For example, large scale systemic solutions such as AirBnB and Uber have grown into one of the largest global brands within no time, giving little space and time for traditional players in the respectively disrupted domains to adapt and respond to the challenge posed by the growth of such companies. One of the key aspects of both these and similar examples is their focus on services, which in turn comes from lateral thinking rather than large investments. Such possibilities of digitalization driven disruption cannot be ruled out across many other domains, and given that such innovation and disruption needs lateral thinking, and not necessarily huge funding, such disruption can come from unexpected quarters. Consequently, the established players across any of the traditional industries, including real estate and construction, cannot totally ignore such potential threat to their businesses, and they need to explore and prepare for potential opportunities and challenges that can come through digitalization-driven, service-oriented thinking in their respective domains at any given point of time.

Therefore, this project aims to build an ecosystem of Indo-Finnish partners who can collectively explore opportunities for mutual growth in the context of digitalization and service-oriented thinking in built environment.

The objectives are:

1. to create a collaborative network of diverse set of actors from India and Finland who have products or services associated with the real estate and construction business, and who be part of a value chain for the targeted segment
2. to provide a platform for the participating companies and actors to explore new market opportunities and potentially pilot new solutions and business models in their home market as well international markets
3. to build an incubation platform supported by the ecosystem partners where novel and disruptive business models and solutions can be conceived through shared resources and at lower risk
4. to support exchange of expertise and knowledge of complementary markets leading to further opportunities for joint ventures and long-term partnerships between interested actors

Focus areas

While the objective at this stage (Workshop, see page 2) is to allow for an open dialogue and exploration between actors broadly interested in products and services associated with built environment, the following list may serve as an indicator for the potential focus areas:

1. Smart cities related solutions (clean technology, urban infrastructure, mobility and navigation, Health care facilities, energy management, analytics and digital services, etc)
2. Building services (automation systems, indoor air quality, tracking- monitoring-control, security, etc)
3. Space solutions (Housing, office and commercial, space as a service, etc)
4. Construction management and project delivery solutions
5. Real estate related solutions and new business models (e.g. affordable housing, co-working offices, etc)
6. Learning and skills development related solutions
7. Digital services, data management and resource planning

An indicative list of potential range of actors in the proposed ecosystem includes (but not limited to):

1. Construction companies (developers, builders, designers, engineers, property owners, architects, etc)
2. Building services companies (MEP, energy, indoor-air quality, acoustics, lighting, elevators, security, etc)
3. Fabricators and manufacturers (precast, timber products, construction supplies, equipment, etc)
4. Facility management companies, real estate companies, etc
5. ICT solutions providers and software vendors (CAD, BIM, FM solutions, ERP systems, learning solutions, data management services, etc)
6. Companies in the space of sensor-based technologies, Internet of Things, etc
7. Logistics and supply chain
8. Insurance and financial services
9. Facilitators (Academic and research institutes, government agencies, funding agencies, trade associations, etc)

Immediate action plan

We are starting with a workshop on the 6^th of October, 2016 to bring together the interested parties. Two parallel sessions will be simultaneously organized, one in Finland and one in India connected via a video link. More information about the workshop will be announced shortly, but the key agenda of the workshop is:

1. To provide an overview of the proposed project: what, why, how and for whom?
2. To explain the role of potential facilitators such as Tekes, Helsinki Business Hub, Research Universities (Aalto University, IIT Powai, IIT Chennai, etc), FinPro, and their counterparts in India
3. To present sample project ideas with the objective to serve as trigger for brainstorming in the session to follow
4. Break-away sessions [separate in India and Finland] for participants to brainstorm and discuss ideas and areas of interest
5. Discussion on topics discussed and exchange across Indian and Finnish companies (look for a common ground)
6. Recap and conclusion (with identification of the next steps)

Venue: Tekes, Ruoholahti, Porkkalankatu 1, Helsinki

Time: 9.00-13:00

Doodle link: http://doodle.com/poll/v5b2uh5ngncs42ye