SpecifiedBy, a company that works to offer a search and comparison capability to help architects and professionals in the construction industry to research the building products that they specify, has announced that they will be working in collaboration with the University of Glasgow with funding and support from The Data Lab and the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre.
The project that will be worked on by this collaboration will lead to the development of innovative tools and processes that use Artificial Intelligence, or AI, machine learning, big data and natural language processing technologies in order to automatically convert technical construction product information which is then contained within unstructured, static documents and websites into structured digital data assets.
The Founder and CEO of SpecifiedBy, Darren Lester has said that as consumers, it is getting more and more convenient to search and compare prices for a range of services and products when shopping online. However, the same cannot be said about the construction industry., which means that the same process seems slow and laborious in comparison. It is a great leap forward to use the same principles that are favoured by consumers to increase competitiveness in the construction industry and help clients, architects and professionals get the best deal for the work they want carrying out.
The new technology that will be worked on by the University of Glasgow and SpecifiedBy has the potential to lead to the automation of this search process and transform construction, turning it into a digital industry. The support that the collaborative team have received from The Data Lab and Construction Scotland Innovation Centre will help this project to go further and create a beneficial service for the construction industry.
The project, when developed further, will be put to use to help construction product manufacturers all across the UK, and will help them to independently transition their own technical construction product information into digital assets that can be easily managed and then put to use in the industry.
