ITcon Vol. 26, pg. 144-158, http://www.itcon.org/2021/9

The Bimbot: mediating technology for enacting coordination in teamwork collaboration

DOI:10.36680/j.itcon.2021.009
submitted:August 2020
revised:April 2021
published:April 2021
editor(s):Amor R
authors:Ivan Mutis
Assistant Professor, Civil and Architectural Engineering, Director of the iConSenSe Laboratory,
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA,
imutissi@iit.edu

Adithya Ramachandran
Graduate Student, Computer Science,
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA,
ar1@hawk.iit.edu
summary:Today, BIM technologies in collaborative practice are widespread among construction project stakeholders. However, embracing either distributed or collocated tasks in collaborative practices is a complex, challenging activity. Each team member (actor) views collaborative design problems from a different ‘lens’, framed by the realities of their disciplines, experiences, and levels of engagement on tasks. The effect is a practice prone to conflict generation and misunderstandings among actors. BIM technologies and teamwork should be configured to adapt to one another in practice dynamically. The configuration should enable the effective performance of distributed and collocated work tasks. The presented study investigates these configurations to reveal constitutive aspects of how work should be executed in practice. The study focuses on adapting technology and teamwork to reveal a more effective way of delivering distributed and collocated work tasks. To explore the research question, two components were developed: a theoretical framework and a technology conceptualization. The framework presents fundamental constitutive elements in the coordination process. It illustrates the key aspects that draw the configurations of technology and teamwork. The technology concept is a design to assist in the execution of the tasks for coordination activities. It addresses the constitutive aspects of coordination for BIM processes in practice. The technology concept, named BIMbot, is a cognitive assistant that informs and advises on activities, engages team members together in a task, and facilitates fundamental actions for shared understandings, physical support, and informed advice. This paper contributes to shedding light on the difficulties for team members to reach a shared understanding of knowledge when they use BIM technologies. It presents the first development of the design of technology that provides actionable information to coordinate activities.
keywords:Cognitive Intelligent Agent, Coordination, BIM room, Cognitive Computing, Mediating Technology
full text: (PDF file, 0.675 MB)
citation:Mutis I, Ramachadran A (2021). The Bimbot: mediating technology for enacting coordination in teamwork collaboration, ITcon Vol. 26, pg. 144-158, https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2021.009
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