Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions

Conference Track:  Government/Industry/University Relationships and Collaborations

Keywords:         remote collaboration, CSCW, teamCAD

Contact Title:   Prof.

Contact First Name: Godfried

Contact Last Name:  Augenbroe

University:       Georgia Tech

Web:              http://www.arch.gatech.edu/phd/

Position:         Professor

Country:          USA

Email:            fried.augenbroe@arch.gatech.edu

Fax:              404-894-1629

Paper Title: 

Project management issues in e-Engineering projects with LA firms

Abstract: 

The paper addresses the management of outsourced engineering jobs over Internet. Based on recent advances in groupware and workflow management tools, the prospect of outsourcing certain types of routine engineering work (such as CAD and GIS production) to remote locations was recognised in the late 90s as a promising application of electronic business.  The paper reports on a European funded project in this area: CaribCAD (Collaborative Approach to the Realisation of Internet Based CAD). The project was conducted with universities and engineering firms in the Dominican Republic and Guyana. A Pilot project was conducted to show how the digital regeneration of paper drawings could be executed by Latin American firms for European clients. The need for such work is substantial as drawings of a large percentage of the building stock in Europe are only available in paper format.

It is well recognised that a skilled CAD operator workforce is growing in many developing parts of the world. This provides an excellent opportunity to smooth the rapid fluctuation in workloads in the CAD departments of A/E/C firms by outsourcing peak work loads. The CaribCAD Pilot project was set up with novel application of group ware with a strong emphasis on transparent workflow management, configured to supply the right level of support to the remotely collaborating teams. The paper will show how issues of process definition, remotely managed execution and their embodiment in current group ware technology was handled in the pilot project.

 Mailing Address:

Georgia Institute of Technology, Architecture, Doctoral Program

247 Fourth Street, Atlanta, Ga 30332-0155 

Phone: 

* Voice: 404-894-1686  

Authors: 

Godfried Augenbroe (P), Associate Professor

* Georgia Institute of Technology, Architecture, Doctoral Program

* 247 Fourth Street, Atlanta, Ga 30332-0155

* Voice: 404-894-1686 Fax: 404-894-1629