TY - JOUR A1 - Aziz, Zeeshan A1 - Anumba, Chimay A1 - Miles, John T1 - Towards a Semantic Grid Computing Platform for Disaster Management in Built Environment N2 - Current disaster management procedures rely primarily on heuristics which result in their strategies being very cautious and sub-optimum in terms of saving life, minimising damage and returning the building to its normal function. Also effective disaster management demands decentralized, dynamic, flexible, short term and across domain resource sharing, which is not well supported by existing distributing computing infrastructres. The paper proposes a conceptual framework for emergency management in the built environment, using Semantic Grid as an integrating platform for different technologies. The framework supports a distributed network of specialists in built environment, including structural engineers, building technologists, decision analysts etc. It brings together the necessary technology threads, including the Semantic Web (to provide a framework for shared definitions of terms, resources and relationships), Web Services (to provide dynamic discovery and integration) and Grid Computing (for enhanced computational power, high speed access, collaboration and security control) to support rapid formation of virtual teams for disaster management. The proposed framework also make an extensive use of modelling and simulation (both numerical and using visualisations), data mining (to find resources in legacy data sets) and visualisation. It also include a variety of hardware instruments with access to real time data. Furthermore the whole framework is centred on collaborative working by the virtual team. Although focus of this paper is on disaster management, many aspects of the discussed Grid and Visualisation technologies will be useful for any other forms of collaboration. Conclusions are drawn about the possible future impact on the built environment. KW - Mehragentensystem KW - Lernendes System KW - Katastrophenmanagement KW - Software Y1 - 2004 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:gbv:wim2-20111215-2084 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Miles, John A1 - Taylor, Mark A1 - Anumba, Chimay T1 - VRML Virtual Worlds - An Alternative to the Desktop Metaphor for GUI's? N2 - Metaphors are commonly used by software developers in the creation of GUI's. This paper looks at the use of multi-user VRML to create virtual metaphors, developing a conceptual design tool that can be used intuitively with little or no training. KW - Architektur KW - Verteiltes System KW - Graphische Benutzeroberfläche KW - VRML Y1 - 2004 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:gbv:wim2-20111215-1855 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Miles, John A1 - Cen, Mei A1 - Taylor, Mark T1 - Linking Sketching and Constraint Checking for Early Conceptual Design N2 - At the start of the conceptual design process, designers start to give tangible form to their thoughts by sketching. This helps with reasoning and communicates ideas to other members of the team. Sketches are gradually worked up into more formal drawings which are then passed to the other stages of the design process. There are however some problems with basing early ideas on sketching. For example, due to their ad-hoc nature, sketches tend only to be diagrammatic representations and so designers cannot be sure that their ideas are feasible and what is being proposed meets the constraints described in the client brief. This can result in designers wasting time working up ideas which prove to be unsuitable. Also the process of constraint checking is complex and time consuming and so designers tend limit their search of possible options and instead choose satisfying rather than good solutions. This paper describes the INTEGRA project which examines the role of sketching in early conceptual design and how this can be linked to other aspects of the process and particularly automated constraint checking using an IT based approach. The focus for the work is the design of framed buildings. A multi-disciplinary approach has been adopted and the work has been undertaken in close collaboration with practising designers and clients. KW - Konzipieren KW - Bauwerk KW - Management KW - Constraintnetz Y1 - 2004 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:gbv:wim2-20111215-1547 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Miles, John A1 - Joita, Liviu A1 - Burnap, Peter T1 - Collaborative Engineering: Virtual Teams in a Grid Environment Supporting Consortia in the Construction Industry N2 - In the AEC (Architecture / Engineering / Construction) industry a number of individuals and organisations collaborate and work jointly on a construction project. The resulting consortium has large pool of expertise and experience and can be defined as a Virtual Organisation (VO) formed for the duration of the project. VOs are electronically networked organisations where IT and web based communication technology play an important role in coordinating various activities of these organisations. This paper describes the design, development and implementation of a Grid enabled application called the Product Supplier Catalogue Database (PSCD) which supports collaborative working in consortia. As part of the Grid-enabling process, specialised metadata is being developed to enable PSCD to effectively utilise Grid middleware such as Globus and Java CoG toolkits. We also describe our experience whilst designing, developing and deploying the security service of the application using the Globus Security Interface (GSI). KW - Ingenieurbau KW - Verteiltes System KW - Planungsprozess KW - Modellierung KW - Projektmanagement Y1 - 2004 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:gbv:wim2-20111215-1362 ER -