Fabian Kaufmann, Researcher at the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU) — leader of our work package 7: Pilots, Evaluation and Validation — tells us about his purpose, the activities he is working on, what he is more excited about, and his vision for a sustainable and efficient construction industry.
“HumanTech will provide ambitious technical solutions, but we need the ambitious action of the whole European construction sector to transform it into an attractive carbon neutral industry.”
Q: Tell us a little about yourself. What is your purpose, professionally and personally?
A: As a trained carpenter, I have always been frustrated about the processes making construction dangerous, inefficient and slow. During my studies and professional life as a researcher, I found BIM and artificial intelligence (AI) to be key instruments for making construction more efficient.
Q: And about your organisation, the University of Kaiserslautern, what is your focus and what have you set out to achieve?
A: Our department, focused on solid construction, aims to provide concrete construction technology for a pathway towards a carbon-neutral resource-efficient construction industry.
Q: Now, let us know about your role at HumanTech. What do you (and your team) do, and what is the most rewarding thing about it?
A: Our team provides construction and engineering expertise to other domains involved in HumanTech, like AI, robotics and wearables. For me, learning about the methods and approaches of other disciplines and bringing everything together for a more sustainable and safe construction industry is the most rewarding thing.
“For me, learning about the methods and approaches of other disciplines and bringing everything together for a more sustainable and safe construction industry is the most rewarding thing.”
Q: What activity are you working on that you are most excited about?
A: Delivering a dataset for BIMxD reconstruction is extremely interesting. It is outstanding that we are involved in developing AI methods from the beginning to bring in construction knowledge for the best usability. Also, developing the pilot scenarios is challenging but very interesting since it involves discussions with all disciplines involved.
Q: What positive impact do you hope to generate through this project?
A: I hope we can make the construction industry more efficient and safe and provide solutions to bring reality into digital twins of buildings. It would also be great to move forward in BIMxD reconstruction towards efficient and robust approaches.
“I hope we can make the construction industry more efficient and safe and provide solutions to bring reality into digital twins of buildings.”
Q: Is there a net zero future for construction?
A: Absolutely yes. But this needs a completely new mindset and technologies from many disciplines, such as the ones involved in HumanTech. To achieve it, both the end-user and the industry must accept a technology capable of disrupting their business models.
Q: Very ambitious projects are being developed to transform the industry and make it safer and more sustainable. Do you know of any that have inspired you?
A: Definitely, the BIMprove project. I learned a lot from the partners involved. Also, some projects we were involved in (SeRamCo, Cirmap) helped us understand the challenges and the need for an interdisciplinary project such as HumanTech.
Q: Any final words to end on?
A: HumanTech will provide ambitious technical solutions, but we need the ambitious action of the whole European construction sector to transform it into an attractive carbon neutral industry.
Learn more about our work at HumanTech and the team behind it!
Know Jason Rambach, our project coordinator, Bharath Sankaran, from Scaled Robotics, leaders of our work package 3: Dynamic Semantic Digital Twin Generation, Gabor Sziebig, Research Manager at SINTEF leading HumanTech’s work package 5: Construction Robotics and Human-Robot Collaboration, and Gloria Callinan, Project Support Officer at TUS, leading work package 6: Human Factors – Training and Usability Assessment.
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