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Technology Transfer: Myth and Reality

Norman D. Kurtz, P.E.

• Can Engineering know-how be exported or must it be assimilated?
• The human factor – How cultural differences can be as important as weather
  data in establishing performance criteria.
• Right answer/wrong question – avoiding the classic mismatching of good technology used to solve the wrong
  engineering problem.
• Innovation and technology development follow market demand.
  If demand is in the Pacific Rim, what response is appropriate?
• The danger of marketing hype: it can undermine credibility and lead to improper applications
  of technology (e.g., the “intelligent Building”).
• Resolving the potential clash of the U.S. design and construction methodology/system with local tradition and
  relationships.
• Demands on design engineers take them out of their comfort zone when the resolution of cultural, environmental, aesthetic and economic factors become more difficult than technical engineering.
• Engineering design concepts are influenced by the products made in their country. Can the U.S. maintain its
  leadership in the Building Systems field?

Managing Change

G.A. ‘Chip’ Julin III, RPA

• Reinventing the business…
• Reinventing the organization
• Assumptions about markets, customers, competitors, technology, dynamics and our own company strengths.
• Re-defining our businesses to meet the needs of the marketplace.
• Role of technology in managing change.
• Who will lead our industry tomorrow?

Megatrends in the U.S. Construction Industry

Michael A. Branton

• Engineering firms face certain underlying forces which impact their management and strategic
  direction.
• These forces can come from any arena, including governments, environmental, societal or even their own internal operation. Identifying and reacting effectively to these trends can mean the difference between success and failure. However, sorting out long-term trends from important, but one-time issues isn’t as easy as it may seem.
• Ten trends shaping the industry’s future, their impact on profitability and how your firm should react to these trends.

Indoor Environmental Quality as a Market Influence: Response Strategies &
Tactics for the Designer

H.E. ‘Barney’ Burroughs

• Code, legislative and litigation influences.
• Responses to ASHRAE Standards 52 and 62.
• Equipment and system selection alternatives.
• Air filtration: basics and benefits.
• Role of building commissioning.
• Building IEQ monitoring and diagnostic tactics.
• Facility Operation and Maintenance practices.
• Trends and potential future directions.

Interoperability: How Interoperable Software Tools Will Impact the Practice
of Consulting Engineering

Scott E. Frank

• What are interoperable software tools?
• Increasing quality and productivity in design firms by using interoperable software.
• How standardized mechanisms for information sharing and exchange will add value to all aspects of the building life cycle.
• A shared information model may catalyze organizational changes within the building industry.

Demonstrating the Value of Energy Efficiency
(A practical guide to communicating the financial benefits of energy efficiency).

Eric L. Hafter

• Understanding energy efficiency as an investment and how it affects the bottom line. Evidence that energy efficiency is the best legal investment in town.
• What system integration means to an investor.
• How financial terms can communicate what a great job the engineer is doing. Putting the ‘value’ back into value engineering.
• Using development language to distinguish your proposal.

A Building Evaluation Case Study and Interactive Sessions

Michael Hodgson, MD, MPH

• Investigate a complex building outbreak and determine what can be done to maximize prevention of minimize consequences…
• Develop information on presence to absence of disease.
• Linkage strategies of diseases to exposure.
• Using medical screening, consider public health practice and exposure management and control.
• Formulate specific hypotheses to address questions and issues.
• Design and epidemiologic investigation.
• Implement a surveillance program.

Reduced HVAC system Costs Produce a Better Building

Donald E. Holte, P.E.

• Advances in building envelope technology and the impact these can have on the HVAC system.
• Reviewing a truly holistic commercial office building, which separates the temperature control and (hygiene) ventilation functions and integrates the temperature control with the building structure.
• Low emmissivity, glass coatings, luminous efficacy, displacement ventilation, rain screen principle, radiance heating and cooling.
• The possibility of a future all-glass building.

Increasing Project Productivity Using Internet Technology

Mike Ivanovich

• What is Internet technology?
• Time, distance and other matters
• Why workers love the Internet, why project managers should embrace it and why executives should invest in it.
• Surfing is one thing…. Survival is another.
• Using the internet on technical projects: a true story.
• Demonstrate how the “on-line” engineer of the 21st century can perform their job better, faster and cheaper through the use of new information technologies available today.

The Consultant/Contractor Collaboration – An Alternative

David C.J. Peters P.E.

• Design/Build in the commercial/industrial market is growing rapidly.
• However, owners are tired of dual accountability on projects that run over budget and schedule. They want a single entity to manage the entire design, build and performance process.
• Markets are changing and windows of opportunities are moving targets.
• Because projects are being designed and built faster that ever to meet these windows, there simply is not enough time to design, bid, redesign, rebid, build and litigate.

Beyond Quality

Andy Watson, P.E.

• Creating a new level of service to compete in the next century.
• The impact of flexible service delivery.
• How to tell what tour clients really think about you.
• How to move toward zero customer defections.
• Client delight as a primary means of differentiating your organization.
• Building relationships along with projects.

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