This summer, many girls traded tennis racquets and swimsuits for a welding torch and hardhat. If the phrase “summer camp” evokes visions of horseback riding, campfire singalongs and days spent swimming in an idyllic lake tucked into forested mountains, you’ve not yet met the girls of MAGIC (Mentoring a Girl in Construction). Read more.
MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) has come up with a use for virtual reality headsets that goes beyond firing them up, checking out a new game, muttering “cool” briefly after 5 minutes of use and then putting them back in the closet: Controlling robots remotely for manufacturing jobs. Read more.
Large and small construction contractors are vulnerable to cyber crime, with “smart” building devices and lucrative engineering drawings in particular presenting vulnerabilities, Northbridge Insurance warns. Read more.
There’s little question that the country’s infrastructure needs more investment, and its bridges are no exception. But successfully implementing the necessary monitoring, repairs and other upgrades requires more than money. The strategic application of new materials, effective construction techniques and comprehensive data capture are just a few of the tactics engineers today are using to increase bridges’ lifespans. Read more.
From cracks to potholes, there’s a lot that could go wrong with roads as time goes on. While some places are confronting these headaches by simply reverting back to gravel roads, other cities are open to trying out new ideas from scientists and engineers. And in 2017, there are a lot of those going around. Whether the goal is to patch streets up more efficiently or harness them for greater public good, here are the road-transforming ideas you should know. Read more.
If the repercussions from the legalization of cannabis by next July 1 are already preoccupying certain workplaces, the topic is of particular interest to areas of work in which health and security questions are omnipresent, such as construction sites. Read more.
The corridors that have come to define Canada are hardly relics. The country still depends on the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Trans-Canada Highway. But they are the grand dreams of past centuries. For all the ways they connect Canada’s vast territory, the connective tissue of its future is largely yet to be seen. Read more.
Construction stakeholders attending the recent CanadaData East conference in Toronto were alerted to growth possibilities for their sector emerging from several different global sources. Read more.
Federal, provincial and territorial insfrastructure ministers gathered in Ottawa on Sept. 21 with federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Amerjeet Sohi announcing afterwards that “productive discussions” had taken place on the next phase of infrastructure spending. Read more.