About our institute

The i4Ds is an interdisciplinary team consisting of about 20 specialists mainly from the computer sciences but also from the civil engineering, construction process management, mathematics, physics and design departments. We are doing research, are involved in education, and offer services for industry partners. We are well connected to national and international universities.

September 2008

Our core competence is the development of informatics solutions for the civil engineering sector. The main focus of research lies in:

4D-Technologies which combine the spatial representation of buildings (3D CAD) with their temporal development. This allows for the modeling, visualization and optimization of construction processes at every stage of the building process. 4D Technologies are supported by research and development in further disciplines:

Information Processing and Optimization stands for the modeling, simulation and optimization of process flows and organizations. To give an example, the life cycle of a building can be simulated and optimized in the computer. Process modeling also offers the possibility to compare what has been planned with what has actually been built and thus improves task management as well as decision-making. 

Virtual Environments provide a technology that allows the user to move in real time through a true to scale 3D model and to manipulate it according to his needs. Virtual construction can help to early detect mistakes and consequently helps avoiding them on the real construction site.

Data Spaces are dealing with the handling and management of complex data. A possible scenario is linking data to a construction project that can be stored in a centrally accessible model even though the people working on the project might be geographically dispersed. This simplifies information flow and helps avoiding redundancies in data management.