Australia needs to develop greater skills in digital engineering across our building and infrastructure workforce, a conference has heard.

Speaking at the Asset Digitalisation Summit hosted by Autodesk and Procore in Melbourne, Julie Jupp, Digital Engineering Education Program Director at the University of Technology Sydney, said that the importance of digital engineering literacy among those who are involved in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of building and infrastructure assets should not be underestimated.

“Digital engineering and data literacy are the new foundation of infrastructure delivery, operations and maintenance,” Judd says.

“And as infrastructure evolves into an interconnected, data driven, information-rich system, we also need to evolve our people so as to enable them to be able to deliver upon these aspirations.”

A growing imperative

Jupp’s calls come as digital technologies are changing how buildings and infrastructure are designed, built, operated and maintained.

From an asset management viewpoint, digital technologies encompass a range of digital tools and techniques which leverage data, automation and advanced computing. The aim is to improve the management of assets across their lifecycle from planning through to design, construction, operation, maintenance and end of life.

Examples of such technologies include building information modelling (BIM), digital twins, IoT sensors (for asset management and inspection), artificial intelligence, field/mobile applications, virtual reality/augmented reality, process automation, cloud computing, big data analytics and blockchain.

Benefits from use of these technologies include:

• improved quality and efficiency during planning, design, construction or renovation.
• better safety, monitoring and maintenance of assets through real-time monitoring and maintenance of building or asset condition or integrity
• improved performance and increased asset lifespan through the ability to undertake predictive analytics and early/preventative maintenance
• improved workplace safety and more effective workplace training (for example, as drones rather than people can be sent into dangerous places to perform inspections and AR/VR simulations can deliver more intuitive training experiences).
• enhanced public and stakeholder engagement and communication; and
• easier measurement and greater transparency in respect of asset environmental performance (carbon emissions, pollution, waste etc.).

According to Jupp, greater interest in and application of these technologies is being driven by a range of challenges.

These include a growing need to effectively manage and reuse project data, increasing challenges in delivering complex projects within time and budget constraints and emerging challenges such as growing expectations of transparency regarding environmental performance.

She says that connected data and information can provide insights from which to drive better informed decisions in addressing these challenges.

Government mandate a game changer

In addition, Jupp says that a new government mandate which is being considered in New South Wales will shift the dial on public infrastructure projects.

As things stand to date, governments throughout Australia have adopted a ‘soft mandate’ approach to digital adoption on public sector developments.

This has seen agencies develop standards and requirements regarding digital engineering and BIM adoption.

In New South Wales, however, the government is now considering a document which if adopted will mandate a structured approach to digital requirements on government building and infrastructure work.

Known as the Infrastructure Digitisation and Data policy, the document is set to go before the state’s cabinet in June and is likely to be approved.

According to Judd, the new document will provide an effective mandate for digitisation on government projects.

This will reframe digital literacy as being essential not only during design and construction but also throughout long-term asset ownership and stewardship.

As a result, the need for digital literacy will apply not only for BIM managers and technical roles but will extend more broadly across various aspects of asset lifecycles.

To deliver upon this, government agencies will need to improve their digital workforce capability.

Understanding digitisation vs digital engineering

As we go about this, Judd says it is important to distinguish between digitisation and digital engineering.

Digitisation is a broad term that affects every role and refers to the application of digital technologies in a way that drives transformation across the sector.

By contrast, digital engineering roles are more strategic in focus. These roles help to ensure that asset information requirements are able to be delivered and that digital systems are able to be integrated and optimised to deliver best possible outcomes across the asset lifecycle.

This distinction is important as it demonstrates how digital engineering roles are enablers through which organisations are empowered to undertake digitisation in an effective manner.

(Julie Jupp, Digital Engineering Education Program Director at the University of Technology Sydney, presenting at the Asset Digitisation Summit in Melbourne)

Five skills needed

At a technical level, specific abilities which are needed will vary according to different roles.

However, Judd says that basic competencies are needed across six areas.

These are:

(1) An understanding of digital literacy across the asset lifecycle and the flow of data and information across the asset delivery processes.

(2) Process thinking and an awareness of how different procurement processes or delivery methods affect the delivery of information along with the ultimate impacts which this may have for overall project delivery.

(3) Communication skills and an ability to translate or communicate complex ideas or deep data insights across disciplines as part of an integrated project delivery strategy.

(4) Change management capabilities and the ability to support change within a team.

(5) Learning agility and adaptability and the ability to learn, change and develop continually across one’s career.

According to Judd, the human aspect of change management should not be underestimated.

While change is often associated with specific technology or data management, it also involves adjustments to organisational project behaviour, personal behaviour and culture.

Driving change thus requires leadership, empathy and the ability to enable people to experiment within a safe environment.

Government, industry and academia all have roles

To deliver upon this, Judd says that government, industry and academia each have responsibilities.

Governments must ensure that adequate opportunities are available in terms of publicly funded education and training.

When doing this, it is important to ensure that opportunities are equitable.

For example, opportunities must be readily accessible to women – many of whom are primary caregivers and thus often need to perform upskilling outside of normal work hours and at their own expense (as opposed to be being paid for by their employer).

Opportunities also need to be available in rural and regional areas.

Governments also need to support vocational, tertiary and lifelong education systems – something which Jupp says is needed to create a culture of lifelong learning and collaboration.

Turning to academia, Judd says that institutions need to incorporate digital technologies into courses and transition from traditional learning toward a studio-based learning environment which encompasses digital transformation.

More fundamentally, the education system needs to move beyond a linear way of thinking under which specific problems are ‘solved’ by simply delivering particular modules to fill identified skills gaps. Instead, a wider approach is needed which addresses skills and competencies within a broad context and which fosters an ongoing learning ecosystem.

Turning to industry, Jupp says that there are challenges in accrediting engineers for their digital engineering skills.

This is because our system of tertiary education is based on the Washington Accords, which fail to include either digital skills or collaboration as core engineering competencies.

Link training to organisational vision

Finally, Jupp stresses the need for organisations to align their workforce development strategies with a clearly defined digital vision.

This will help to ensure that training and development is a strategic investment which delivers ultimate organisational value.

“Your digital vision is key to being able to have capability and maturity uplift,” Jupp said.

“You need to start by restructuring your benchmarking for workforce digital capability. You have to be able to set where you are at in your current state and understand where you want to be in a future state and define your education and training objectives according to that strategy.

“So plan your workforce development so that it’s aligned to your project goals, your enterprise goals and your asset outcomes. Support those and prioritise your training investments and the role readiness according to that strategy.”

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