Lucy Roper’s weekly Built Environment blog: Diversity, building innovation and a positive for social housing

張貼於： 2019-06-06

Each week, UCEM Information Governance Manager, Lucy Roper points us in the direction of interesting stories from the Built Environment.

This week, Lucy updates us on her visit to the CITE (Copyright and Information Technologies in Education) Forum last week before drawing our attention to a report on getting more women into the construction industry, a speedy innovation in building bathroom pods and a positive report on UK social housing…

Information governance CPD

UCEM is committed to advancing information governance and compliance, ensuring that the services provided comply with GDPR, Data Protection, Records Management, Copyright, and Information Security.

Part of my role as Information Governance Manager involves keeping abreast of the latest developments and benchmarking the work I do against that of others. I also undertake regular Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and an element of this is attending the CITE Forum. CITE stands for the Copyright and Information Technologies in Education. Meetings of the Forum provide great opportunities for sharing ideas and best practices; networking with colleagues; discovering different methods for using library workflow platforms; and of course, having a catch-up with like-minded people over lunch.

This year’s Forum took place last Thursday (30 May) and was held in The Diamond Building at the University of Sheffield.

We were updated on the latest developments in relation to the CLA’s Digital Content Store (DCS) – an innovative web-based platform that combines a searchable repository of digitised book and journal extracts with an online workflow management tool.

We are hoping to implement the DCS for next semester to help improve student experience especially in relation to our scanned resources.

Other developments included the new Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) Higher Education Licence 2019-2022 and the Teaching Excellence Framework, and how libraries can contribute to the TEF at their institutions.

There were also breakout sessions that focused on tips, tricks and strategies on how to engage academics with reading lists.

CIOB’s commitment to diversity

The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Excellence in the Built Environment is launching an inquiry into how it’s vital that the construction industry recruits more women to address the industry’s needs moving forward.

In response, the CIOB has responded with an outline of what it is doing to promote diversity and some examples of best practice. The CIOB has stressed in its statement that diversity objectives shouldn’t just be seen as box-ticking exercises but something more progressive and transformational. It’s pleasing to see such a thorough response from one of our accrediting professional bodies which demonstrates careful consideration on the issue rather than something more superficial.

Bathroom pod innovation

How long would it take to 3D print an unfurnished bathroom pod? Twelve hours or less is the answer researchers from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore would provide after developing the capability to robotically 3D print unfurnished bathroom pods in this timescale.

The technology, incorporating a six-axis robotic arm equipped with a print nozzle for the special concrete mix, took four years to develop and the researchers say they could help firms build prefabricated bathroom units roughly 30% more quickly. How much this robotic technology would cost to buy versus the cost savings made by the quicker production is not addressed in the article but it certainly could be of interest to those involved in bathroom pod production.

Social housing in a strong position

The government has published a survey which shows that the social housing sector is in a strong financial state. This puts the sector in a strong position to flourish in spite of any changes in the wider economic environment. It’s positive to see that at least one sector appears to be protected by the economic uncertainty stalking a whole host of industries in light of Brexit.

For more from Lucy, take a look at the latest edition of Knowledge Foundations.