Construction in the digital age: Manuel Eugster at the Computer Science Insights talks

We welcomed Manuel Eugster, CTO of Rhomberg Holding & Bau Holding, to the Computer Science Insights @HSG series of the School of Computer Science with his talk Construction in the Digital Age.

Construction is one of the oldest human activities and one of the most resource-intensive: it accounts for 36 percent of global energy consumption and nearly 40 percent of energy-related CO2 emissions, and 90 percent of all large construction projects overrun in time and cost. Manuel gave an overview of the industry and showed how sensing and data analytics can identify and reduce inefficiencies in construction processes. He presented a solution that combines computer vision and environmental sensing to passively collect data about machinery and construction activities, with real-time analysis through the Q-tainer system of the Rhomberg Bau Gruppe, and he walked through the technical complexities of collecting, transmitting, and processing high-resolution camera data at the edge to obtain analytics in real time.

Before joining Rhomberg, Manuel led the Data Intelligence team at Avira and was an academic researcher at Aalto University, working on brain and psychophysiological signals for information retrieval. He holds a PhD in Computational Statistics from LMU Munich and degrees in Computational Intelligence and Software and Information Engineering from TU Vienna.

His talk showcased a very cool integration of computer science and civil construction, summed up by his closing slide: “Construction ♥ Computer Science”. Many thanks, Manuel, for the inspiring talk!