A company that has been operating for two and a half years, founded 10 years ago, based on the master’s thesis of a student, João Januário. This is how Carlos Oliveira Cruz, a professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, introduced Stone Brick during his presentation at the IST Civil Talks. This event brought together several companies at the Civil Engineering Museum, located at Técnico – Alameda campus, to discuss the BIM methodology, as part of the Civil Engineering Seminar Series, held from 2 to 5 March, during Técnico Career Weeks.
Building on the research conducted by João Januário, which analysed data for forecasting property prices, the two researchers from the Civil Engineering Research and Innovation for Sustainability (CERIS) advanced the discussion to forecasting costs within the construction industry.
In the post-COVID era, inflation led a company to seek the researchers’ support, as “prices were fluctuating in a way that it was unable to predict”. To this end, they analysed “data and costs to understand exactly what was happening” and had to understand “how material prices were fluctuating on international markets”. “How long does it take [for example] for prices to fluctuate on the London Stock Exchange and then suddenly reach the construction market?”
Once the work was completed, the client remarked that “what was really needed was a button to press to carry out this analysis”. This is how “the first Stone Brick pilot” came about. The software developed by Carlos Oliveira Cruz and João Januário “estimates project costs and then analyses their volatility”.
Obtaining a “cost estimate for a building” is nothing new. “There are many automated costing tools”. What the two Técnico researchers could not find in other tools was a feature that would allow them to predict how this cost might fluctuate over time “in the face of market fluctuations”. Consequently, it is possible to understand the risk involved “in agreeing to undertake a project” for a given price.
The tool is due to “be launched within three or four months” and is currently being tested with partners.
The Civil Engineering Seminar Series, organised by the Fórum Civil, were open to students from other higher education institutions. For the first time, “we sent invitations to all civil engineering schools in the country and had students from the University of Minho and the Lisbon School of Engineering taking part”, says João Pegas, president of Fórum Civil.
Around 1,000 people are estimated to have attended this careers week, which this year featured 67 companies across 40 different activities.
