Innovations in Digital Construction: Advancing Sustainable Education and Industry

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to explore and promote the digital construction innovations and developments of digital technology for sustainable construction education and industry. Sustainable digital technologies in construction education are important issues in today's world. This Special Issue focuses on using educational technologies to promote the innovation and development of sustainable education. In particular, it is crucial and challenging to employ educational technologies in school settings and professional training, such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), robots, chatbots, digital games, and interactive learning environments.

Innovations in digital construction such as BIM, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) technology will promote worker efficiency through visualization and simulation, reduce health and safety concerns, and improve management in the construction industry. Digital technologies-enabled information improves student comprehension in regular classroom settings and prepares students to be technologically enriched professionals in the construction sector. Since the use of VR/AR in the construction industry is still in the early stages, the amount of knowledge of AR hardware and software devices is to be explored. The study helps to provide an in-depth understanding of potential applications in the construction industry. It also analyses the uses and difficulties of digital innovation for teaching and training in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector and measures its effectiveness. This Special Issue also serves as a resource for academics, educational institutions, and schools, boosting awareness of digital innovation such as VR/AR in AEC training and education.

Digital Construction can facilitate collaborative design and provide new opportunities for planning sustainable buildings. The potential of VR/AR/innovation for sustainable construction still has many challenges regarding applying digitalized environmental performance assessments and optimization on a large scale. Since digital technology is rapidly advancing in construction applications, many sustainability challenges are not adequately addressed. This Special Issue welcomes all technical endeavors, technology developments, case studies, empirical investigations, and experimentations related to BIM/VR/AR/innovation for sustainable construction. Sustainability concerns, social issues, and economic benefits for BIM/VR/AR/innovation technologies in the AEC industry will be addressed.

The scope of the work includes but is not limited to the following:

• Recent advancements in using digital construction and technological innovation for sustainable construction education;
• Recent advancements in using digital construction and technological innovation for sustainable construction project management;
• Review studies about the recent advancement in using educational technologies for sustainable education;
• VR/AR/innovation-based innovations and sustainability;
• VR/AR/innovation and BIM-based estimating, scheduling, and facility management;
• Digital technologies and lean construction;
• Automation and robotics;
• Using digital technologies in life cycle assessment (LCA) and/or life cycle costing (LCC);
• Technology-based building performance simulation and building energy simulation;
• Visualization and design integration;
• VR/AR on API tool development and parametric scripting.

Dr. Sanjeev Adhikari
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• innovations and sustainability
• educational technologies
• augmented reality (AR)
• virtual reality (VR)
• robots
• chatbots
• digital games
• digital technologies
• building information modelling (BIM)
• artificial intelligence (AI)
• digital twins
• interactive learning environments