Seppo Törmä
VisuaLynk Oy
D.Sc. (Tech) Seppo Törmä, the CEO of VisuaLynk Oy, worked previously on Linked Building Data in Aalto University in DRUM/DRUMBEAT projects. He has masters (1988) and doctoral degrees (1997) at TKK.
D.Sc. (Tech) Mehmet Yalcinkaya did his doctoral research on a Linked Data platform based on AEC/FM standards, resulting in the VisuaLynk service. Mehmet gained his masters at Illinois Institute of Technology (2011) and doctoral degree in Aalto University (2017).
Prof. Vishal Singh works on Computer-Integrated Construction at the Aalto University, with research interests in the interactions between products, processes and people within the design and construction domains.
Linked Building Data is a collection of open technologies and standards to publish building data in a decentralised manner - respecting the ownership and digital sovereignty of all parties - but interlinked across different data sources on the net. It builds on the standards defined by buildingSmart - most notably IFC - and the Web Consortium - ranging from graph-based data representation using RDF, conceptual models defined using the OWL ontology language and structural queries using SPARQL to various innovative reasoning systems. At the moment, the Linked Building Data technologies and ontologies are in active development, to pave the way to interoperation across different built environment representations necessary for the Smart Cities of the future.
An important aspect in Linked Building Data is the connection of BIM models with the condition information available in BAS and IoT systems. The diversity of associated middleware solutions makes this a complex problem as such, but its solution is only a starting point for wider utilisation of built environment data. To be able to interpret condition information and carry our meaningful analyses, the linking between different BIM models - architectural, structural, and MEP models - is essential. For instance, much of the condition information is collected from spaces - defined typically in an architectural model - but deviations and problems are typically caused by the systems and equipment defined in an MEP model. Consequently, the analyses of problems requires the ability to connect sensor information to space and space to systems and equipment. Moreover, to make the information understandable to users, the capability to visualise it through BIM models is extremely useful.
VisuaLynk is a service based on Linked Building Data concepts. It supports the visualisation of condition information and object-level linking across models. This demo will give an overview of Linked Building Data and makes it understandable to the audience through visual, step-by-step demos. Moreover, the presentation touches the available resources and tools, and discusses the open challenges and future directions of the domain.
