FACE TO FACE with Dr VICTOR ONG CHEE WEE

Dr. ONG Chee Wee, Victor is the President of Singapore Institute of Building (SIBL) and the Managing Director of ONE SMART Engineering Pte Ltd. He obtained his PhD in Civil Engineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Dr. Ong is currently serving on two International Technical Committees and was elected as SPRING Singapore Technical Committee for The Standards Council (Civil & Geotechnical Works). He was named Young Consulting Engineer of the Year in 2014 by the Association of Consulting Engineers Singapore (ACES) and in year 2017, Dr. Ong has been awarded Singapore’s Top 50 Engineering Achievements by Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES).

Dr. Ong shared his views to Green in future on SIBL’s role towards sustainability and future of construction and how Build Tech Asia and Facilities Management Conference will help the industry to get knowledge on the upcoming trends and technology. Here is an excerpt of the interview.

Could you share a little about your role as the President of SIBL and the mandate of SIBL?
At the SIBL, we always strive to promote the science and best practices in the building and facilities management sphere to maintain competency and standard practices of the profession, based on the current and latest technology development. On that note, my role requires me to keep tab on the “what’s trending” and “what’s upcoming” pertaining to this sector to ensure that our members are equipped with the relevant and most updated knowledge on the industry.
Furthermore, as the Singapore government emphasises on sustainability, productivity enhancement and internationalisation, I play a role in ensuring the new board under my leadership are on track in helping building professionals to adopt productivity-enhancing technologies through organising events and trainings. With regards to internalisation, we
encourage our members to go for a mission trip to our partner association countries like Australia, New Zealand, Burma and Poland, to name a few.
Aside from these, we also ensure our members
are kept abreast on the new emerging technologies through our e-newsletters and social platforms. We continuously devote ourselves to be at the forefront of the building and engineering construction industry for the benefit of our members and foster environmental sustainability in built environment in Singapore.

As a Co-organiser of BTA, how can SIBL play a role in the built environment and what does SIBL hope to achieve (as the organiser)?
SIBL plays a crucial role in making sure more companies adopt emerging construction technologies and increase their productivity. As the co-organiser of BTA, we are able to forge stronger bonds with Facility Managers and Project Managers, who made up a big portion of our core members at the Institute. With our vast network and connections, we are able to get more companies to exhibit their smart construction and productive technologies and showcase some of their best practices.

While the outlook of Singapore construction industry remains positive and robust, we acknowledged the lack of qualified built environment professionals in Singapore, particularly in high risk mega projects, due to the imbalances in supply and demand of trained talent for various infrastructure projects. Therefore, through BTA, we hope that exhibitors and practitioners are able to explore different ways to work together and penetrate into the growing sectors a cross different verticals from engineering, procurement and construction, research and development, among others.

What do you think would be the biggest disruption in this space in the mid to long term?
Technology, as everyone is saying, is indeed one of the biggest disruptions for the building and construction industry - though SIBL perceives this as a positive disruption than a detrimental one. Some jobs will be affected, but it will create new ones as well.
Blockchain technology may potentially disrupt the construction industry’s supply chain process. It allows “smart” contracts to be developed which enable company to enforce the obligations that are set forth in a typical paper contract. Payment obligations and receipts can be tracked in a blockchain ledger. In return, by removing paper processes, it will increase productivity, help projects proceed more quickly, and reduce costs.
Other technology that could make a difference in this space would be artificial intelligence. The technology will be able to identify the number of people in the building, personas of the people and experiences they prefer, etc. This information generated by the AI and other detectors allow different building facilities to operate accordingly, as energy saving as possible, including security, elevators, lighting and air-conditioning.
In the long term, with all these new technologies, one may question about the invasion of data and privacy information being played out in the digital realm, as part of the built environment.
In light of these upcoming technologies and trends, we need to be able to manage the newly created / available opportunities. Which means, more training courses would be required to get the professionals equipped with the right skillsets - and, SIBL will be a perfect platform for all these.

What are the trends in the construction industry that we are expecting in 2020?
There are always changes in any industry as the world starts focusing on new trends and so is there in the construction industry – be it technological advancement, focus on sustainability, climate change or circular economy to name a few. Although this industry is traditionally resistant to new technological adoption, with the invention of 3D printing, robots for safety inspection, Artificial intelligence, modular construction, Reality modelling –AR, VR& MR, Digital twins, drones, BIM, Block chain etc., adaptation to advancement has been significant. And with the upcoming stringent regulations imposed on buildings’ environmental impact and on reducing and recycling construction waste to useful materials, methods to incorporate sustainability in the process has increased.

What technologies companies should invest in this year?

It is always necessary to keep up with the trends to be relevant and technology always assists. For the construction industry, companies should continue investing in a skilled and competent local workforce who will lead and drive the built environment sector into the future. But also invest to adopt new technologies like drones, robots, artificial intelligence, cloud-based data analytics, and mobile computing to drive efficiency – this will definitely help to boost productivity.