Kingspan is delighted to announce its sponsorship of the Rotman Design Challenge which takes place on the 9th and 10th of February 2019 at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Entering its sixth year, the Rotman Design challenge is an international design competition that brings together top talent at master’s-level interested in business and design thinking to tackle a complex business challenge posed by the sponsor.
At a time of evolution and change, companies in the construction industry can leverage digital technologies to better align their offerings with customer needs, while simultaneously addressing key challenges facing the industry. As such, students are being posed the question:
‘Change and disruption in the construction industry is inevitable but where is it going to come from and in what form?’
Industries are increasingly exposed to innovation-driven growth where disruptive technologies are driving change and presenting new ways of thinking. The construction industry faces escalating challenges of urbanisation, climate change, resource scarcity and a growing talent gap. Meanwhile digital technologies are gradually entering the industry aiming to revolutionise current construction patterns with infrastructure and buildings being designed, constructed, and operated in new ways.
The Rotman Design Challenge provides a creative space where students can reimagine and reinvent the way the construction industry approaches problems through collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas from different disciplines, technologies and sectors. Kingspan places great emphasis on ways the company can learn from innovations in other sectors and inspire ideas that can be used in the building materials industry.
Kingspan’s commitment to technology is evidenced by its investment of $10m last year to acquire a stake in Invicara, a provider of transformative software solutions that create digital workflows out of design and construction data, harnessing the power of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Digital Twins.
Commenting on the Rotman Design Challenge, Brian Glancy, Head of BIM Strategy for Kingspan Group said: