I am a senior security engineer. I have spent much of my career designing electronic security systems such as access control and video surveillance.

New technologies create new roles and, as digital and data transform our industry, I have extended my role into developing BIM applications, 3D scanning and Augmented Reality. I value the culture at Arup that, if you see an unmet need outside of your role, will support you to develop an offer in that space. For example, most BIM software is really not suitable for developing security designs. Responding to that issue, I developed a Revit add-in to automatically render all of a building’s CCTV cameras’ predicted views and place them on drawing sheets. This is now a standard part of Arup’s BIM offer.

Many of the opportunities digital transformation creates come from combining technologies. For example, by combining our video surveillance app with 3D scanning, we are now able to visualise new CCTV installations on existing buildings. Having invested in our own Matterport and LiDAR scanners, this has become a completely in-house service that we provide.

Turning any insight into a commercial offering takes research. I have been working on increasing accuracy and efficiency by overlaying BIM models onto real-world construction sites using Augmented Reality. I have created custom applications using Microsoft’s HoloLens that allow us to see our complete designs directly overlaid on in-progress construction, and site observation records made in Augmented Reality are transferred back into the native BIM model to create a synchronised digital twin.

Connect with me on LinkedIn.