Contents (Revised for 2009)

Rasha Stino is Chair of NOVA Investigations for 2009. I will chair the Jury meeting to select NOVA Award winners, based on your investigations. I am also available to answer any questions in the meantime. Thanks for all of your help. Bob

Home Page for NOVA Award Investigations
This is the home page for NOVA Award Investigations. It is written by me, Bob Carr, solely for use by the NOVA Award Investigation Team. Please read it carefully, so you do not miss important information.

Some material is confidential, such as comments on individual Nominations and sample Investigation Reports. Therefore, the path to this page is confidential. 

If you are on the NOVA Award Investigation Team, bookmark this page but do not tell others its path. It is a resource for you, so return from time to time, because its content may change. 

If you are not a part of the NOVA Award Investigation Team or CIF, please leave and keep the contents and path confidential. 

2009 Nomination Short List for Investigation 2009
Click on the name of each Nomination to download the NOVA Award Nomination file. Click on People to download the  Nomination Form that identifies the people responsible for the Nomination and others who nominated it or who can provide information to investigators (plus any potentially useful cover letters). Nomination 7 was nominated by Bob Carr and does not have a People page. Bob has some information on it. Click on Key of each Nomination to go to Jury Key Points (in section below) to be addressed in the investigation.

  1. 2009-02 Self-Contained Digitizing Pen - People - Key
  2. 2009-15 Bahrain WTC Wind Turbines - People - Key
  3. 2009-17 GRS Integrated Bridge System - People - Key
  4. 2009-18 Gantry Launched Bridge Pile Driving - People - Key
  5. 2009-20 I-35W Bridge Super Sensors - People - Key
  6. 2009-25 Thin Flexible Solar Panels - Source* - Key
  7. 2009-29 Propress Flameless Pipe Fitting - People - Key
  8. 2009-31 Sun Tracker Skylight Lighting - Source* - Key

* Nominated by CIF, no signature page available

Jury's Key Points on Individual Investigations 2009
At its June 9, 2009 nomination screening meeting, the Jury raised the following points to be addressed in investigation of specific nominations. These are in addition to general requirements of all nomination investigations. Note: Jurors at the screening meeting please review these points and edit or suggest additional important points to be addressed.

2009-02 Self-Contained Digitizing Pen Explain how the system works for architectural/engineering design, for management of construction, and for field construction, for AutoCad drawings and Excel spreadsheets. Do not just copy language from ASAPX, unless it will be quite clear to Jurors. What are major components of system, costs, restraints, limits? What are opinions of construction users? Jurors need real feel of system and processes to assess usefulness and innovation.

2009-15 Bahrain WTC Wind Turbines Describe wind turbines and also any other significant advances/ innovations of the building design and construction. Assess innovation and effectiveness of turbines/ other advances/ innovations. Do the building’s turbines serve as model for use of wind turbines in other structures? Are costs available?

2009-17 GRS Integrated Bridge System The Nomination provides good description, for its length, but needs to be expanded on, because some Jurors did not really understand it. Assume Jurors do not know about reinforced soil and how it works. Explain how GRS works in general and specifically for bridge abutments. Describe difference in GRS bridge abutment and typical concrete abutment. What is the particular innovation(s) in this system? How widely has it been used/ proved?

2009-18 Gantry Launched Bridge Pile Driving Describe the top-down construction processes used on the project, for pile driving and for other processes. Describe the innovations and other advanced techniques employed and the benefits/ disbenefits they provided. On what types of projects can the processes/ techniques be used beneficially?

2009-20 I-35W Bridge Super Sensors (Note: This is not a good title, because the innovation goes far beyond sensors.) Describe innovations and advances in design/ construction/ maintenance/ performance used in this bridge. Have they been used before? If new, are they one-time uses or do they generally advance construction? For example, we have had sensors in bridges nominated for Nova several times in past, but which did not win Nova, so what is innovative about their use here?

2009-25 Thin Flexible Solar Panels (This product was nominated from within CIF, with no contact with producers, etc., so Investigator will need to make all contacts, including explaining what Nova Award is.) How, generally, do flexible solar panels work, how well do they work? Where are they in use now? Are they proven to the point that we can expect wide use in the future, as they improve over perhaps the next 2-3 years? What specific innovation(s) do they have versus solar cells in past that make them reasonable for wide use? Give a list (not necessarily exhaustive) of some current producers and how products and uses vary? Which companies/people should be identified as responsible for the innovation(s)?

2009-29 Propress Flameless Pipe Fitting We expect there is a variety of press connection fittings, some of which are those described in the Nomination. What makes nominated press connection fittings particularly innovative and useful? Describe the different stages, in time, of the ProPress fittings. What are competitors, and how do these fittings differ, including in cost? How widely are these fittings used versus competitors?

2009-31 Sun Tracker Skylight Lighting (The manufacturer, CiraLight, probably does not know their system has been nominated, so Investigator will need to make basic contact, including explaining what Nova Award is.) How does SunTracker work? How does it track sun? Describe mirror(s), mechanism(s), movement(s), and control(s)? What are costs? How widespread is its use? Does it have problems/ limitations? Are there competitors, how do their products differ?

Letter to Short List Innovators / Nominators 2009
CIF is now sending a letter in my name for each short listed nomination, of which you can download a draft as semi_letter_2009.pdf  to all those identified in the nomination as primarily responsible and to all who made the nomination. As an Investigator you need to download, print, and read semi_letter_2009.pdf so you know what the people you contact know. You can get full names and addresses of the people to whom it is being sent for your nomination at the People page in the Short List of Nominations above. Note: No such letter has been sent on Nomination 2009-25 and 2009-31, because they were nominated by CIF. Their Investigator has to communicate directly with companies who produce thin flexible solar panels for the first and with Ciralight, the manufacturer of Sun Tracker Skylight Lighting. The original short list letter is semi_letter_2009.doc.

Preparing the NOVA Award Investigation Report
Download Preparing the NOVA Award Investigation Report as PDF file that gives directions and formatting for NOVA Award Investigation Reports by NOVA Award Investigators. Each Investigator should follow this very closely, to insure that the Investigator's Report provides the information the NOVA Awards Jury needs to select winners from among the Nominations investigated. See Revised "Supporting Exhibits" and Bob Carr address/contact info in Preparing the NOVA Award Investigation Report. See Key Points raised by Jury.

Investigation Reports are Confidential for Five Years
Investigation Reports are held strictly confidential for a period of five years from the date of the year’s Nova Award presentation, after which they are available for review as part of the Construction Innovation Forum archives. This is done so CIF investigators can tell persons they interview that their comments are confidential, so the persons feel comfortable giving candid opinions. Investigation Reports are used internally by CIF on a need to know basis, distributed only to the Jury and to others involved in the Jury and Nova Awards program processes and available otherwise only by individual approval for construction innovation research who agree to hold the information confidential in accordance with CIF policy. Therefore, CIF Investigators and others are not to give anyone access to direct information in an Investigator’s Report except as appropriate within CIF policy. CIF Investigators may otherwise use their professional discretion in giving personal and professional opinions to others.

Sample Investigation Reports Can Be Downloaded
Nova Award Jurors, Investigators, and CIF Officers are welcome to download the Investigation Reports on the short list / semi-finalist nominations listed below. However, they are are confidential to others for a period of five years from date of Nova Award presentation in November of each year. To download the Nomination, click on the title. To download the Investigation Report, click on "Report.". Some of these files are much larger than they need to be.

2005-01 Prefabricated Reinforcing Cage - Report (1,835 Kb)
2005-04 Lifting Fully Assembled Bridges - Report (660 Kb)
2005-08 Wire Clip-On Reinforcing Tie - Report (1,082 Kb)
2005-13 5D Virtual Construction - Report (1,050 Kb)
2005-19 Contractor Wastewater Filtration - Report (388 Kb)
2005-25 Asphalt Milling Attachments - Report (332 Kb)
2005-27 Pipeline Leak Noise Correlator- Report (969 Kb)
2005-30 Soy Based Polyurethane Foam - Report (196 Kb)

2006-08 Site Subsurface Characterization/Analysis Report (1,124 Kb) - Key
2006-10 Field Welding Polyethylene Pipe Report (1,176 Kb)- Key
2006-17 Wireless Electric Switch Controls Report (1,401 Kb) - Key
2006-21 Self-Compacting/Sealing Aggregate Report (1,069 Kb) - Key
2006-22 Patterned Extruded Concrete Wall Report (1,710) - Key
2006-23 Asphalt Pavement Radar Analysis Report (1,299 Kb) - Key
2006-24 Prefab GFRP Concrete Bridge Deck Panels Report (716 Kb) - Key
2006-30 3D GPS-Based Earthmoving Equipment Report (260 Kb) - Key

2007-03 University of Phoenix Stadium - Report (1,353 Kb) - Key
2007-07 Suspension Bridge Cable-Stayed Cradle - Report (617) - Key
2007-09 Ultra-High Performance Ductile Concrete - Report (3,787) - Key
2007-13 Rocky Flats Closure Project- Report (126) - Key
2007-14 Liquid Flow Control Valve Insertion -Report (1,538) - Key
2007-16 Prefab Moment / Space Frame System - Report (358) - Key
2007-24 Spinning Saw Stops on Human Contact -Report (653) - Key

Investigation Report Deadline August 17, 2009
sent to Rasha (and me)
Completed Investigation Reports should be sent before August 17, 2009 to:

Rasha M. Stino
RashaStino@yahoo.com
Ph: 519-969-7692
Fax: 519-969-1549
3347 Gundy Park Cres.
Windsor, ON, Canada N9E 4R5
 

Contact me and send reports to me at
Robert I. Carr
Phone: (734) 665-8287
Fax:     (734) 665-1737
Email: RICarr@RICarr.com
542 Heritage Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48105

Notes:
     We need to get Investigation Reports by the deadline, so we have time to prepare them to send to the Jury to fit lead time for Nova Awards Banquet in November.

NOVA Award Investigation Report Template
ReportTemplate is a Microsoft Word  file for investigators to use as a formatted template to write their Investigation Reports. It is a companion file to Preparing the NOVA Award Investigation Report, written in the same format. It is available in the following file formats. 

  1. ReportTemplate.doc  (19 Kb) is a Microsoft Word file.
  2. ReportTemplate.pdf (10 Kb) is a PDF file.

I recommend you download and save ReportTemplate.doc (see instructions below) and use it as a starting template in your word processor. It can even be resaved as a Word template (ReportTemplate.dot). You can download ReportTemplate.pdf (see instructions below) to see what the format looks like, but it cannot be directly used as a template. I can also send either file as an email attachment to any Investigator. 

Sample Set of Questions To Ask
Photios Ioannou developed a letter that contains a set of questions that can be sent to the primary person providing information on a Nominated Innovation. Download it as

  1. InfoReq.doc  (32 Kb) is a rich text format file that can be converted into a MS Word or other word processor file.
  2. InfoReq.pdf (10 Kb) is a PDF file.
  3. InfoReq.htm (51 Kb) is the file as a web page.

Downloading Document Files
A Microsoft Word document can be downloaded  and saved on ones local hard drive, using your browser. The file can then be used as a template by the investigator, with all formatting in place.

Viewing, Downloading, Printing Files/Nominations
Nominations are stored and downloaded as PDF files. You can view a nomination in your browser by clicking on its short-title, and you can print the nomination once you have it in your browser. (You need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print PDF files.)

To download and save a file on your disk drive, click on it in whatever manner works for your browser and operating system. (For example, in Internet Explorer 4, right click your mouse on the short-title and select "Save Target As" to download the file.) This will save the PDF file onto the disk drive and directory you specify, with the name you specify. (We recommend you retain the PDF suffix.) Nomination files are now named according to their number. For example, Asphalt Milling Attachments, which is nomination 25 in 2005, is file nom-2005-25.pdf.

You are welcome to distribute the summaries, entire set, or individual nominations either as computer files or in printed form. You may also photocopy nominations, but photocopying loses much of the detail, particularly in the graphics.

For more information contact:

Robert I. Carr
Phone: (734) 665-8287
Fax:     (734) 665-1737
Email: RICarr@RICarr.com

 

This page last updated 06/20/2009, by RICarr