Week 1: Day 4

Visit to Erga Progress

The day started with a small lecture given by Mr. Mazen Hallak about concrete casting. He gave an example of a method statement for the casting of concrete, and he stressed on the importance of developing a QA/QC procedure to be carried out on site. This was a preparation for our upcoming site visit on Saturday, where we will be: checking reinforcement, casting, testing and vibrating the concrete on a slab of a four villas project.

After the lecture, we headed to Erga Progress Engineering Consultants' main office in Dubai. There Mr. Joseph Sawaya introduced us to the history of the Dubai Branch of Erga and how it started. Then Mr. Elio discussed the Procurement Strategy and contract selection. Later he spoke about the relationship between Erga and DCC explaining that Erga acts as the main design firm for most of DCC's design-build projects.

As an example, Mr. Sawaya explained in details the Emirates British Nursery Project built to accomodate about 450 children from 0-3 years; the project was to be completed within a year. It was a challenge for both companies that they were able to complete. He also spoke briefly about several projects in Dubai, Lebanon, Riyadh, Umman and Qatar that Erga took part of. After that, he showed us the offices and we ended the tour with nice refreshments and dessert.

Lecture No. 4: Introduction to IT Infrastructure and Building Information Modeling

After lunch and at 2:00 pm, Mr. Amir Kolahzadeh; ITWorks BDM, gave us a lecture about the importance of the IT infrastructure that consists of the equipments, systems, software and services. As the Data and Internet connectivity became the 4th utility in every home, it is important for the contractor to include them in his projects. Hence, the installation of advanced IT services has various significance in commercial and residential development, hospitality, healthcare and education.

Moreover, Mr. Amir introduced the concept of data centers and its role in hosting and storing information, emails, websites, etc.

 

Rolex Tower Visit

To further elaborate the concept of IT infrastructure, Mr. Amir and Mr. Bassam accompanied the students along with Dr. Clemence to the Rolex Tower which is developed by DCC. 

This tower consists of 63 stories divided into offices and residential floors.

 

The visit started in the BMS room in the basement of the Rolex tower where all information are stored and serviced. Then the students went into the Telecommunication room and witnessed all the electrical telecommunication wires from the optic fibers to the copper wires. This was followed by a visit to the telephone room, the IT room and one of the mini data centers present in each other floor.