Trimble Partners with the University of Cambridge to Collaborate on Research in Engineering and Construction Technology

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today that it is partnering with the University of Cambridge to collaborate on research to advance technology development in the engineering and construction industry. Trimble will work closely with the Laing O'Rourke Centre's Construction Information Technology Laboratory (CIT). CIT is a state-of-the-art research facility with a mission to solve complex engineering problems and automate difficult construction tasks through decision support tools. These tools would recognize data patterns, retrieve useful information and generate knowledge of the built environment.

The construction industry is highly information-intensive and requires extensive data and information exchange during the construction process between project stakeholders. To enhance competitiveness and efficiency, engineering and construction companies are adopting new forms of information technology to improve productivity, scheduling, quality and costs of a project. The goal of the Trimble Sponsorship Program is to enable research focused on advanced, accessible and intuitive technologies that can drive increased collaboration for the Design-Build-Operate (DBO) lifecycle of buildings and infrastructure.

The Trimble Sponsorship Program will support cutting-edge research in construction information technology. The initial focus of the collaboration is to:

• enable world-class academic research that has the potential to achieve a significant impact across the construction industry to improve safety, reduce costs, and increase predictability and operational efficiency;
• provide educational and professional development to encourage and champion construction information technology research in academia and industry; and
• focus on accelerating the advantages of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in construction as well as the use of computer vision and augmented reality technologies to simplify a wide variety of common construction problems in practical applications.

"The research interests between the University of Cambridge Construction Information Technology Laboratory in the Laing O'Rourke Centre and Trimble are truly aligned," said Bryn Fosburgh, sector vice president at Trimble. "Working closely with the research teams at Cambridge, our goal is to foster innovation and enable academic research in information technologies that can affect and transform the way the industry designs, builds and operates buildings and infrastructure."

"The construction sector is undergoing rapid transformation as a result of the revolution in digital engineering. Cambridge University has a wide portfolio of research projects which aim to solve problems in the construction sector," said Professor Campbell Middleton, head of the Laing O'Rourke Centre at the University of Cambridge. "This exciting new relationship with Trimble will enable us to work together to push forward our agenda to develop new, transformative tools and technologies to deliver a much safer and more productive construction industry and help build the infrastructure on which the well-being of society depends."

About the Laing O'Rourke Centre's Construction Information Technology Laboratory at the University of Cambridge

The Laing O'Rourke Centre's Construction Information Technology (CIT) Laboratory at the University of Cambridge is committed to providing high-quality leadership on research, education and technology transfer to address issues related to infrastructure sensing (from the construction phase and beyond), data analysis, and knowledge generation. CIT works with international, national, and local public and private agencies to solve research problems of great significance, and creates feasible and sustainable methods that gradually advance the body of knowledge in construction IT, while always looking for the next leap. The CIT's strategic objectives aim to solve complex engineering problems and automate laborious inspection, control, and monitoring tasks through decision support tools that recognize data patterns, retrieve useful information, and generate knowledge of the built environment.

For more information, visit:  http://cit.eng.cam.ac.uk.

About Trimble

Trimble is transforming the way the world works by delivering products and services that connect the physical and digital worlds. Core technologies in positioning, modeling, connectivity and data analytics enable customers to improve productivity, quality, safety and sustainability. From purpose built products to enterprise lifecycle solutions, Trimble software, hardware and services are transforming a broad range of industries such as agriculture, construction, geospatial and transportation and logistics. For more information about Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB), visit:  www.trimble.com.

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