Infotech, a leader in infrastructure construction software solutions, recently entered a partnership with the University of Florida's M.E. Rinker Sr. School of Construction Management in Gainesville to advance the transportation construction industry. This strategic partnership will connect critical industry research directly with users in the field by advancing technology offered in the transportation construction industry.

"UF Rinker is one of the top construction management schools in the U.S., conducting advanced research on BIM, IFC standards and other technologies needed on the job site today," explained Will McClave, Infotech president of systems.

"Infotech has a longstanding relationship with the University of Florida and this new partnership will help bring critical research to the field faster so that we can collectively move the industry forward."

Led by assistant professor Aaron Costin, Rinker has been conducting research on many key issues facing the transportation construction industry today. With the rapid adoption of new, integrated technologies and the evolution of Building Information Modeling (BIM) on infrastructure projects, it became a top priority for Infotech to coordinate efforts with one of the leading academic programs that addresses these market shifts.

The first initiative UF Rinker and Infotech will focus on is BIM and its impact on the infrastructure construction industry.

"With the growing need for data standards and the adoption of BIM for infrastructure across the transportation industry, it became obvious to us that it was time to take the necessary steps to collaborate on a greater scale with Aaron Costin and his team of experts at UF," said McClave.

"Infotech is in a unique position to drive the adoption of innovative and emerging technologies that are impacting the transportation construction industry across the country," added Costin. "Our new partnership will lead us to better ways of implementing research and focus our joint efforts on BIM and the data standards needed to reach our common objective of advancing this space."

Costin is an expert on linked data in architecture and construction and has served on many committees for the Transportation Research Board and other international groups on this topic, in addition to authoring multiple peer-reviewed articles.

"It's exciting for me to work with a company who has such deep roots in the transportation construction space, so that I can share my research and knowledge in order to shorten the curve to enlightened product development that meets or exceeds the needs of the industry both today and tomorrow."

Gainesville-based Infotech is the contract developer of AASHTOWare Project, which is used by 43 Departments of Transportation across the country, and the developer of the Bid Express service, which has managed more than $1 trillion in bids on infrastructure projects. The company is recognized as a leader in e-Construction and the digitization of traditional paper processes that include electronic bidding, site inspection, document management, invoicing and payments.

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