Implenia promotes ETH professorship

The key point of the agreement between Implenia and ETH is the financial support for an assistant professorship in the field of innovative and industrialized construction at the Institute for Construction and Infrastructure Management (IBI) of the Department of Construction, Environment and Geomatics at ETH Zurich. This will be supported by Implenia over the next six years with an earmarked contribution of CHF 2.4 million to the ETH Zurich Foundation. The aim is for the professorship to start work in an estimated twelve to 18 months.

The findings from the research are to be used for concrete process optimization along the entire value chain of a building. In addition, the partnership aims to promote the attractiveness of the discipline, the training of young engineers, and the exchange of knowledge between research and industry.

ETH President Prof. Dr. Lino Guzzella sees a lot of untapped potential: "Digital technologies open up completely new possibilities for design, but also for better collaboration between man and machine. These must be exploited for the Swiss construction industry." Implenia CEO Anton Affentranger says: "Let's face it: the construction industry today is one of the most inefficient industries there is. We are taking this year's 10th anniversary of Implenia as an opportunity to invest in the future of construction and make an active contribution to the innovation and industrialization of our profession." Implenia has already created a center of excellence in the form of the Technical Center, which is involved in technical development, for example in the area of streamlining construction processes or the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM). (ah)