Comparing a project as designed with a project as constructed can be painstaking.

The process requires us to check our 3D building models against post-construction lidar scans. The step is essential for identifying potential problems during construction and assuring quality of the final project.

“I’ve got a lot of pride in what they accomplished because there is no off-the-shelf solution to do this.”

No software solution exists to ease the process. So, we enlisted a team of computer science and business students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to work on a prototype, which was called Project ZeroDelta.

The sponsorship took place through the Design Studio capstone program at UNL’s Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management. The program matches more than two dozen student teams with industry sponsors to work on technology solutions for real-world business challenges.

The team we sponsored – Kellen Carney, Paul Owens, Carina Swanson, and Gleb Moisseyev – won the gold award earlier this year at the Design Studio’s annual showcase. It was great to see the students enjoy success following a year of hard work, said Brian Orton, data center client relationship manager at Olsson who worked closely with the team.

“I’ve got a lot of pride in what they accomplished because there is no off-the-shelf solution to do this,” Brian said. “They couldn’t go to existing code bases. They couldn’t go to anybody in the industry who solved this problem.”

We engineer infrastructure at Olsson, not software. But we know all about the drive to innovate, and we recognized it in the students. When it comes to creating solutions, that’s one of the most important qualities you can have.