Speaker Bio & Abstract
Build Change
Nepal
BiographyNoll is a senior international development professional who draws his primary motivation from innovation and from developing concepts that improve efficiency and effectiveness. Recent innovations include:
• Seismic retrofit methodologies for houses in Haiti and Nepal
• Mobile apps for construction technical assistance
• Image capture and artificial intelligence (AI) for screening & categorizing houses
• 3D modelling and automated retrofit evaluation & design
Over the past 9 years, Noll's focus has been on post-disaster reconstruction, including providing homeowner-driven reconstruction and retrofitting technical assistance to 25,000 households in rural Nepal, and to 2,000 families in informal neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
In 2018 Noll was promoted to head Build Change’s post-disaster reconstruction operations world-wide and to direct Build Change’s recently created New Frontier Technologies division.
AbstractBuild Change developed its technical assistance platform as an innovative use of technology to overcome challenges affecting the construction value chain.
This presentation will focus on technologies used by Build Change in 2015-2019, during the earthquake reconstruction in Nepal.
Main challenges during the reconstruction were: difficult roads, homeowners’ access to information, scarcity of qualified builders, and scarcity of engineers for assessment, design and construction monitoring.
Build Change’s technical assistance platform is an integrated tech solution:
» Resilient housing awareness app
» Mobile house design library with design selection and design download functionality
» Technical assistance help-desk with mobile chat and picture upload functionality
» Mobile house evaluation and construction site monitoring
» Builder skills’ tracking app
» Semi-Automated 3D house retrofit design
Combining these technologies yields value for money gains of more than one order of magnitude.
Scaling the use of these technologies in the field has come with its share of challenges and lessons.
In the near future, Build Change’s technical assistance platform will incorporate artificial intelligence, measurement capture, blockchain and robotics. We have conducted several pilots over the past year.
Build Change’s technical assistance platform is a force for universalizing access to disaster resilient housing around the world, before and after natural disasters strike.