I am Timo Hartmann Professor for Civil Systems Engineering at the TU Berlin. I am intrigued by the working processes of construction, engineering, and architectural professionals and how the design the complex engineering systems that keep our societies ticking, moving, and thriving. While I am in awe of how engineers are able to deal with the complexity of their designs, I also try to provide managerial and technical solutions that improve how they work. I believe in the digitalization of the industry in the sense that computational tools have the potential to allow engineers to design significantly different than they were able before – individually, but more importantly together in integrated engineering efforts. To develop such tools, I am convinced that it is important to consider both technical and social factors working in close collaboration with practitioners. We first need to understand design and engineering work in much more detail and I feel as if we have still very little structured knowledge about what engineers really do in practice. At Intengineering I want to provide thought provoking short blogs as food for thought for science, research, but also practical engineering management. I hope you enjoy it.
I received a Ph.D. from Stanford University where I was a student at the Center for Integrated Facility Management. Before I also received a Diploma in Civil Engineering and a Masters of Computational Mechanics from the Technical University Munich. My work has been published in different journals, such as Advanced Engineering Informatics, the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Building Research and Information, Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, Design Studies, or ITCON. I am also the handling editor of Advanced Engineering Informatics where we explore the science of engineering knowledge formulation with computational methods and Engineering, Construction, and Architectural Management where we would like to explore how to best manage collaborative and integrated engineering projects.
In my earlier life, I have worked in a variety of different practical and research settings, including design management, Finite Element software development, energy simulation of buildings, or railway and road modelling. I have worked for a wide variety of firms either as employee or research fellow, such as Parsons Brinckerhoff (USA), Turner Construction (USA), Max Boegl (Germany) and Zelan construction (Malaysia) and have been involved with large and complex engineering projects such as the Fulton Street Transit Center project in New York City, the Sutter Medical Health Center in Sacramento, the Teluk Gong 720MW CCGT Panglima Power Plant in Malaysia, or the Doyle Drive Project in San Francisco. Next to my job at the university, I started a spin-off called Contecht in which we try to develop advanced web-based engineering applications and provide professional training programs. Recently I also had the chance to be part of shaping the digitalization strategy of Arcadis – one of the worldwide largest design and engineering companies for the natural and built environment.