• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.323-330
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• 2020

Project delays, cost overruns, and disputes are becoming a norm for the construction industry in Hong Kong. Researchers argue that the inability of traditional contracts to manage risk and associated changes are perhaps the main points of contention. The Institution of Civil Engineers published a new engineering contract (NEC), NEC4 Suite of Contracts in this to facilitate better risk management through collaborative culture in construction projects. NEC aims to increase the chances of project success thought its flexible nature of contracts, 'simple' and 'clearly written' documents and provision for the incentive by adopting a better management approach. This paper focuses on traditional and NEC contracts to compare risk management and change management aspects. Through literature review and preliminary interviews with three industry professionals, the paper is exploring how a change in traditional contracts can recuperate from disaster. Our interviewees in this work have extensive experience in traditional as well as in NEC contracts. The results suggest a proactive risk management provisions in NEC contracts does make a difference to avoid later escalation of issues. Whereas, management of change helps streamline all identified issues through a structured process without going in mediation or litigation. NEC, with its new approach to collaborative working, allows partners to be vigilant, yet gratifying in the project process.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.399-408
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• 2022

ERC-20, the standard API for Ethereum token smart contracts, was introduced to ensure compatibility among applications such as wallets and decentralized exchanges. However, many compatibility vulnerability problems have existed because there is no rigorous functional specifications for each API nor conformance review tools for the standard. In this paper, we proposed a new review procedure and a tool to perform the procedure to review if ERC-20 token smart contract programs for the Ethereum blockchain conform to the de facto standards. Based on the knowledge from an analysis on the ERC-20 API functional behavior of the top 100 token smart contract programs in the existing Ethereum blockchain, a new specification for the de facto standard for ERC-20 API was explicitly defined. The new specification enabled us to design a systematic review method for Ethereum smart contract programs. We developed a tool to support this review method and we evaluated a few benchmark programs with the tool.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.3003-3029
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• 2023

The rapid evolution of the IoT has paved the way for new opportunities in smart city domains, including e-health, smart homes, and precision agriculture. However, this proliferation of services demands effective SLAs between customers and service providers, especially for critical services. Difficulties arise in maintaining the integrity of such agreements, especially in vulnerable wireless environments. This study proposes a novel SLA management model that uses an SDN-Enabled WSN consisting of wireless nodes to interact with smart contracts in a straightforward manner. The proposed model ensures the persistence of network metrics and SLA provisions through smart contracts, eliminating the need for intermediaries to audit payment and compensation procedures. The reliability and verifiability of the data prevents doubts from the contracting parties. To meet the high-performance requirements of the blockchain in the proposed model, low-cost algorithms have been developed for implementing blockchain technology in wireless sensor networks with low-energy and low-capacity nodes. Furthermore, a cryptographic signature control code is generated by wireless nodes using the in-memory private key and the dynamic random key from the smart contract at runtime to prevent tampering with data transmitted over the network. This control code enables the verification of end-to-end data signatures. The efficient generation of dynamic keys at runtime is ensured by the flexible and high-performance infrastructure of the SDN architecture.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.146-153
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• 2009

The year 2008 was a hard year for Korea's construction companies. The real estate downturn resulted in halting new construction and stopping existing work, and inflation of global oil prices caused price hikes in rebar and concrete materials. As a solution to reducing the budget, the newly appointed government announced plans to increase low cost bid contracts from 10 billion to 30 billion won. When such economical and political factors negatively impact the construction market, projects based on low cost contracts are the hardest hit. Many problems already inherent in low cost bid contracts become accentuated. Consequently, this provides an opportune time to actually study and analyze the issues in these projects. This paper introduces the findings made from investigating four projects struggling to make ends meet in the year 2008. Results show that flow of cash (i.e., liquidity), or lack thereof, was the root cause which in turn was hampered by failed mechanisms for design changes, material inflation. Attributing cash flow risk to the bottom of the production structure (i.e., small business subcontractors) was also a problem within the industry. Contractors need a better way to prepare against material price fluctuations, and owners need to assist in expediting payment during times of extreme downturn.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.223-225
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• 2000

Network congestion is important problem that must be managed for active power contracts in deregulated power industry. Existing network partition technique is based on statistical method don't suggest clear network partition criterion. So in this paper we proposed a new network partition technique using the marginal cost sensitivity to fairly allocate congestion cost to network user.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2013.01a
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• pp.145-150
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• 2013

As a recent global trend, the majority of mega-size plant projects are delivered through EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contracts, where a single contract is awarded for engineering, procurement, and construction. Under this contracting mechanism, it is challenging for contractors to carry out the projects under traditional project management processes used in design-bid-build projects. A new EPC Plant, the POSCO Special Steel Plant in Changwon, was built successfully at the beginning of 2012 and it is currently in full-scale production. The project has encountered a number of major difficulties however, with some technical and managerial issues through its development process. As summarized in this paper, the authors (as project participants with the contractor) investigated it as a post construction analysis and recorded the Lessons-learned for future project management improvement.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.1405-1412
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• 2015

In Korea, public infrastructure projects employ "long term continuation (LTC) contracts," which require budgets to be reevaluated and re-appropriated annually throughout the multi-year life of the project. However, such contracts also make it susceptible to frequently changing government policies, in which budgets required for existing projects are allocated to new projects and thus does not provide a consistent stream of capital to multi-year projects. Each year, the KEC needs to attain government funds for construction of its multiple highway construction sites. Because it is difficult to know the amount that may be actually appropriated to KEC in a given year, it is in turn difficult to anticipate and provide sufficient funds necessary for construction to run smoothly and continuously. The lack of a good logic for appropriation has resulted in projects having a skewed distribution of capital. To get better budget appropriations from the central government, the KEC first needs a systemized approach that rationalizes the annual construction capital optimally required for its individual sites. The goal of this research was to devise a way that allows the KEC to determine and calculate the optimal construction costs that would be required for its individual construction sites on an annual basis. Both the optimal progress rate and the essential work types were assessed through a workshop with 24 professionals (KEC employees and contractors) who had extensive experience in KEC projects and also were currently working in these projects.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.2D
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• pp.153-161
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• 2010

The city planning of a local government is a continuous process that does not end with the creation of a plan but proceeds through decision-making, monitoring and evaluation phases. As a new city planning is changed and confirmed, there is a chance to construct a large scale road that is connected with an under constructed road. In this case, the expansion of the width and length of road, the addition of bridges or tunnels, and the change of the size and location of interchanges lead to many changes on road design and construction. In the past, the consignment contracts for a road construction have been made in limited numbers and for limited civil works. Now, it is growing in numbers and is making for large scale multi-works. However, the standard process and guidelines for the consignment contracts have not been suggested yet, so there is difficulty in performing the consigned road construction effectively. In this paper, the important factors for the consignment contracts are determined by construction document reviews and expert interviews. Based on these results, a standard process for the consigned contracts and a guideline for agreeing on construction cost are suggested. The costs that should be paid by a consignor are also defined.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.49-56
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• 2016

Recent research has been ongoing for modular buildings in the country and interest increases. However, the activation of modular building projects is obstructed in the construction industry. There are many reasons to identity for this obstruction but one issue should be focussed. Modular buildings require to change the existing construction production system to a new construction production system, which is factory production - transportation - erection. However, the existing project delivery system in the public sector could not be adapted for this new construction production system due to the obligation of multi prime contract use, such as electrical, communication, fire fighting contracts by Law. Therefore, modular buildings in the existing project delivery system are separately contracted by multi prime contracts and modular units composed of the buildings are contracted by an architectural prime contractor as a commodity. As results, construction costs are increased, potential quality problems are raised and the existing project delivery system is finally an obstacle not to maximize benefits of the modular buildings. In this paper, we propose a new project delivery system for the modular buildings to adapt then ew construction production system.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.55-61
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• 2009

This study aims for determination of cutting work envelope of an articular robot for H-beam cutting. The robot has its own work envelope. The cutting of piece with groove requires the specific position of the torch which contracts the work envelope. This study suggested the new method to determine the cutting work envelope for this case. The method simplified the problem by use of the combination of inverse kinematics and forward kinematics. The method was used for cutting the H-beam with groove. The cutting work envelope was determined easily. The result was verified by 3D simulation system which implements the articular robot with 6 axes and the H-beam in the virtual shop.