News Detail

Collaboration and Innovation Driven by the ACI Foundation

4/4/2017

During the annual ACI presidential term transition this month, I’m going to avail myself of the space usually devoted to a message from the President to communicate with our members—not only as the ACI Executive Vice President, but also for this issue particularly as a Trustee of the ACI Foundation. There have been some recent organizational activities undertaken and research conducted under the auspices of the ACI Foundation that need to be—and should be—recognized.

One of core strategic goals and objectives of ACI under the Strategic Plan’s pillar of Leadership is to “ensure our customers are equipped to sustainably address the needs of a changing world.” The ACI Foundation is uniquely positioned to help accomplish that pursuit. The drive for innovation is intrinsic to the ACI Foundation. With the ever-increasing pace of technology change in the world today, the work of the ACI Foundation can bridge identified gaps in knowledge to benefit ACI.

A core function of the ACI Foundation is to accelerate the acceptance of new concrete technology within the concrete industry. It focuses on providing information to the industry so that it can be incorporated in ACI’s documents through its consensus process.

Let’s envision the ACI consensus process as a pipeline. The end results of this pipeline are ACI’s beneficial codes and standards, produced within a strict and structured technical review process. The ACI Foundation and its three councils play pivotal roles in supporting this activity at the beginning of the pipeline by acting quickly when necessary to provide research funding on new technology and encouraging the development of students who will become effective leaders and contributors within ACI committees.

In 2016, the Strategic Development Council (SDC) invested $118,000 on projects to advance the implementation of new technologies. The SDC membership includes organizations interested in improving the quality and efficient construction of concrete structures with a focus on innovation. The SDC operates in two specific ways: first, for the concrete industry, by providing an in-house forum for leaders and senior executives to discuss strategic issues and tactics, including support of practical research; and second, for entrepreneurs, by providing a showcase for their ideas and technologies.

A recent example of how quickly the ACI Foundation can respond to an industry need is the publication of ITG-9R-16: Report on Design of Concrete Wind Turbine Towers. Funded by the SDC, this is the first U.S. document on preliminary design of ultra-high wind towers using concrete. The wind power generation industry recognizes concrete as the material of choice to overcome the transportation and construction barriers that limit steel towers to 80 m (262 ft) in height. Because it can efficiently go much higher, concrete is positioned to lead to dramatic increases in the generating capacity of wind turbines. This SDC-funded work has allowed an important cutting-edge technology to progress to the point where we now have an ACI consensus technical committee—ACI Committee 378, Concrete Wind Tower Turbines—to provide design standards to the industry.

The Scholarship Council is impacting the technical talent pool of the Institute. Last year, 17 fellowships and scholarships were awarded to deserving students and a new, fully funded fellowship was created. The benefits of this support are realized through the active participation of past fellowship recipients in support of ACI’s mission. For example, during The ACI Concrete Convention and Exposition – Spring 2017, Raissa Douglas Ferron, Rémy D. Lequesne, and Tyler Ley were among the active members who received one of ACI’s annual awards.

Recently, in a strategic move to ensure a robust organization, a bylaws change called for the governance of the ACI Foundation to be increased by three trustees. The new trustees are Jeffrey W. Coleman, Antonio Nanni, and Michael J. Schneider. The current ACI Foundation Board of Trustees also comprises Joseph M. Bracci, Ronald G. Burg, Ann M. Daugherty, Donna G. Halstead, David A. Lange, Debrethann R. Orsak, Randall W. Poston, and Joseph C. Sanders. For more on the recent activities of the ACI Foundation, download the 2016 update at www.acifoundation.org.

The collaboration fostered by ACI and the ACI Foundation contributes greatly to the Institute’s success. Working together produces much stronger, more effective, and often faster results than working alone.

Ronald G. Burg, PE
ACI Executive Vice President
ACI Foundation Trustee