Application programming interfaces and the API ecosystem explained. What if you could reconfigure your business processes to be faster and less costly by easily offering new products and services from emerging providers … and offloading your non-core competencies to outside providers? What if, in the competitive market you are in, you could bind your customer to your products and services…
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Artificial intelligence is in the house—and it’s about to shake things up! Google, now a verb per Merriam-Webster, controls over 90 percent of the internet search market. Yet the search engine colossus lost over $100 million in market valuation on February 9 when its newly released AI chatbot, called Bard, gave a widely publicized wrong answer for an astronomy question.…
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Artificial intelligence pushes decision-making to the edge. In January, Bloomberg News reported that Microsoft is investing $10 billion in OpenAI, a startup company specializing in artificial intelligence (AI). OpenAI is the maker of ChatGPT (an online chatbox) and other tools that can generate readable text and images in response to short prompts or questions. In terms of ready-mix concrete U.S.…
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Embrace the paradox: Invest in tech partners and people now, while an impending recession makes talent and time abundant. DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION RATIONALEResearchers preparing the 2022 KPMG U.S. Technology Survey Report asked businesses: “What are the key drivers of your organization’s digital transformation and corresponding investments?” As the United States slides into a recession, our industry is starting to feel it.…
Read MoreGeopolymer concrete and fiber-reinforced polymer rebar can be the perfect match for sustainability in structural applications. Steel and concrete have a love-hate relationship. Steel brings tensile strength to concrete, making it stronger for structural applications. Alas, concrete lets water seep into the relationship and corrode the hope for a lasting union. To fix this marriage, Dr. Ruth (Westheimer) has been…
Read MoreWith Ethereum’s blockchain radical overhaul, look for digital currency to come to an industry near you. We have all heard of the cryptocurrency called bitcoin. Ether (ETH) is the second most popular cryptocurrency, and it’s about to expand into vastly new areas thanks to a recent development with the platform on which it is used: Ethereum. The Latin word aether…
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Integration of data AND business process empower freedom of choice in a concrete technology ecosystem. The Walt Disney Co. is a world champion of vertical capture. The company’s theme parks offer families a complete package of entertainment, dining and lodging. Yet in Orlando, Fla., many visitors choose to complement or even skip Disney World for other cool things like Comcast’s…
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Albert Einstein famously mused “If you can’t explain it to a 6-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” This can be applied to how many in the construction industry view ultra-high-performance concrete, or UHPC. While this type of concrete has been around for a long time, it is often dismissed as a complicated and expensive option. “It’s complicated” may not be…
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Graphene is light, super strong and can lessen the CO2 footprint of cement. Sir Isaac Newton famously wrote, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” A giant in the natural sciences, Newton knew sustainable progress is only possible through building on incremental advances. In November, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change…
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A ready mixed concrete truck is more than a “truck.” It’s a mobile manufacturing environment. William Shakespeare might be tempted to say a truck by any other name is still a truck, but in the ready mixed concrete industry, a mixer truck is really a mobile manufacturing environment, or MME. Let’s take a few moments to “smell the roses.” One…
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