Integrating Industry BIM Practices into University Curriculum

Kevin R. Miller; Clifton B. Farnsworth; Justin Earl Weidman

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Conference: 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Publication Date: June 23, 2013
Start Date: June 23, 2013
End Date: June 26, 2013
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Building BIM into Construction Curricula
Tagged Division: Construction
Page Count: 12
Page Numbers: 23.773.1 - 23.773.12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--19787
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/19787
Download Count: 468

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Paper Authors

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Kevin R. Miller Brigham Young University

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Kevin R. Miller Ph.D. is the Chair of the Construction Management Program at Brigham Young University. He has worked as an estimator for several companies in industry. His area of research focuses on Construction Modeling and Estimating. Kevin has also taught at Arizona State University and the University of Florida.

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Clifton B. Farnsworth Brigham Young University

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Clifton Farnsworth received B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Utah. He worked as a geotechnical engineer for eight years with the Utah Department of Transportation, spent three years as an Assistant Professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas, Tyler, and has a current appointment as an Assistant Professor of construction management at Brigham Young University.

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Justin Earl Weidman Brigham Young University

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Justin Weidman received his BS and MS degrees in Construction Management from Brigham Young University and a PhD from Virginia Polytechnic and State University in Environmental Design and Planning

Justin worked as a project engineer and project manager in the construction industry for 3 years. And has a current appointment as a assistant professor at Brigham Young University.

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Abstract

Integrating Industry BIM Practices into University CurriculumThe use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is becoming more prevalent in the engineering andconstruction community for both design and construction. Similarly, BIM is therefore being integratedinto university curriculum. To determine how best to integrate BIM into a university constructionmanagement curriculum, the author visited five different companies (including nine different offices)and multiple projects across the United States that had implemented BIM to various extents. The visitswere to companies that are current leaders in BIM use within the construction industry. The projecttypes that were visited were all commercial projecting and included multiple hospitals, a universitylibrary remodel and expansion, hotels, a university hockey arena, a university art museum expansionand remodel, and a new pharmaceutical facility. The purpose of these visits was to discover howcompanies are implementing BIM within their companies, both in preconstruction services and fieldoperations. These visits also provided a better understanding of the implications of BIM across ourentire construction management curriculum, providing our students with the latest industry bestpractices, the ability to contribute to the BIM efforts of the company upon graduation, and to provideleadership to those companies adopting BIM.The purpose of this paper is to disseminate what was learned from these company/project visits and thecorresponding changes that were made within the courses in the curriculum. Lessons learned about BIMdata and organizational structure include the following: how BIM is being utilized within theconstruction industry, how the BIM execution plans defines the level of performance regarding BIM forthe design team, contractor and subcontractor, the organization of BIM departments within companiesand how they integrate with the preconstruction and operations groups, how data is structured andflows both internally and externally to the company and ramifications of adding BIM to the silos of data.Lessons learned concerning BIM personnel include the following: the realization that people are the realassets and BIM is just a technology tool, acknowledgment that BIM specific personnel currently have ashort career path, traditional construction management roles (such as preconstruction services,estimating, and field engineers) are greatly enhanced when they have a strong BIM skillset, and thatthere are currently many BIM estimating tools available but there is not a complete viable estimatingsolution.Changes that have already been incorporated within the construction management curriculum from thelessons learned include: more effective and efficient clash detection, enhanced quantity takeoffs frommodels, more definition to BIM expectations from the various parties, and better career counseling tostudents regarding BIM. These visits have also brought to our attention additional areas of research inBIM for our undergraduate and graduate students to pursue. The lessons learned from these visits andthe changes made within our curriculum, may benefit other engineering and construction programs thatare also implementing BIM within their curriculum.

Citation
Format

Miller, K. R., & Farnsworth, C. B., & Weidman, J. E. (2013, June), Integrating Industry BIM Practices into University Curriculum Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19787

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                       Integrating Industry BIM Practices into University CurriculumThe use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is becoming more prevalent in the engineering andconstruction community for both design and construction. Similarly, BIM is therefore being integratedinto university curriculum. To determine how best to integrate BIM into a university constructionmanagement curriculum, the author visited five different companies (including nine different offices)and multiple projects across the United States that had implemented BIM to various extents. The visitswere to companies that are current leaders in BIM use within the construction industry. The projecttypes that were visited were all commercial projecting and included multiple hospitals, a universitylibrary remodel and expansion, hotels, a university hockey arena, a university art museum expansionand remodel, and a new pharmaceutical facility. The purpose of these visits was to discover howcompanies are implementing BIM within their companies, both in preconstruction services and fieldoperations. These visits also provided a better understanding of the implications of BIM across ourentire construction management curriculum, providing our students with the latest industry bestpractices, the ability to contribute to the BIM efforts of the company upon graduation, and to provideleadership to those companies adopting BIM.The purpose of this paper is to disseminate what was learned from these company/project visits and thecorresponding changes that were made within the courses in the curriculum. Lessons learned about BIMdata and organizational structure include the following: how BIM is being utilized within theconstruction industry, how the BIM execution plans defines the level of performance regarding BIM forthe design team, contractor and subcontractor, the organization of BIM departments within companiesand how they integrate with the preconstruction and operations groups, how data is structured andflows both internally and externally to the company and ramifications of adding BIM to the silos of data.Lessons learned concerning BIM personnel include the following: the realization that people are the realassets and BIM is just a technology tool, acknowledgment that BIM specific personnel currently have ashort career path, traditional construction management roles (such as preconstruction services,estimating, and field engineers) are greatly enhanced when they have a strong BIM skillset, and thatthere are currently many BIM estimating tools available but there is not a complete viable estimatingsolution.Changes that have already been incorporated within the construction management curriculum from thelessons learned include: more effective and efficient clash detection, enhanced quantity takeoffs frommodels, more definition to BIM expectations from the various parties, and better career counseling tostudents regarding BIM. These visits have also brought to our attention additional areas of research inBIM for our undergraduate and graduate students to pursue. The lessons learned from these visits andthe changes made within our curriculum, may benefit other engineering and construction programs thatare also implementing BIM within their curriculum.
AU  - Kevin R. Miller
AU  - Clifton B. Farnsworth
AU  - Justin Earl Weidman
CY  - Atlanta, Georgia
DA  - 2013/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Integrating Industry BIM Practices into University Curriculum
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/19787
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--19787
ER  -