Building Information Modeling: Design instruction by integration into an undergraduate curriculum

Abstract

Building Information Modeling (BIM) developed into a prominent field of knowledge and practice in the Architect/Engineering/Construction (AEC) profession over the past decade. As this field emerged in both academia and industry, increasingly viewed as critical for significant practice, the state of the art became more clearly defined. As the field matures, the door opens for the effective integration of BIM at the undergraduate civil engineering program level. Some universities have taken the approach of addressing this new body of knowledge via seminar sessions, in addition to the standard academic load, while others have addressed the need with the development of a specific course devoted solely to BIM. The seminar approach evolved early when the topic was new. This approach is not as comprehensive and consequently not as demanding a commitment for both students and faculty alike. The alternative of creating an additional course adds BIM to the list of compulsory or elective courses and offers the opportunity for in depth learning on the topic. This provides a significant focus on the topic and builds on prior knowledge, but requires an additional course load for both students and faculty; the new course results in treatment of BIM as a separate specialty rather than a method to connect engineering disciplines. A third approach is possible now that time allowed BIM concepts to become more standardized is to integrate BIM fundamentals throughout the complementary courses in an undergraduate civil engineering program. Integration creates the advantage of directly linking BIM to work in existing courses and highlights BIM in its normal state as a condition of the engineering environment rather than a separate subject. And while uniting coursework in a common BIM software platform offers significant advantages from a program perspective, simply using consistent BIM concepts in courses may also have a significantly positive effect on the undergraduate experience, specifically in capstone design courses. An initial implementation of this integrated approach is presented and evaluated in this paper based on the experiences in the civil engineering program at the United States Military Academy. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.