Elating building information modeling & architectural engineering curricula

Abstract

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been touted by industry leaders, professional societies and trade articles as the next ‘big’ industry trend shaping the delivery of commercial construction by architects, engineers and construction managers. BIM delivery has been presently utilized by over half of polled industry partners. And, withstanding a separate technological programming breakthrough, BIM will likely sustain high levels of growth in implementation in industry with the rise of the next generation of design and construction professionals and building owners in the next 50 years, making BIM delivery the primary means of commercial construction document and project delivery. Due to this growth and publicity, universities around the USA have been highly encouraged to implement BIM into their educational curricula fabric of course work, placing an ever increasing emphasis on a BIM skill set for their graduates. Taken together, surveys of Architectural Engineering programs current and planned implementation of BIM, potential employers’ emphasis on recruiting graduates with BIM skills, reading and referencing of trade articles relating BIM to industry delivery trends, research on initial and sustained requirements and associated costs of hardware and software for universities - specifically Architectural Engineering Programs to include BIM in their curriculum, this collation of research and information will trend towards suggestions and conclusions related to BIM’s importance in Architectural Engineering curriculum of the present and future.