Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent sustainable Construction - I3con

SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION HANDBOOK 2
University of Reading (United Kingdom), Universitat Stuttgart (Germany) and Purdue University
(United States).
The following courses of the MSc CME specialization block contain IT related subjects:
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• Building Design and Construction Informatics. This course is an introductory course of
theories, methods and techniques regarding the application of information and communication
technologies, to improve the quality, efficiency and effectivity of design and construction
processes. The main emphasis of the course is on information modelling and product data
technology for the building and construction industry. The goal of the exercises is to familiarise
the students with the basic skills of building information modelling using UML (Unified
Modelling Language) as well as building feature modelling using ArchiCAD.
• Knowledge Management (accompanying previous course in the list). The main emphasis of this
course is on information management and knowledge technology for the building and
construction industry. The goal of this course is to provide students with the fundamental
knowledge and skills of IT tools in building and construction, including basic skills of process
modelling using SADT techniques (IDEF0) as well as knowledge modelling using a real life
case.
• System Dynamics. This course deals with dynamic non-linear feedback systems on a high level
of aggregation in order to develop hypotheses and conceptual models for complex (civil
engineering) systems. A computer supported gaming and simulation environment for advanced
simulation of non-linear problem-solving will be offered to the students.
• Advanced System Design. In this course students (individual or as a group of two students)
design, develop and implement a system for mainly a (building and civil) engineering problem.
The emphasis of this exercise is on system development methods and techniques and the use of
IT solutions. The goal of the exercise is to familiarise the students with practical aspects of
system development, enabling them to employ IT-enabled tools whenever required for the
purpose of their graduation project or during their professional work.
Results
The BSc Design Project courses described above have already been running for a number of years,
with modifications almost every year. These courses generally function well. The students appreciate
the courses and the lecturers share the opinion that students get a proper preparation for their role as
designer/engineers.
On the other hand, the Design Project courses have their limitations. The courses are in fact umbrella
courses for a wide range of skills; students can develop these skills up to a basic level, but not much
further. For example, they learn a little bit about how to run and manage a project, but they do not get
a thorough education in project management, including theories, methods and different approaches.
The same can be said for subjects as cost management, risk management, etc. The reason for this is
that the Design Projects are used as a vehicle for many skills – and recently some new skills are added
to the list, namely Geo Information and Drawing.
For most aspects of design projects the training of so many skills in one course is not really a big issue
for the BSc stage, as long as you do not expect too much from the students after these courses.
An exception is, in our view, the ICT aspect. In the current design projects, ICT is only seen as a tool
for doing design work. There is hardly any attention for the information modelling or information
management aspect of a design project. This can be seen in the MSc stage, where students apparently
have no idea of ICT and BIM as key supporting tools for complex design projects.
The MSc tracks discussed in this chapter have a shorter history. The Construction Management and
Engineering track started in 2007 and the first graduates left the university in 2009. In these few years,
an enthusiastic community of CME students has formed (approximately 20-30 students per year). The