Identifying the barriers in the development of building information modeling in construction engineering and management of educational systems

Abstract

After the introduction of Building Information Modeling to construction industry in 1987, today industry are being faced with a demand for tools and a trained professionals capable of implementing it. Recently, the new idea of having a comprehensive 3D intelligent model with the ability of being extended to a 4D, 5D, 6D and 7D model has caught a lot of attention and forced the construction companies to move toward adopting the new knowledge and implementing it in their projects. However, there are deficiencies associated with the integration of this new technology which is basically due to the lack of well-trained individuals in the field. These deficiencies are basically relates to the scarcity of construction engineering programs within the universities with a dedicated course in Building Information Modeling. Although the utilization of BIM has been recently developed in some universities curriculums, this adoption has been overlooked in roughly all Malaysians’ institutions curriculums. As a result, this research is aimed to identify obstacles regarding the use of BIM in educational system. The scope of this research is limited to academicians including both lecturers and students of the faculties of civil and Build Environment at University Technology of Malaysia. The results have indicated that, although, majority of students are aware about advantages of BIM technology at construction stages, they are not capable to use related software. By doing further research some barriers identified and recommendations stated. From this research that is undertaken, it is practicable to conclude that the usage of building information modeling in academic systems is effective in increasing students’ ability in working fields in future. Besides, with eliminating the identified barriers, the utilization of BIM in academic fields would be accelerated.