UNM BIM SUMMIT 2015 The UNM department of civil engineering co hosted the 2 nd annual UNM bimsmartfoundation Summit on Friday September 18, 2015 with a full day of new presentations, panel discussions, and collaborative sharing of history along with the current and future vision of the use of BIM theories and practice in the Architectural, Engineering, Construction (AEC) industry and academic research. Gathering for breakfast before the 2015 BIM Summit at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Civil Eng. Chair Dr. Mahmoud Taha, SOE Dean Joseph Cecchi welcome keynote speaker Dana K. Deke Smith along with event organizers Birgitta Foster & Michael Gonzalez The day s events started with a 7:15 am breakfast at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico (http://www.bimsmartfoundation.org/events.html). The event had five (5) new sponsors and a 45% increase in participation from last year s inaugural event, with over 130 attendees from industry, government, academia, civil engineering, architecture, local community colleges, technical schools, local BIM 505 user s group and high school students from the ACE Leadership Program. Dr. Joseph L. Cecchi, UNM Dean of the School of Engineering and Dr. Mahmoud Taha, Chair Civil Engineering opened with addresses welcoming the attendees prior to the mornings presentations conveying the importance and goal of inspiring science and engineering students, especially underrepresented groups like women and minorities towards innovative technology research such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM), 3 D Scanning and other emerging technologies. BrIM is quickly gaining traction and research opportunities and intra department collaboration will be available in the future through resilient structures, communities and infrastructure through the increase utilization of drones for inspection, analysis and maintenance. SOE Dean Joseph Cecchi welcomes the UNM bimsmartfoundation 2015 attendees Civil Eng. Chair Dr. Mahmoud Taha speaks about the opportunity for collaboration
The Key Note speaker was former Executive Director of the National Institute of Building Sciences buildingsmart alliance Dana K. Deke Smith from Washington, DC. Deke presented an eye opening perspective and global comparison of the current standing in BIM adoption, advancement and challenges in the United States. He also revealed the opportunity for advancing the body of knowledge (BOK) for BIM in the AEC industry to give owners a better understanding of potential lifecycle investments through facilities management, operations and maintenance which can have long term impacts to society globally. Deke also served on the discussion panel adding to the superior quality of the premier panel and event. Attendees commented on Deke s presentation and approachable nature. Dana Deke Smith outlines some of the current challenges in the AEC Industry Deke identifies the potential societal benefits of BIM adoption Showcase sponsor HB Construction representatives Chris Jiron, Jason Montoya and Victor Rodriguez led demonstrations which showed how the impact of BIM is changing the way they do business and construction in todays fast paced industry. They showed how the adoption and implementation of technology based tools is having an impact on their production rates and overall profitability. Technology sponsor Lisa Duncan, owner of CADSoft technologies introduced Krupesh Kakkente wowed the crowd with some of the immerging technology and remote controlling applications and software. Lisa and Krupesh were impressed with the event they agreed to return and sponsor next year. Owners Groups had discussions from Matt Pacheco at Sandia National Laboratories who outlined his organization s current facility BIM initiatives as well how they are ready to release their BIM template to be used on SNL projects. John Tomaszewski is the Associate Project/Construction Manager: Capital Projects Office from UNM Planning, Design and Construction Development presented on initiatives being implemented at UNM to garner more useable documentation and facility efficiencies in their operations. He also defined the need for using BIM in current and future renovations work to be planned, completed, or in transition. BIM academia and educational updates covering strategic planning initiatives were discussed by UNM s faculty Michael Gonzalez from civil engineering. Michael then introduced Alvin Jansen a MEng graduate student, construction company owner (Janstar Builders), and designer who presented on his year long research topic since taking the BIM course last Spring. Al covered a multi faceted BIM bid document view as implementation is struggling to meet the challenges in industry. This topic is ripe for research opportunity and collaboration with industry especially at a regional level for other universities as well.
After an al fresco lunch, the BIM Summit participants returned for the start of the afternoon s presentations which featured last year s popular open forum panel of invited industry and academic guests for questions. The engagement sparked candid and lively discussions on various topics in BIM adoption, implementation, integration and opportunities moderated by bimsmartfoundation s event organizer Birgitta Foster who themed the Hire Education a play on Higher Education, and the advances on BIM locally in New Mexico which include the need for BIM skills for market ready graduates. The last year s passion and participation led Showcase Sponsor Bohannan Huston Inc. to donate their premier sponsor time the panel discussions which was fully appreciated and utilized to inspire a wealth of questions and answers for the panel members and the audience to engage in meaningful discussions. It was a big hit again this year! ACE Leadership Academy High School students and faculty enjoy lunch Summit discussion panel members answer questions from the audience during the Hire Education session after lunch on a beautiful sunny day in Albuquerque, NM UNM bimsmartfoundation Summit attendees enjoy mingling and discussions Some current & past semester students from the UNM BIM course share a photo opportunity with Civil Engineering faculty Michael Gonzalez Showcase sponsor Jaynes Construction had Joe Hawkins and Charles Giannini Jr presenting on Beyond Coordination to showcase the exciting local BIM projects Jaynes has underway and how BIM is being effectively used to catch potential field problems and provide quick solutions. Thomas Gay, Assistant Vice President The Factory Mutual Insurance Company (FM Global), returned again and traveled from Boston, MA presenting the perception from the insurance industry s BIM use and need for BIM knowledgeable engineers within the insurance industry and risk management. Tom also contributed to the student s better understanding of opportunities available through personal development of soft skills required for professionals. Tom manages worldwide CAD and GIS services, site plan documentation and engineering document management services for FM Global and is also FM Global representative to the buildingsmart International.
Birgitta Foster presented the untapped value of BIM as it is truly a data and model centric system which has great implications on specifications and implementation of COBie exchange at national and international levels. Birgitta was the formally Assisting Director at buildingsmartalliance (bsa) and Facilities BIM Champion for Sandia National Labs, and the current Vice President Operations and Facilities Integration at VDCO Tech; she specializes in Building Information Modeling (BIM)/Facilities Management (FM) integration strategies. Birgitta is a leading authority, writer, and presenter on BIM for Owners, and continues to examine how technologies can improve Operations and Maintenance, Space Planning, and Asset Management. While serving as bsa s Assisting Director she supported NBIMS US efforts while overseeing the development of the Introduction to Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie) course. Birgitta continues to represent bsa US as the IUG Secretary for buildingsmart International and provides education on COBie nationally and internationally. Birgitta is the catalyst for the bimsmartfoundation Summit event at UNM. The event closed with identifying two local BIM outreach organizations 505BIM Users Group (http://505bimusersgroup.ning.com) which meets 2 nd Thursday of every month at ITT Tech and AGC s new BIM Education Program and Certification of Management BIM course (CM BIM) starting in November 2015. The UNM BIM Summit event was again deemed an outstanding success by the attendees; Deke Smith conveyed a personal observation to more than 40 major universities in the US and the UK in the Academic interoperability Coalition (AiC) in an email and stated, I believe this to have been an exceptional model for how we may want to offer very meaningful events jointly with your university in the future. It brought together the local practitioners, university professors, undergraduate and graduate students from various colleges and even high school students for a day of presentations looking at the industry from the global to the local view. Truly a think globally, act locally event. The intent was to identify how this community could work together to support each other s needs. Sponsors were given the opportunity to demonstrate their successes and also included local technology support for implementing the opportunities. In my mind this is an opportunity for the complete community to get an annual update on what is happening that they should be aware of from so many levels and then can network monthly to help each other implement those ideas. Next year s bimsmartfoundation event will start to increase the size and scope of the event to eventually becoming a regional event similar to the Rocky Mountain ASCE competition with multi tack venues. Deke further commented, We are already beginning the planning for next year and we see the possibility of a more regional approach bringing together several area schools. We could potentially include some discussion concerning the body of knowledge on which we (AiC) are currently working. I also see this as something that the new buildingsmart alliance education committee may want to consider as they stand up that committee.