A new regional collaboration involving IT Sligo, Letterkenny IT and the Construction IT Alliance (CITA) has been set up in the North West region to promote best practice and training expertise in Building Information Modelling (BIM).
Now firmly recognized as the established best practice model in the Construction Industry, BIM is a collaborative way of working by which everyone can understand a building through the use of a digital model in 3D. It is about what you do: information modelling and information management in a team environment.
BIM brings together all of the information about every component of a building, in one place, and makes it possible for anyone to access that information for any purpose, e.g. to integrate different aspects of the design more effectively. In this way, the risk of mistakes, discrepancies or excess expense is reduced.
“BIM is revolutionising how construction projects are designed and managed across the world and it has resulted in significant cost and time savings,” explains Trevor McSharry, Head of Department in Civil Engineering and Construction at IT Sligo.
“We need to ensure construction graduates and companies have the skills to embrace this technology to remain competitive. We’re already seeing BIM being stipulated in many large projects in Ireland and this will become the norm in the near future.”
24 regional organisations attended the official launch of the new North West initiative at IT Sligo. The group spans a range of organisations and companies across the construction sector including IDA Ireland, architects, consultants, contractors, and technicians.
The new alliance will aim to convey a consistent message about the importance of the BIM Level 2, which is established as the key requirement for any significant public sector project in the UK and beyond.
Since 2014, IT Sligo has worked on adapting course content in its Civil Engineering and Construction programmes, through consultation with other higher education institutions and industry practitioners, with the aim of enhanced BIM integration across the Institute’s teaching and learning.
Photo caption:
Representatives from the 24 regional organisations in the construction sector who attended the official launch of the new North West alliance, which aims to promote BIM best practice.