Linking Geospatial Engineering into Collaborative Multidisciplinary BIM Projects - an Educational Perspective

This paper describes the background to and execution of a postgraduate project undertaken by students on DIT's MSc in Geospatial Engineering (GeoEng) in support of a project on level 2 BIM being undertaken by students on the MSc in applied Building Information Modelling & Management (aBIMM) around the retrofit of and new build extension to the Grangegorman Clock Tower Building. In support of this requirement, an external and internal survey of the existing structure and its surrounding topography was required. The aBIMM students and staff acted as the Design Team who subcontracted the Geo Eng group who were organised into a survey team with a Topcon Ireland surveyor as team leader. Students and staff, at the end of the project, recognised the need for significant upskilling of both Geospatial and Design professionals around the different requirements, time-scales and costs, associated with surveying for BIM versus traditional survey deliverables. The experience of this project showed that these design teams would be prepared to pay for a more value-added product than the basic point cloud. The onus now is on Geospatial practitioners to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by collaborative BIM to engage early, often, and meaningfully in projects, and this will bring benefits to the geospatial profession as well as to the client, to the design team, and to the wider economy.