Events Archives

Dr. Carrie Sturts Dossick, Ph.D., P.E. - Assistant Professor, Department of Construction Management, University of Washington

BIM: The Ramifications for Mechanical Contracting

The building industry is rapidly adopting Building Information Models (BIM) throughout the project process: BIM for design, BIM for construction, and BIM for facilities management. BIM is increasingly becoming an umbrella term for a variety of software tools, design methods, and construction processes that allow for more automation, communication and integration between project participants. In 2003, Autodesk coined the term BIM to market a new tool called Revit. Since that time, the term BIM has been adopted by many players in the AEC industry to describe a variety of tools (models) and ways of working with those tools (modeling). Consequently, the meaning of the term has expanded to encompass software packages as well as work processes throughout the project process.

In this presentation, Dr. Carrie Sturts Dossick from the University of Washington's Department of Construction Management will discuss what BIM is, how it is used in Mechanical design and construction, industry trends, and best practices. This presentation will include research results from a 2007 UW-MCA study on cost, schedule and quality metrics for 3D Modeling in MEP construction as well as a report on Dr. Dossick's ongoing collaboration with Dr. Gina Neff and their investigation into collaboration. Dr. Dossick will present preliminary results from oth studies and discuss the ramifications of BIM for mechanical contractors.