By the time we visited with Texas State, they not only understood the value, they were already using it in their curriculum. The longer the meeting went the more fascinated I became with their program. The course that they are providing to their undergraduates is centered around BIM (Building Information Modeling). It is a junior/senior level interdisciplinary course that is built on a design-build premise whereby the students design, model and cost commercial projects. The best part is that these are Real Projects for Real Customers. They are given the responsibilities of managing the client, budget, schedule and constraints that you would normally face on a project. BIM is an integral part of the approach in that it supports not only the design-build model but interdisciplinary teamwork as well. In meeting and talking with Chris Tinsel he was able to share some of the positive outcomes they experienced from the program as a whole:
- Created a new delivery system whereby an owner or developer (client) work with our university program for fundamental programming/schematic design.
- A "Living Laboratory" that allows our program to work directly with industry to create "bridging documents" (those documents that non-licensed designers might create).
- Course work infused with ongoing research in BIM, design-build project management, and construction/digital fabrication methods.
I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting with Chris and team surrounding these efforts. I can not tell you how impressed I am with not only the course but the efforts made to improve the industry and further drive the BIM initiatives. In my previous post I talked about some of the ISO 15926 presentations and how we often the focus on the technology versus the process. I think this is a good example whereby they are focused on the process and using the technology to execute. The level of experience these students will have coming out into the workforce should make them a very strong candidate with potential employers. Most firms are struggling to even get started with BIM, and these students will have already completed a BIM project.
As for Acrobat 3D, it is being used just as I had described above. It gives the students, colleagues, professors and clients an easy way to be able to exchange the project information and model in the form of a pdf document. They can share and collaborate on it with anyone who has the FREE Adobe Reader that is already installed on 89% of PC's.
If you are at Texas State University or considering your college options, this is definitely a course to consider.
Have fun,
Jonathan
This is a very good news for students. The students also very thankful to Texas State Universities for their Acrobat 3D system. It is very helpful to the students who work their projects in 3D format and convert to the PDF format very easily from the help of Acrobat 3D. And the students easily communicate with their models and colleagues and also to the professors. It is really a good news for students.
Jonathan's Response: Thanks for sharing the comment