Curtin Malaysia’s Civil & Construction Engineering Department hosts webinar on Building Information Modeling

Miri – 29 October 2021 – The Department of Civil and Construction Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and Science at Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) hosted an online ‘International Webinar on Building Information Modeling (BIM) from a Eurasian Perspective’ recently for 57 of the Faculty’s students and staff.

The webinar featured three BIM experts from Turkey, namely Professor Umit Isikdag from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Dursun Furkan Capkin from Meidpol University and Erkan Saahin from Arup Engineering and Consultancy.

Isikdag gave the attendees a theoretical introduction to BIM while Capkin talked about BIM and collaborative working practices in industry. Saahin, meanwhile, talked about BIM practices used in Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) expansion project, in which his company was involved.

Professor Isikdag is a professor of construction informatics in the Department of Informatics and coordinator of the Master of Science (MSc.) programme in architectural and urban informatics at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. He holds a PhD in construction information technology from the University of Salford and has been teaching since 1999. He has also worked for more than 15 years in industry, specialising in 3D GIS (Geographic Information System) and BIM, and authored a book titled ‘Research on Building Information Modeling and Construction Informatics: Concepts and Technologies‘ in 2009.

Capkin is a lecturer at Medipol University where he teaches BIM, including BIM modeling, collaborating, cloud working, work sharing, process management, and energy analysis with BIM. Prior to teaching, he worked for more than eight years in industry as an information manager and BIM manager.

Saahin, meanwhile, is BIM manager and Digital Transformation Team member at Arup Engineering and Consultancy in Istanbul. His eight years’ experience in BIM and design management includes working as design/BIM lead on projects in Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Spain, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iraq, Cyprus and Zambia. His expertise lies in BIM process planning and documentation, digital transformation and design automation, design coordination and parametric design.

Giving the opening speech at the start of the webinar was Head of the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, Dr. Wong Kwong Soon, who said BIM is an important new technology for the construction industry, including in Malaysia.

The two-hour webinar ended with a question-and-answer session during which the three speakers fielded a wide range of questions from the audience.

Dr. Wong said the involvement of the three Turkish experts was possible through the strong links Curtin Malaysia has with academia and industry all over the world, and more seminars and guest lectures on BIM and other topics with international speakers will be organised for the benefit of students and staff in the near future.

Meanwhile, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Science, Professor Tuong-Thuy Vu, commented that the importance of BIM can be seen in its increasingly widespread application in the civil engineering industry all over the world. He said BIM helps planners and engineering teams coordinate, plan, design and construct with data that is precise and accurate. It also helps project costs, feasibility, and schedules, and helps in the standardisation of data that flows through projects – whether at a desk or on the field.

“BIM is now an integral part of the civil and construction engineering curriculum at Curtin to ensure our graduates are in tune with current practices in the industry, and thus, the webinar was particularly useful to the academics and students from Curtin Malaysia who attended,” he added.

Curtin Malaysia offers Curtin University’s four-year Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Civil and Construction Engineering which is a comprehensive combination of civil engineering and construction engineering. It is a professional and practically-orientated course that has extensive support and collaboration from industry players and is highly prized by graduates and respected by professional engineers.

It also offers a four-year Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours) in Construction Management which is a management-oriented degree that prepares students for a range of professional roles in the building and infrastructure construction industry and is taught by a dedicated team of professionals with qualifications and experience in various construction-related disciplines.

Both courses involve the use of BIM, which is taught using Autodesk Revit, a professional BIM architectural and structural design software. More information on the courses can be found at https://courses.curtin.edu.my.

Curtin is currently one of the top 100 universities in the world for Civil and Structural Engineering in the QS World University Ranking by Subject 2021, and in the top 150 for civil engineering in the Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2021.

The webinar speakers (L-R) Professor Umit Isikdag, Dursun Furkan Capkin, Erkan Saahin.