SBT Students Visit iBT Department

Insights into VR, AR & CDE applications in modern construction management

In what is already considered a valuable and stable component in our student’s first semester on the dual study program Smart Building Technologies, the cohort of 2024 was delighted to have been invited to the Department of Construction Management, Construction Operations and Tunnelling (iBT) at the University of Innsbruck. As part of the “Design Engineering” course, the students of the 2024 cohort were once again able to gain practical insights into current developments in construction management using VR and AR technologies.

Lecturers Larissa Schneiderbauer and Markus Gantner introduced the group to the field of work. The visit began with a joint discussion of the final projects in which the students create digital building models. Then, they had the opportunity to thoroughly test the technical equipment in the BIM (Building Information Modeling) lab at iBT.

This year's visit offered an exciting new feature: in addition to exploring digital building models in virtual (VR) and augmented (AR) reality, another station was set up in the BIM lab. There, the students had the opportunity to explore a CDE (Common Data Environment), a shared project platform that enables integrated, model-based information and project management. Here, they were able to click through the various phases and processes of a construction project and experience first-hand how collaborative work with digital building models works in practice.

In the VR area, the students immersed themselves in digital construction worlds with VR goggles and were able to virtually accompany a tunnel drive with a tunnel boring machine, for example. Augmented reality was used to link real and digital worlds via their avatars. With the help of VR technology, the students were able to virtually walk through a sports facility in the Bregenzer Wald (region in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg) and experience how the design behaves under different weather conditions. The VR tools were used specifically to support them in placing and editing construction elements in the design process.

Thanks to the comprehensive introduction to CDE and the in-depth insights into BIM (Building Information Modeling) and TIM (Tunnel Information Modeling), the students are now well prepared for the upcoming tasks of their final projects. BIM is used as an integral method to promote interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches in the construction industry. This allows optimisation potential for the life cycle of buildings to be identified in the early project phases.

The Smart Building Technologies program is pleased upon the renewed invitation and the interesting insights into the advanced working methods of iBT. The excursion was once again a valuable contribution to the practice-oriented education of the students, and we look forward to further cooperation in the coming years.