TOWARDS SAFE-BIM CURRICULA BASED ON THE INTEGRATION OF CYBERSECURITY AND BLOCKCHAINS FEATURES

Abstract

During the last decade, Qatar started an industry diversification strategy based on a knowledge-based economy for the next years. The ambition is to become a global hub in some key fields such as new technologies, finance, culture and sporting events. Such a diversification strategy requires massive investments, not only in physical and technical infrastructures, but also in the field of education. For instance, big projects based on the use of advanced new technologies such as BIM (Building Information Modelling) are currently under development in new economic cluster areas in the country, such as QEZ (Qatar Economic Zones), Lusail Smart City, Stadiums for FIFA world cup 2022, etc. This raises a need for new BIM competences, and helps local education institutions such Qatar University to adopt a BIM education strategy in collaboration with these sectors and AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry in general. Such effort intends to cover the lack of skills and equips graduates with specific BIM competency. Globally, BIM education in the country remains soft and partial compared to the current evolution of the AEC industry but also to the risks that are inherent to the BIM adoption. This paper deals with the integration of new information technology patterns such as Cybersecurity and its Blockchains feature in a typical university BIM curricula. Addressing this feature during the BIM collaborative processes, such as the sharing information models developed and maintained across the lifecycle of the building/infrastructure, is becoming tremendous. Such curricula are becoming multidisciplinary by nature, and require the collaboration between not only the different education departments (Architecture, Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering...), but also the local concerned industry. An integrated proposal will be made in this paper, focusing on the specific needs of the Qatari context.