Delivery methods for a multi-disciplinary architectural engineering capstone design course

Changes in industry practices, as well as advancements in technologies have moved Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) to the forefront in our industry. Practitioners and educators alike see BIM-based technologies changing the fundamental way we design, construct and deliver buildings to the client. It is unreasonable to expect that we can completely duplicate industry practice in an educational setting. However, we can focus on developing specialized knowledge and skill sets in students by implementing a focused practice-based environment around these topics. In this case, the learning environment selected was a senior engineering capstone (senior/comprehensive) design course. This paper describes a comparison of offerings of such a course over four years by conducting a multidisciplinary team collaborative capstone design course using IPD/BIM in architectural engineering at Penn State. The pilot program developed, which includes extensive industry involvement, is centered on teams of engineering students comprised of the structural, mechanical, lighting/electrical and construction engineering disciplines. Also included in the discussion are lessons learned and course management techniques developed that the authors feel are of value to other academic programs involved in incorporating IPD/BIM into some aspect of their curriculums.