Developing Standards-Based 

Education Modules for 

Building Information Modeling

Weimin Wang, Weichao Wang, Don Chen

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Project Start Date: November 22, 2022
Project Background

 Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital representation of 

physical and functional characteristics of a facility.

o Enables the consistent and continuous use of digital information across the life 

cycle of a built facility by different stakeholders

 BIM has been integrated into the curriculum of Architecture, 

Engineering, and Construction programs in many universities.

o Immersed in existing courses

o Standalone courses

o Integrated in students’ project work

 Currently, most BIM courses have a strong focus on the training of 

students’ practical skills of software use but are weak on the 

foundational interoperability technology.

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BIM Education Requirements vs. Our Project Focus

Source: Sacks, R. and Pikas, E., 2013. Building information modeling education for construction engineering and management. I: Industry requirements, state of the art, and gap analysis. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 139(11), p.04013016

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Project Goals

 To develop standards-based education modules that strengthen the 

connection between BIM and its fundamental technology and the 

connection between BIM and documentary standards. 

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Project Approach

EXPRESS: ISO 

10303-1

Extensible Markup 

Language (XML): 

World Wide Web 

Consortium

Unified Modeling 

Language (UML): 

ISO/IEC 19505

Resource Description 

Framework (RDF): 

World Wide Web 

Consortium

Industry Foundation Classes 

(IFC): ISO 16739

Facility Smart Grid Information 

Model: ASHRAE Standard 201/

ISO 17800

Project Haystack 4

Brick Schema

Designation and Classification 

of Semantic Tags for Building 

Data: ASHRAE Standard 223P

Construction Operations 

Building Information Exchange 

(COBie): U.S. National 

Building Information Modeling 

Standard

Business Process 

Model and Notation 

(BPMN): ISO 19510

Technology Building Information Model

Building Design and 

Construction

Building Operation 

(Facility Management)

Building Operation 

(Grid Interaction and 

Analytics )

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Four Education Modules

 Module 1: Semantic data modeling and process modeling

o Object-oriented modeling concepts

o Semantic modeling languages such as XML, UML, and RDF

o Business process modeling

 Module 2: Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)

o Object-based inheritance hierarchy (i.e., IfcRoot, IfcObject, IfcProduct and their 

subclasses) 

o Object relationships (such as spatial aggregation hierarchy, relationships 

between spaces and their bounding elements, and the specification of 

materials).

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Four Education Modules

 Module 3: Construction operations building information exchange (COBie)

o COBie file formats (i.e., IFC, XML, and SpreadsheetML) 

o Content of a COBie spreadsheet file 

o File format, structure and content of a COBitLite file

 Module 4: Semantic interoperability for grid-interactive efficient buildings

o Tagging conventions and taxonomies of building equipment and operational data

o The components of Brick ontology

o The latest development and progress of ASHRAE Standard 223P: Designation and 

Classification of Semantic Tags for Building Data

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Module Structure

 Each module has 2~5 sessions and each session includes the following 

components

o learning objectives and expected outcomes 

o lecture slides

o video lectures

o homework and further reading 

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Potential Adoption by UNCC Courses

 Building Information Modeling (CMET 2135): Dr. Don Chen

 A new course on Advanced BIM: Dr. Don Chen

 Software Engineering (ITIS 3155): Dr. Weichao Wang

 Energy Management (ENER 4140/5140): Dr. Weimin Wang

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Communication Plan

 Plan to reach out to professors who teach BIM-related courses based on our 

professional network (e.g.,):

o Department of Construction Management, University of Houston

o Department of Built Environment, North Carolina A&T State University

o Kimmel School of Construction Management and Engineering Technology, Eastern 

Carolina University

 Plan to disseminate the project results:

o Share the project information through social media

o Create a project webpage to host all education materials developed from this project

o Post the education materials on the Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG) website 

(https://www.wbdg.org) 

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Project Timeline

10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1. Define module sessions, learning objectives, 

and expected outcomes

2. Prepare lecture slides 

Milestone 1: Lecture slides complete

3. Prepare homework and reading

4. Create video lectures

5. Create a project webpage and post the 

developed education modules

Milestone 2: Project webpage and education 

modules online

6. Invite peer evaluators to review the education 

modules

7. Use the education modules in existing BIM 

courses and assess the outcome

8. Revise and improve the education modules 

based on peer evaluation and class use

Milestone 3: Revised education modules 

complete

9. Share and disseminate project results

10. Prepare the final summary report

2023 2024

Tasks and Milestones 

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