buildingSMART International Chapter Leader Profile

First name: Eric

Last name: Bugeja

Chapter: buildingSMART Australasia

Role in the Chapter: Chairperson and Director

Where are you based? Sydney, Australia

When was your first interaction or involvement with buildingSMART?

As part of an Infrastructure working group around 2017.

Tell us a little about your work history/professional journey, and how it led you to buildingSMART.

I originally starting my career in manufacturing automation and machinery design I was able to experience the impact of digital transformation on the sector both in terms of technology and the impact on people. My role as a consultant transitioned to advising clients on improving manufacturing efficiency through the application of technology. Over the years I have applied this experience into other sectors, including transport infrastructure, mining, buildings and construction. I have lead teams across all these sectors and through this leadership I have championed the implementation of BIM within my teams.

I have always had a passion for technology and particularly the application of Digital Engineering/BIM as an enabler for improved collaboration an efficiency. I have had a balance of both managerial and technical knowledge and experience. Giving up executive management roles to focus on developing Digital Engineering strategy for Engineering and Construction companies and  working closely with key government organisations like TfNSW and various working groups to instigate a step change in the implementation of Digital Engineering in Australia. This journey inevitably led me to buildingSMART as a vehicle for the advocacy I was doing.

What do you like the most about the work you do within your Chapter?

Contributing to improving the industry at both a corporate, government level and upskilling individuals to learn new skills. Also enjoy the spirit and passion from the individuals in the community.

What would you say are the biggest successes or milestones to date within your Chapter?

We have built the presence of buildingSMART and have advocated for the use of openBIM. This has allowed us to influence the biggest government infrastructure agencies to move away from aligning with specific vendor solutions and formats to implementing OpenBIM workflows as standard.

In the last few years, we have grown our member base and have been invited to many advisory groups. Despite being a small community, we have contributed heavily to IFC development by having representation on the technical committees.

This year our local conference Xchange was a huge success as our first ever conference run only by buildingSMART with its combination of technical day and strategic talks. We are also now running smaller regional sessions

Our drive to improve diversity in the sector has been a success to date with our MoU with Women in BIM, as well as being proactive towards increasing diversity on our board with 3 females on our board whereas there were none 2 years ago.

What does openBIM mean to you personally?

Through my time with buildingSMART and my experience on projects I have come to understand the importance of open access to information as this is the key to true digital transformation as it allows information to flow both across the lifecycle of a project and to be shared across various disciplines and sectors who are involved with designing, constructing and operating infrastructure.

What overriding challenge(s) do you see the community facing today?

The biggest challenge currently is resourcing and skill levels both in terms of the traditional engineering roles who are reluctant to adopt digital tools and processes and those who have the digital skills to help transform the industry. Educational institutions are struggling to keep up with the rate of technological change and train the next generation in modern Architectural & Engineering techniques which allow the industry to do more with less.

There are also challenges with the limitations of IFC and the issues that are evident typically due to poor vendor implementation or users not understanding how to properly apply open formats.

What challenge(s) do you encounter within your Chapter?

The biggest challenge is the lack of time and money to really have an impact in driving change. Ideally, we would be able to employ more paid staff or engage consultants who would be able to focus on driving programs and initiatives that would both have an impact as well as generating more revenue to sustain more paid resources. Personally, I would love to spend more time building up the chapter in Australia/NZ but I am constrained by the limits of voluntary time I can put into it (I have probably spent more time than I should in the last couple of years). I know that this is the same with other Directors. We also have challenges with how we manage conflict of interest with Directors or members who run consulting businesses and how we do engage those people. Our other large challenge is the distance to Europe and the ability to engage more in person with the core population of chapters based around Europe and the US. It would be great if we could afford to meet more regularly and have representation at conferences etc.

What do you see as the main opportunities for your market?

Most major government agencies and educational institutions are currently rolling out digital transformation programs, they are looking for non-bias advice and assistance. This is where there is a real opportunity for buildingSMART. I do believe that similar to PCERT there could be opportunities in a certification program for businesses, Uni’s etc.

With digitalization becoming more prevalent, how is your Chapter addressing the challenges and opportunities it brings?

We focus on 4 areas:

• Standardize: Continued development of OpenBIM standards to allow open exchange and accessibility of information within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector
• Advocate: Drive the adoption of Digital Engineering and open standards in the local AEC sector
• Educate: Improve the upskilling of the local sector in Digital Engineering and Open Standards and ensure that this is consistent amongst all educators. Provide a means of consistently measuring competency in the application of BIM/DE.
• Facilitate: Bring industry together to solve the challenges of implementing Digital Engineering and Open Standards, acknowledge and highlight best practice.

What are your visions and/or aspirations for the future, both for your Chapter and for buildingSMART internationally?

At the international level it would be great to see buildingSMART being a leader in standardisation of open standards across sectors, particularly as we see the importance of open data in areas such as sustainability and improving quality and efficiency of construction. I would like to IFC5 rapidly develop in a way that removes some of the limitations of previous IFC versions particularly as we move away from file based transmission of information and towards a fully connected database centric open ecosystem. I would like to see resource sharing across sectors to drive more global initiatives that can be easily rolled out at a local chapter level with minimum administration.

At the local chapter level I would like to grow the presence of the chapter and increase our capability through increased revenue streams that can drive more local initiatives.

 

Updated in November 2024