PRELIMINARY MAPPING OF BACHELORS' RESEARCH TO ENHANCE DIGITAL CONSTRUCTION IN IRELAND

This paper presents preliminary analyses to assess the content of student research conducted through a digital construction course offered to engineers and built environment professionals in Ireland since 2020. The course aims to upskill employed, mature students with a one-year intensive study period in Building Information Modelling (BIM/Digital Construction), and ultimately enable them to earn an honors-level Bachelor of Science degree. Obtaining this degree requires the student to produce a research dissertation, and the course helps students use research and research-thinking to answer pressing questions they encounter in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) context. The paper briefly discusses context of Technological University Dublin's BIM courses, the rationale behind offering these courses, and how they address the shortage of BIM knowledge in Ireland. Work reported in this paper involved the collection of the full text of all BIM BSc dissertations and preliminary, systematic content mapping'using titles and keywords provided by the student authors'to identify themes across the body of 59 BIM BSc dissertations submitted to date. This foundation will support subsequent work to assess the quality and usefulness of research from the BSc as well as MSc BIM courses, and BIM research published by university staff.