Handling and managing physical space is one of the most significant challenges for Higher Education institutions all over the world.

Many establishments do not have a formal system to carry this out and do it manually: for example, writing and deleting on blackboards or moving post-its.

The margin of error and slowness of this system are detriments to indicators such as academic planning, class attendance, and the percentage of classroom allocation and use, among others.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is modernizing and increasing the efficiency of using physical infrastructure as critical aspects of academic functioning in institutes and universities.

What is a Building Information Model?

A BIM is an algorithm that allows simulating different scenarios of campus infrastructure use, yielding results that show the optimal use of infrastructure in different situations.

In summary, BIM is the process of combining information and technology to create a digital representation of a building that integrates data from many sources and develops in parallel with the real installations throughout the planning of the academic year - including design, construction and use of operational information.

BIM allows establishments to save time and money on academic planning to the extent that it is possible to rethink the execution of infrastructure investments by using existing facilities to the maximum.

A model with these characteristics makes it possible to take projected demand and make many simulations of courses and student groups to make optimal academic planning decisions, avoiding an excess of course sections and ensuring the compatibility of schedules.

Three academic planning challenges that modeling systems can resolve

1. Gaps between institutional requirements and policies/installation administration processes

A recurring problem when planning and managing resources and infrastructure in a Higher Education institution is the gap between available resources (rooms, chairs, materials, teachers, etc.) and the number of enrolled students.

The difficulty of knowing how many students will enter a course in a year makes it essential to have a program capable of simulating and planning the number of course sections according to the estimated enrollment of students. It makes it possible to optimally use the infrastructure, saving time and creating multiple simulations.

A BIM allows one to simulate the minimum number of sections required according to the estimated student enrollment.

The system also guarantees student schedule compatibility. Thus if a student has to take a mathematics class, they will always have at least one math section that does not overlap with their other courses.

However, to achieve this, It is essential to carry out an internal self-evaluation in which each institution must study the policies and mechanism provided to ensure institutional and teacher management, as well as any other area that it has been decided to incorporate.

2. Collect data on physical facilities

It is essential to evaluate the policies of development, identification, quality analysis, updating and practical use of physical and material resources related to infrastructure, equipment and facilities, teaching resources, and the necessary mechanisms for their renewal.

The key to carry out this process is to do it through an Artificial Intelligence system capable of planning and evaluating multiple scenarios in the short term to activate/deactivate classrooms, restrict uses, prioritize allocations, and measure the percentage of occupied seats, use of classes, number of courses that use the same room, among other variables.

For example, the ideal planning for a section of 30 students is to have a classroom that can hold that much. In contrast, a division of 30 students in a room with capacity for 60 generates a percentage of empty seats which do not make money.

Thus the user can concentrate on making decisions by letting the system look for the best configuration of facilities in each case. It is also possible to compare simulations afterward; this can make the difference between perpetuating errors every semester and trying new alternatives aimed at freeing up resources, among others.

3. Integrating installations data to reduce costs and improve efficiency

Some universities and institutes consider constructing another building for more space but, in the end, realize that they have enough and can save costs.

However, other institutions take space allocation decisions centrally, in which one entity is the "owner" of all classrooms, while in other establishments each faculty or department owns its spaces and there are "common rooms" on which they must agree.

It is also possible that the area that oversees schedule allocation is not the same that supervises teacher allocation. Thus, it is essential to have a system capable of carrying out those processes through authentication permits.

It's indispensable that these programs adapt to the needs of each university according to their traditional methodology, teachers, schedules, classrooms, and other aspects.

Conclusion

It is much more expedite to carry out the functions of the Academic Planning department with a system that allows one to see what would happen under certain conditions.

The benefits associated with these systems go beyond the academic: they include improvements in the productivity, profitability and reputation of a Higher Education establishment.

The use of this technology in a facility or building’s operational phase promises to provide new opportunities to improve the efficiency and standard of a Higher Education establishment’s academic operations.