UA Little Rock's Hank Bray and Hydco Inc. CEO Roger Marlin agree that the newly-named AGC of Arkansas BIM Lab will give construction students a leg up.
Hank Bray likes to compare modern construction to the workings of a symphony orchestra, and he sees the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Building Information Modeling Lab as a technological maestro.
“Most construction now is done by subcontractors, with one contractor putting up walls, another doing plumbing, heating and cooling and so on,” said Bray, chairman of the university’s Department of Construction Management & Civil & Construction Engineering.
“These companies don’t have contracts with one another, so like the orchestra with its winds, brass and strings, they need to play together, and the BIM Lab serves as the conductor.”
Bray called the lab a cutting-edge center for virtual modeling of buildings, letting students create virtual models and learn applications in design, visualization and project management.
“Building Information Modeling has become a buzzword in the industry, and it’s a high-tech version of the physical models architects would build in the past of buildings, cities and all kinds of things,” he continued. “It allows clients to make decisions before anything is ever built, and it helps to determine sequencing, choosing what part of a building to start with. Building a virtual model, which is part of what the lab does, allows different ways of looking at how to put things all together. It facilitates deciding who is responsible for what.”
Bray’s lab has a new name, the AGC of Arkansas BIM Lab, dedicated in February after a $30,000 naming gift to the university by the Associated General Contractors of Arkansas.
“AGC has been a longtime supporter of the construction management program and was looking for a way to help,” said Roger Marlin, the immediate past president of AGC of Arkansas and CEO of Hydco Inc., a general contracting company in North Little Rock.
He was intrigued by the BMI Lab, and after a tour got a unanimous decision from the AGC Arkansas board to make the donation.
“The construction management program’s product — the individuals they produce — is a valuable commodity,” Marlin said. “The way we build buildings today is far different from years ago, and the biggest changes reflect new technology. Building Information Management has had a major effect on projects throughout the state and country.”
Marlin noted that 98% of the program’s graduates get immediate jobs in the industry. “They’re valuable commodities,” reiterated Marlin, whose firm builds commercial structures, churches, schools, banks and municipal buildings. “Investing in construction management and the lab was a great decision for AGC Arkansas. Dozens of companies are waiting to employ the students who benefit from it.”
‘Latest and Greatest’
The lab, in the university’s Engineering Applied Technology Applied Sciences building, will reap new equipment and technology through support from the building industry, Bray said. Some 220 trainees in the construction management program will spend class time in the BIM Lab.
“There’s no substitute for actual work experience, but if a company is going to hire somebody without that experience, they expect the person to have skills in the latest and greatest technology,” Bray told Arkansas Business by phone. “The best way for partnerships to work is to match graduates with an experienced person. It’s an oversimplification, but the mentored person gains wisdom on how things are done in the real world, and the mentor gets the benefit of learning about some of the latest technologies.”
Marlin, the Hydco CEO, said the construction industry is growing and seeking excellent workers. “It’s a great time for students to get into the industry,” he said. “There is no shortage of job openings.”
Helping the lab has become a collaborative effort for AGC of Arkansas and companies like CertaPro Painters of Central Arkansas, Moix Carpets Inc. of Conway and Platinum Drywall of Little Rock. Blake Finnell, a sales associate at CertaPro, said that after getting into the construction business he saw “the direct benefits of students coming out of the BIM program into the workforce.”
Justin Mitchell, a junior civil and construction engineering major, uses the same software in the lab and in his job at Terracon Consultants Inc. of Alexander. “We learn in the classroom to work in real life,” Mitchell said. “It gives you a head start before you even go out and get a job.”
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