scholarly journals The challenges of adopting BIM for setting and infrastructure management of University of Minho

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 02002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo J. S. Cruz ◽  
Miguel Azenha

The University of Minho (UMinho) is aware of the relevant role of higher education institutions in the global challenge of sustainability. The integration of sustainability values into its strategy encompasses all the fields of its activity. Taking into account the growing importance of shared knowledge resources as a reliable basis for decisions during infrastructures life cycle, the UMinho is currently undergoing an important process of implementing a ‘Building Information Modelling’ framework (BIM). This paper briefly describes the implementation steps that are current towards such a goal, in particular in terms of facilities management aspects.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 38-51
Author(s):  
Barry McAuley ◽  
Alan Hore ◽  
Roger West

The Facilities Manager occupies a unique position within the lifecycle of a building asset, as he/she is one of the only Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) and Facilities Management (FM) professionals who is in a position to view the product of the entire design and build process and is responsible for the operational phase which incurs approximately five times the initial capital cost. Despite the potential benefits that the Facilities Manager offers, this profession still does not command the recognition it deserves within the AEC/FM sector. This is beginning to change through the introduction of Building Information Modelling (BIM). In order for the BIM process to be maximised it is imperative that the Facilities Manager plays a much more important role within the design and construction process. Despite this, at present the role of the Facilities Manager within this process is still uncertain with no set Key Performance Indicators (KPI) or role designation being specified to date. This paper outlines how the Facilities Manager can play a pivotal role in the BIM process and, in particular, will aim to establish the basis for a number of KPIs by Facility Managers which will in turn lead to a more robust Lean FM practice.


Author(s):  
Maurizio Gotti

AbstractIn the process of internationalization of their teaching programmes many universities all over the world are now offering courses in English. This is a typical English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) situation in which both lecturers and students – although they are not native speakers of English – use this language as a common means of communication and instruction. This article examines communicative interactions taking place in such contexts. The data are taken from “international” courses in specialized disciplines offered by the University of Bergamo. In particular, the article examines the role of code-switching and the use of other languages employed by lecturers to explain the main specialized terms and technical concepts concerning the specific courses they are teaching. The methodology employed for the analysis of the data is mainly qualitative and is based on selected pieces of the lectures recorded. The data presented show that code-switching and the recourse to words belonging to other languages play a relevant role among the main strategies employed by both lecturers and students in the realization of their communicative efforts, and increases the degree of cooperativeness on both sides so as to guarantee a successful outcome of the specialized communication in which they are involved.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-20
Author(s):  
Péter Telek ◽  
Béla Illés ◽  
Christian Landschützer ◽  
Fabian Schenk ◽  
Flavien Massi

Nowadays, the Industry 4.0 concept affects every area of the industrial, economic, social and personal sectors. The most significant changings are the automation and the digitalization. This is also true for the material handling processes, where the handling systems use more and more automated machines; planning, operation and optimization of different logistic processes are based on many digital data collected from the material flow process. However, new methods and devices require new solutions which define new research directions. In this paper we describe the state of the art of the material handling researches and draw the role of the UMi-TWINN partner institutes in these fields. As a result of this H2020 EU project, scientific excellence of the University of Miskolc can be increased and new research activities will be started.


Accurate pronunciation has a vital role in English language learning as it can help learners to avoid misunderstanding in communication. However, EFL learners in many contexts, especially at the University of Phan Thiet, still encounter many difficulties in pronouncing English correctly. Therefore, this study endeavors to explore English-majored students’ perceptions towards the role of pronunciation in English language learning and examine their pronunciation practicing strategies (PPS). It involved 155 English-majored students at the University of Phan Thiet who answered closed-ended questionnaires and 18 English-majored students who participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that students strongly believed in the important role of pronunciation in English language learning; however, they sometimes employed PPS for their pronunciation improvement. Furthermore, the results showed that participants tended to use naturalistic practicing strategies and formal practicing strategies with sounds, but they overlooked strategies such as asking for help and cooperating with peers. Such findings could contribute further to the understanding of how students perceive the role of pronunciation and their PPS use in the research’s context and other similar ones. Received 10th June 2019; Revised 12th March 2020; Accepted 12th April 2020


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Keir

<div class="page" title="Page 3"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>Veronika is a recent graduate from the Honours Legal Studies program at the University of Waterloo. Her passions are socio-legal research, policy development, feminist legal theory, and crime control development. Veronika is currently working a full-time job at Oracle Canada, planning on pursuing further education in a Masters program. </span></p></div></div></div>


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Possamai ◽  
Arathi Sriprakash ◽  
Ellen Brackenreg ◽  
John McGuire

As universities in Australia are faced with a growth in diversity and intensity of religion and spirituality on campus, this article explores the work of chaplains and its reception by students on a multi-campus suburban university. It finds that the religious work of these professionals is not the primary emphasis in the university context; what is of greater significance to students and the university institution is the broader pastoral and welfare-support role of chaplains. We discuss these findings in relation to post-secularism theory and the scaling down of state-provided welfare in public institutions such as universities.


2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
James Cox

Earlier this year, I received a small grant from the Edinburgh University Development Trust Fund to determine the feasibility of formulating a major research project exploring the religious dimensions within the recent land resettlement programme in Zimbabwe. Since spirit mediums had played such an important role in the first Shona uprising in 1896–97 against colonial occu¬pation (the so-called First Chimurenga) (Parsons, 1985: 50-51) and again in the war of liberation between 1972 and 1979 (the Second Chimurenga) (Lan, 1985), I suspected that these central points of contact between the spirit world and the living communities would be affecting the sometimes militant invasions of white commercial farms that began sporadically in 1998, but became systematic after the constitutional referendum of February 2000. Under the terms of the grant, I went with my colleague, Tabona Shoko of the University of Zimbabwe, in July and August 2004, to two regions of Zimbabwe: Mount Darwin in the northeast, where recent activities by war veterans and spirit mediums had been reported, and to the Mberengwa District, where land resettlement programmes have been widespread. This article reports on my preliminary findings in Mount Darwin, where I sought to determine if evidence could be found to link the role of Traditional Religion, particularly through spirit mediums, to the current land redistribution programme, and, if so, whether increasing levels of political intolerance within Zimbabwean society could be blamed, in part at least, on these customary beliefs and practices


Author(s):  
Erwin Erwin ◽  
Nasarudin Nasarudin ◽  
Husnan Husnan

The purpose of this research is to explain the importance of the student organizations and describe their efforts to improve the speaking skills of students at the Mahad Khalid Bin Al Waleed at the University of Muhammadiyah Mataram. This research uses the qualitative approach with the descriptive type. The result shows the student organizations play an important role based on their objectives and functions. The objectives are to help the foundation and all parties in the Ma'had develop the students’ potential and qualification, and to be the place for the students to share their problems and complaints, while the functions are as one of the media to develop students’ quality, both the members of the non-member, and as the good examples and pioneers of any good deeds. The efforts done by student organizations in improving speaking skills are such as by making activities that lead to improving students' speaking skills like sticking vocabularies in each class and Friday activities such as language game, Arabic debate and short lecture.


Politeia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Johnson

As members of the secret Afrikaner organisation, the Broederbond, two of the apartheid-era rectors at the University of Fort Hare were responsible for leading an institution that was supposed to spearhead the modernisation of ethnically defined homelands and their transition to independent states, whilst disseminating apartheid values among the black students. Based on unsorted and unarchived documents located in the personal files of the apartheid-era rectors, which included secret correspondence and memoranda of clandestine meetings, this paper illustrates the attempted exercise of hegemony by the apartheid state through its linked network with the university administration during the period 1960 to 1990. This is achieved by demonstrating the interaction between the state, Broederbond rectors and the black students at Fort Hare, who were subjected to persuasion and coercion as dictated by the state’s apartheid vision of a racially defined and separated society.


Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tinashe Mugwisi

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the Internet have to a large extent influenced the way information is made available, published and accessed. More information is being produced too frequently and information users now require certain skills to sift through this multitude in order to identify what is appropriate for their purposes. Computer and information skills have become a necessity for all academic programmes. As libraries subscribe to databases and other peer-reviewed content (print and electronic), it is important that users are also made aware of such sources and their importance. The purpose of this study was to examine the teaching of information literacy (IL) in universities in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the role played by librarians in creating information literate graduates. This was done by examining whether such IL programmes were prioritised, their content and how frequently they were reviewed. An electronic questionnaire was distributed to 12 university libraries in Zimbabwe and 21 in South Africa. A total of 25 questionnaires were returned. The findings revealed that IL was being taught in universities library and non-library staff, was compulsory and contributed to the term mark in some institutions. The study also revealed that 44 per cent of the total respondents indicated that the libraries were collaborating with departments and faculty in implementing IL programmes in universities. The study recommends that IL should be an integral part of the university programmes in order to promote the use of databases and to guide students on ethical issues of information use.


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