Building Internet and BIM Research Center (BIM Center) was jointly built by the College of Civil and Transportation Engineering of Shenzhen University, the China BIM Development Alliance, and Swinburne University of Technology from Australia. The center was built and started operation since 2016, aiming to be an international first-class BIM center. The combination of "Internet+" and BIM is an important approach to promoting the innovation and development of the construction industry. The application and promotion of “Internet+” and BIM have a significant impact on the technological progress, transformation, and upgrading for the design, construction, and management aspects of the construction industry. Through the transformation of the research results of the BIM center, the integration of BIM and other information platforms is gradually promoted, comprehensively accelerating revolution in the modernization of the construction industry.

The functional areas of the BIM center are scientific and reasonable, including teaching area, research area, VR area, and center management area. The existing building has a total area of around 800 m2, and the initial investment of construction funding exceeds 7 million RMB. The center has advanced research and teaching environment, and the overall level of teaching and research is high. The center is equipped with basic software and hardware facilities for BIM teaching and research, including cloud computing server clusters, 3D laser scanners, UAVs, immersed VR system, numerous graphics workstations, and BIM related software, well supporting the BIM teaching and research.

The center implements open management, faculties and students are welcome for all day. The center is managed in accordance with the college’s laboratory management system. The center provides services and support for undergraduate BIM related course teaching, BIM FYP projects, BIM training, undergraduate and graduate competitions, playing an important supporting role for graduate practice, research, and innovation ability training, and providing software and hardware services for various types of research projects.

The aims of BIM center include:

1) Strengthen the integration process of industry-university-research-application of BIM, and achieve being a multifunctional center integrating research, teaching, training and application;

2) Operate as the core platform of the China BIM Development Alliance to build a global-oriented BIM industry demonstration base;

3) Strengthen the core strength of BIM industry development, promoting and influencing the standardized and large-scale development of China's BIM industry;

4) Strengthen the exchange value of open-data standards for BIM interoperability, and become a P-BIM software authentication center;

5) Operate as a technical window to show the development of China's BIM industry to the world

6) Create a technical route for the development of China's BIM industry.

Since the establishment of the BIM center, it has continued to hold BIM-GIS related technical training for university-enterprise cooperation, receiving visits and exchanges from domestic and foreign universities, enterprises, government departments, scholars and experts, and organized BIM-related academic lectures, forums, and competitions, undertaking various research projects, and training high-level BIM talents. The center plays an important role in implementing the integrated development of BIM technology industry-university-research-application.