Funding body: Erasmus +

Project duration: 12/2022 - 03/2025

Digital transformation is one of the EU's top priorities as it strengthens Europe's capacity for new digital technologies and creates new opportunities for businesses and consumers. The digital transformation should benefit everyone, put people at the center and offer new business opportunities. The digital transformation in construction is thus changing an entire industry.

Universities need to meet this changing demand with new training programs. Building Information Modelling (BIM) plays an important role in the digitalization of the construction industry. BIM is the digital model and working methodology for the planning, construction, operation and demolition of buildings. It is not just about building more digitally, but also about using the digital transformation to build or demolish better, more resource-efficient, more climate-friendly and more quality-assured.

BIM-related courses are now offered as a subject at many universities in almost all countries, but the focus is rarely on the practical application of what has been learned. Experiencing and designing with the help of virtual models should come much more to the fore. Learning to work collaboratively on a model is best achieved in decentralized teamwork.

The Digital Decathlon is an interdisciplinary and intercultural competition for students of architecture, civil engineering, building services engineering and related disciplines to train digital design skills using BIM tools and methods in a collaborative way of working. In addition, the Digital Decathlon is a unique training program that offers participating students an easy introduction to digital design and prepares them for working in international teams. The competition connects higher education institutions in Europe and promotes European identity, opening up new horizons of knowledge and perspectives for collaboration.

The Digital Decathlon is based on the idea of the BIM Game, which was developed as an Erasmus+ project 2016-2019. As the Digital Decathlon, this game idea is now being integrated internationally into the curriculum and expanded into a predominantly non-presence competition and anchored in the European higher education landscape.

In the initial phase, the competition will bring students from different European countries together in one place. The collaboration will take place when the students are back in their home cities, using communication tools on a working platform that is being developed to accompany the competition. The virtual work platform requires active participation from the students and guides them through the phases of the competition, with the support of lecturers and trainers who accompany the project. Learning modules are developed and made available for self-organized learning, offering participants content tailored to their needs. The competition lasts one semester and ends with the second meeting of all participants. At this time, the results are presented and, after evaluation by a jury, an award ceremony takes place, together with the start of the virtual exhibition of the results.

Instagram: @digitaldecathlon https://www.instagram.com/digitaldecathlon/

Website: digitaldecathlon.projekt.jade-hs.de