I am writing this about a week or two after the program ended; Instead of how i plan to grow personally and professionally, this includes how I did grow personally and professionally.

Building Information Modeling – or BIM – sounds nebulous to many outside of the engineering, architecture, and construction industry. A virtual model of a real-life building? This doesn’t help building be physically built; and once its built, the job is done. However, BIM is the future of architectural drafting, coordination, and construction; BIM helps to eliminate clashes in the planning of how the structure will be built, produce accurate drawings and calculations, and provide a more efficient framework for how the structure will be built. Once it is built, a digital twin can be made of it to track metrics of the structure to increase its lifetime and performance.

So how the hell did Italy deepen my understanding in this niche technology of construction?

Well, as a career, I hope to pursue this technology at the intersection of engineering and architecture, and it just so happens that one aspect of our coursework is focused on this digital twin technology. Part of this is the introduction to one of the leading researchers in Italy about this topic, and it was fascinating to hear his perspective on the future of the civil engineering industry.

Outside of coursework, however, this remains – I hoped to interract with people who have a similar passion for engineering and architecture as me, and that is precisely what I learned. I also learned about the value of interracting with people from a work or class setting outside of that setting – to simply have fun, which I often forget about in my ambitious pursuit of my goals. I often get too serious in my career, studies, or hobbies, that I forget about the life that I am pursuing it for. Yet, over this month-long sabbatical of school and travels, I understand that productivity and output is directly correlated with the enjoyment I derive from it. And it’s a hell of a lot more fun to work with people you enjoy being around.