The IDM Master Circle is an initiative of buildingSMART International. The intent of the initiative is for industry practitioners and information modelling specialists to work with postgraduate students so that they can deliver the results of their research and thesis development in the form of IDM component documentation.

There are a number of advantages to this:

• Students gain access to leading specialists who can provide them with guidance and mentoring throughout their postgraduate work
• By delivering their results in an industry standard format, students can see their work more rapidly coming to the attention of industry and being taken forward by indtry to implementation and practice
• By investing time in the development of student skills through mentoring and guidance provided by members, buildingSMART is also making a long term investment in the continued development and application of its standards and specifications
• buildingSMART also gains from the availability of high quality, mentored IDM developments from postgraduate students at leading universities throughout the world.

Part of the aim of the Master Circle initiative is that participating students will have a forum through which they can communicate with each other and provide mutual support in their IDM development work.

Participating institutions in the Master Circle initiative include:

• Norwegian University of Life Sciences - Department of Mathematical Sciences and Technology
• University College Cork
• Universidade de Nova Lisboa
• University of New South Wales - Faculty of the Built Environment
• University of Salford

We are also working with individual practitioners and students in Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Spain, UK and USA