2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The application of LiDAR technology as an auxiliary visualizing tool for the freshmen and sophomore Construction Management (CM) students was investigated. Early-year engineering and construction management students often express and show difficulty in understanding and interpreting the 2D plans and visualizing the 3D aspect of the project. The ability to properly read the plans, identify the components, quantify the material, and understand the effect of any change in the material (through change order or addenda) is an essential requirement in construction management and within the industry. From the learning perspective, the application of LiDAR (app-based) technology as an educational material delivery mode can increase student engagement in the course material. The efficacy of educational aspects of such tools was studied in the” Estimating” course through an example Quantity Take Off (QTO) assignment. Students in four sections of the Estimating course were asked to review a simple construction plan and answer a set of questions about construction components. The same students were then provided with the LiDAR scan of the same project where they could virtually walk through the site, take measurements, and see the project from their preferred perspective. A survey was developed with multiple questions about students’ overall experience, their comfort level with working with either mode of data delivery, and some basic measurements.
Results show that although the LiDAR technology provides strong visualizing and measuring tools, the quality of the data (which directly relates to the scanning quality) can adversely impact the learning experience.