On 13 September, SPbGASU teachers and students took part in the XII International Conference "BIM in Practice 2024". The event was dedicated to the results of two years of import substitution in construction.
Our university was represented by associate professor at the Department of Transport Systems and Road and Bridge Construction Nikolay Kozak, chief specialist of the Division for Digital Competencies in Construction, senior lecturer at the Department of Informatics Olga Svetlova and students Igor Rudakov and Grigory Starkov, who have already begun to actively apply the skills of working with information modeling technologies (BIM, or TIM) in practice.
Nikolay Kozak Nikolay Kozak was an invited speaker at the panel discussion "Training specialists for digitalization and technological sovereignty", where he represented the field of higher education. At the same time, he also cooperates with the conference organizer, PSS LLC, as an expert on the Sofistik calculation complex used to calculate bridge structures.
– Today, almost all foreign specialized software that was used by engineers just a couple of years ago has become unavailable. In recent years, there has been a very active process of import substitution of software, a large number of both Russian analogues of the "gone" foreign software and completely original programs have appeared. Naturally, this also affects educational organizations. As teachers, we must understand what software from the available ones we can select to solve educational tasks, while also taking into account what software will probably be used by future employers of students. The situation is now very dynamic, with a large number of unknowns - and, of course, constant analysis of what is happening is needed, - noted Nikolay Kozak.
– What thoughts and ideas did you share with the audience?
– I shared my experience of switching to domestic software in the educational process. During the discussion, I emphasized that the use of specific software cannot be set as an end in itself in the process of training engineers, who, of course, must have a broad outlook to solve certain issues. And our task as teachers of the graduating department is to give them the knowledge and opportunities to use all available (taking into account the existing modern legal restrictions) tools for solving engineering problems. It was interesting to listen to the opinions and try to understand the views of colleagues from developer companies and colleagues from specialized training centers. After all, we are doing one thing, it is important to hear and understand each other.
– What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of Russian software?
– If we try to answer the question "globally", then the strong point of domestic software will be, of course, a more complete adaptation to Russian design standards and documentation in particular and the specifics of design and construction in general. Among the developers, in fact, there are many people with experience in designing structures, so the programs are written "for themselves", with an understanding of real processes.
Due to these reasons, user support at the stage of using the software is also easier, and programs are adapted to real tasks faster. Until recently, the weaknesses included relatively small developer resources (small team size), which did not allow for the rapid development of certain solutions and competition with foreign giants; plus, of course, marketing promotion issues. But since 2022, this problem has gradually disappeared, and the vacant place of foreign software is fully occupied by domestic developers.
On the other hand, it is important to note that it is not always correct to rank design tools (and this should include software) strictly as domestic or foreign. A digger's shovel can be either convenient or inconvenient, and where it was made is not the most important question.
– Are SPbGASU students already mastering domestic software?
– At our department, five years ago we switched to using domestic programs in the tasks of course engineering of highways simply because they turned out to be much more convenient, logical and productive than foreign analogues. It is important to note that until 2022, in parallel with the domestic program, we also used a foreign solution within the course so that students could compare different tools. By the way, this had a healthy effect on the skepticism that students sometimes had regarding our programs - they had the opportunity to "feel" different tools with their own hands and understand that our developments are much more convenient. Or, from recent experience, the Russian solution for working with point clouds turned out to be the most suitable for practical tasks in comparison with European and American analogues.
On the other hand, there are certain areas of tasks where a complete transition to domestic software is difficult today or tomorrow, it is a matter of at least several years. For example, calculation complexes for bridge design. Domestic solutions are still at the stage of preliminary versions, and some time must pass before they can be fully used. But, fortunately for our bridges, the main (foreign) programs have not left our market and are still officially supplying licenses, including for educational institutions.