In Summer 2018, Euysup Shim participated in a six-week industry residency with Pepper Construction. Last fall, Shim applied residency funding to The Robert L. Bowen Industry Residency Initiative of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) Education and Research Foundation.
In his application, Shim was required to give specific skills and areas of expertise he hoped to enhance during his residency, identify an AGC construction firm or affiliated organization that had agreed to provide the internship experience and financial support, and show support from the Department of Technology and Illinois State University.
During his residency, Shim worked in the estimating department of Pepper Construction in Barrington, Illinois. His industry residency objectives were to sharpen his estimating skills, specifically in regards to estimating computer software, and to learn how a Building Information Modeling (BIM) model is incorporated into diverse types of estimating for construction projects.
He was assigned to estimating jobs for diverse projects including hard bids, budget development, conceptual estimates, and schematic estimates. Through working with multiple estimating computer software programs, Shim was able to improve his knowledge of the programs and his estimating skills. In addition, he observed how a BIM model was used and incorporated into the development of a conceptual or schematic estimate.
“It was an excellent experience to enhance my teaching after over ten years of teaching, and my Construction Management students at Illinois State University will be the beneficiaries of this experience,” Shim said.
He plans to incorporate his new expertise and the skills he honed during his residency experience into his estimating class and recommends his colleagues to the same.
“Other faculty members should take advantage of faculty internship opportunities like the AGC Robert L. Bowen Industry Residency Initiative to enhance their skills and teaching,” he said.
