National Institute of Building Sciences – NIBS

1. NIBS is a non-profit, non-governmental agency that is focused on promoting high performance buildings.
2. Their upcoming Annual Conference is in Washington, DC December 8 – 10 in conjunction with Ecobuild America.
3. There is no mention of laser scanning or 3D in the conference topics.

The National Institute of Building Sciences – NIBS is an interesting organization. It is a non-profit, non-governmental org that was authorized by Congress. This may not be all that unique, but I am not aware of other groups like this. In any case, they are focused on bringing all of the key stakeholders together that are involved in one way or another with buildings.

Of course today that involves BIM, sustainable design, LEED, green building, and much more. Unfortunately in reviewing the brochure for their upcoming Annual Meeting, being held in conjunction with Ecobuild America December 8 – 10 in Washington, DC there is not a single mention of 3D laser scanning or related technologies. In fact, under the session topics there is not a single mention of 3D.

On the one hand, this seems like a major omission for an organization that is charged with “supporting advances in building sciences and technologies”, but rather than being critical perhaps we should look at this as an opportunity to broaden our impact. As an industry we should be doing more to reach out to orgs like this to educate and exchange ideas.

On the other hand, perhaps this is the preferred approach. Rather than focusing on the core technologies, the emphasis is much more on its application to real world scenarios such as BIM, LEED and sustainable design. That being said as an industry we need to be involved in these activities in order to promote the advantages of 3D imaging.

There is also mention of  the AEC Interoperability Center, which I tried to find more info on, but appears to be a hands-on collaborative opportunity for companies to demonstrate their latest and greatest. This is an opportunity for some of the laser scanning vendors to get involved.