Raido Puust

Background

About Raido Puust

I started my professional career as a water systems modeller (water-sewer-storm-transients) with a clear specialization to city scale network modelling/ optimization/ calibration topics. That was a long time ago, but I do feel that I got first impression what GIS (geographic information system) is all about when you do need to understand the importance of data connectivity. In fact, that is getting a lot of attention when we now talk about digital twins in a connected environment. Water systems modelling topics were also my key focus areas in my PhD studies. Quite a same time when I was doing my PhD, I got an opportunity to deliver building information modelling (BIM) trainings with various software/platforms. Buildings, then infrastructure. I feel myself quite comfortable in both domains (buildings and infrastructure) which is important when you need to understand how data is shared in between those domains. Believe me, that is not that obvious as we might think! Doing a research/teaching in university and industry practice in international companies, the next logical step (but also an opportunity) was to apply to the position of professor in BIM (not forgetting buildings as well as infrastructure topics). I have been active in quite many subtopics that interrelates to BIM in general (including drones in construction) but my current focus is paid onto construction information (management, exchange) with a clear expertise in explaining/guiding structured information workflows. As such, classification systems that are based on reference designation systems (RDS, 81346 standard series) are my key interest within whatever built environment case studies (including water systems, buildings, infrastructure etc.). I'm also active in standards development workflows (CEN/ISO working groups) and provide technical expertise in a wide area of modelling topics, including BIM-GIS workflows. Currently I do teaching/training in all those topics that has paid some importance/role in my professional career development (including water networks, GIS, BIM, etc.). We do live in a constantly changing (digital) world and you must keep up with all those changes and be capable to deliver that up-to-date knowledge to your audience (through courses, trainings, presentations). In a digital world this might incorporate a lot of distant teaching/learning and I’m quite keen on offering state of the art e-learning courses in where peer instruction (peer review), project-based learning and self-assessment are key metrics of the course delivery.