We welcome a new Core Team Member to Women in BIM, Ruth Ramsden. Ruth will be our new Global Engagement Lead.
Ruth currently works for the Housing Association L&Q in a BIM specialist role. Having completed her Master of Architecture at the University of Brighton, Ruth has spent the past six years’ working in the BIM environment.
So that our WIB Members can get to know Ruth a little better, we asked her a few questions to tell us more about herself and what made her become interested in BIM and digital construction and why joining WIB was important to her.
What made you interested in joining Women in BIM?
I think it is a fantastic initiative and I have been looking for ways to get involved ever since I started attending some Women and BIM events. The work WIB does to not only promote digital ways of working, but to encourage women across the world to take up digital adoption is something that inspires me also and I knew I had to get involved in this.
Why is Women in BIM an important initiative to you?
A lot of women have similar experiences of not always having their voices heard in meetings and this can have a negative impact on our confidence levels.
Initiatives such Women in BIM help to give additional support and to build that confidence back up, which is invaluable. I think everyone should read the book Invisible Women, which talks about the disadvantages of being a woman in a world built for men. What better way can there be to improve the situation than promote the careers of women in the construction industry?
In what direction do you see the future of BIM heading, in the coming years?
This is a hard question to answer, and had you asked me a year ago I think I would have said something quite different! I think that The Golden Thread is an important initiative that is going to become very relevant to everyone in the next couple of years. I can see there being more automation of processes and refinement of tools and the next big area after safety is sustainability.
It seems absurd to me that with all of the technology we have right now, we are still constructing buildings that require huge amounts of energy to run, have tonnes of embodied carbon and no thought is given to how they can be recycled. I definitely believe this is an area where there is scope for improvement using BIM processes.
If you would like to contact Ruth to discuss becoming a Member of Women in BIM, please get in touch via email at ruthr@womeninbim.org.
