Dat Doan

Outstanding Doctoral Award Recipient
School of Future Environments
Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies

Dat Doan’s thesis centred on improving the uptake of Building Information Modelling (BIM) through system dynamics modelling - to enhance Green Star certification. The construction industry has been criticised for its undesirable characteristics and its negative impacts on the environment. In New Zealand, low construction productivity and high levels of construction and demolition waste have been pressing concerns. Dat has explored how BIM and Green Star uptake could mitigate these problems. His work included the development of a BIM adoption framework and BIM-Green Star systems dynamics model to provide insight and improve understanding and adoption. Also, a set of categories and indicators to assess the BIM practice was provided.

Given the excellent performance of this nominee during his doctoral study, Dat has extensively published in some of the world’s top-ranked journals and received impressive citations in addition to other achievements such as best conference presenter, and recently the Outstanding Doctoral Award - which he received due to his research in improving the construction industry’s impact on the environment.

The government, local authorities, and construction organisations can use the results of Dat’s thesis as guidelines toward enrichment of BIM and Green Star practices. The developed SD model can be adopted to review the effectiveness of their strategies about BIM and Green Star over time. He is now employed as a lecturer in AUT’s School of Future Environments, where he will continue to make a positive impact in this field.

“This award is really meaningful to me. It lets me know that my hard work over the last three years paid off, and I have contributed something to current knowledge.” Dat says “that by adding this award into his profile, provides opportunities in his future research career. Not only can it support him during the process of applying for research funding and securing research jobs, but also shows his abilities and research skills are recognised by one of the best universities globally.”

Dat is enjoying working as a lecturer here at AUT and plans to secure a permanent role to continue with his research plan. “During this time, I have developed a plan for my future research and have also looked for opportunities to apply for funding from the school and different organisations in New Zealand, such as MBIE and the Royal Society. Also, I have been selecting potential PhD candidates to work with and try to contribute something to the department, school, AUT, and current knowledge.”