Purpose Quantity surveying education in Sri Lanka (SL) presently does not appear to be catering to the industry needs indicating that it may not be up to the expected standard. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify the gap between the competencies of graduate quantity surveyors (QSs) and the competencies that industry in SL expects from them. Design/methodology/approach A hybrid approach was used, consisting of desk reviews, expert interviews and a questionnaire survey. A comparative analysis identifying differences between two competency levels was carried out. Findings Analysis reveals that competencies of graduate QSs in areas of cost planning, strategic planning, risk management, value management, life cycle cost analysis, sustainability, surveying and levelling, research and development, building surveying and business management are at levels higher than industry needs. However, majority of competencies are at levels lower than industry expectations. Research limitations/implications This research was focused only on competencies of QSs who have successfully completed a quantity surveying degree programme accredited by Institute of QSs SL, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Australian Institute of QSs and Pacific Association of QSs. It excluded non-graduates’ competencies as they gain competencies only through work experience. Practical implications This study revealed the need for designing quantity surveying degree programmes to cater to industry needs to ensure that graduates from these programmes are acceptable to the industry. Originality/value This study made an original contribution to knowledge by identifying the gap that currently exists between industry needs and programme outcomes of quantity surveying degree programmes, which could be invaluable when improving quantity surveying education in SL.

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In the United Kingdom (UK), recent developments in the construction industry have increased the demand for digitised infrastructure, which facilitates the investigation of the as-is performance of assets. This establishes the need to create and maintain up-todate digital copies of infrastructure assets, often labelled as Digital Twins. Digital twins are obtained by converting the unstructured data formats of the real-world assets, such as point clouds, into high-level digital representations. Yet, only few assets today have usable digital twins because of the high costs of the latter. This counteracts the benefits of the twins and reduces dramatically their true potential. Hence, there is a pressuring need to automate the process of creating digital twins. Geometric digital twin, the most basic form of the twin, contains only the geometry of the physical asset. This paper reviews the work done in computer vision, geometry processing, and civil engineering fields to determine the potential that exists for automatically producing geometric digital twins of infrastructure.

An Information Manager (IM) has an exclusive and unique role to play in a project. Yet, the competencies expected of an IM have not been adequately defined. The other professionals in the construction industry define this role in their own way ignoring the industry needs. Thus, this study aimed to define the competencies expected of an IM. To achieve this, the tasks expected of an IM were first determined through a desk study using BIM guidelines. Secondly, an informal public opinion study was carried out using online data sources. The collected data were then analysed using NVIVO software to outline the competencies required of an IM for each task. Finally, an expert interview survey was carried out to validate the outcomes of the study. The findings revealed that an IM must be a construction professional well-versed in construction technology and contract administration and that the IM must be competent in using Building Information Modelling (BIM) workflows/software. The study contributes to knowledge by identifying the gap that currently exists between industry needs and the performance of professionals working as IMs, which would be invaluable when designing a curriculum for a course on information management within a BIM environment.