CIMS researchers win buildingSMART international award for Digital Twin project

November 10, 2025

A team of researchers with the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) has won a 2025 buildingSMART International (bSI) award in the Professional Research category for their project, An Integrated Open-Source Digital Twin Platform for Federal Built Assets in Canada.

Five people stand on stage in front of a backdrop reading “buildingSMART INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT – BERLIN 2025”.

This marks the first win for a Canadian organization at the bSI awards. CIMS is a research lab affiliated with the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism.

Led by Stephen Fai, director of CIMS and a professor with the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism, the team presented their research at the bSI Summit in Berlin on September 24, alongside other finalists. Dr. Fai was joined by project co-leads Lara Chow (associate director of CIMS) and Nicolas Arellano (PhD candidate).

“With the indefatigable commitment of Professor Stephen Fai, the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) has been a unique hub for creative and innovative research from its very beginning,” says Anne Bordeleau, director of the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism.

“The recognition of CIMS’ work on the digital twin confirms a well-established international leadership of this research unit that has worked across architectural representation, heritage conservation, and digital visualizations,” she says.

A BIM coordination interface shows a 3D model of a building with a form for editing a plumbing request.

A 3D point cloud rendering of a university campus, showing buildings, trees, and roads with a side menu

As a top authority on the digital transformation of the built environment, bSI develops and maintains open standards for Building Information Modelling (BIM). The annual awards celebrate global excellence in openBIM.

Using the same technology, CIMS is developing Canada’s Digital Twin to demonstrate the value of a national-scale, non-proprietary, browser-based digital twin platform available at no cost to all Canadians.

“Their mission to democratize digital twin technologies speaks to the core values of CIMS as they collaboratively advance opportunities for cities and communities through open-source digital platforms,” adds Dr. Bordeleau.

A 3D city map interface with layered data on neighborhood equity, transit routes, and crime occurrences across Ottawa.

A system diagram showing data flow from user to frontend, APIs, backend services, and data storage at the bottom.

Less than a year ago, CIMS won top honours for its Canada’s Digital Twin project at the 2024 Innovation Spotlight Awards given by the Building Transformations organization.

Read the full story by Nathaniel Whelan here.