University of Technology Sydney and Autodesk Construction Cloud Transform Digital Engineering Education
In 2023, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) launched its Digital Engineering Education Program to address Australia’s growing infrastructure capability gap. Developed in partnership with Transport for New South Wales (NSW), the Commonwealth Government, Autodesk, and leading industry practitioners, the program uses Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) as its digital backbone, supporting education and workforce capability uplift and transforming the way students are learning.
Australia’s infrastructure sector is in a digital revolution. As projects grow in complexity and ambition, so too does the demand for engineers who can work fluently with data. Architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) students and practitioners must understand not only how to plan, design, and build, but how to connect, coordinate, and govern digital information across an asset’s lifecycle. Yet for many organisations, the shortage of digitally skilled professionals remains a critical bottleneck to productivity, sustainability, and innovation.
Digital engineering education has to move beyond teaching software in isolation. The industry needs professionals who can think in systems, work fluently with data, and collaborate across disciplines to manage information from planning through delivery and into operations. By embedding ACC into our teaching, we’re able to prepare graduates and practitioners to design, build, and govern assets across their lifecycle.
— A/Prof Julie Jupp, Lead Academic, Digital Engineering Program, UTS
To address this capability gap, UTS has reimagined how the AEC disciplines are taught via the field of digital engineering. In partnership with Transport for NSW, the Commonwealth Government, Autodesk, and a consortium of leading industry practitioners, UTS launched the Digital Engineering Education Program. This is a national initiative merging tertiary education with live project data, enterprise software, and authentic industry practice.
At the heart of this transformation is ACC. ACC is a cloud-based environment where students and professionals experience the same workflows used on multi-billion-dollar infrastructure programs such as model coordination, clash detection, issue tracking, 4D sequencing, and data assurance.
ACC gives us a live laboratory for digital engineering. Every dataset tells a story – how teams collaborate, where risks emerge, and how data quality drives project outcomes.
— Ryan Townsend, Industry Fellow, UTS / Director, Intelligent Design Systems
The result is a powerful shift in AEC education – from tool-training to data-thinking and from classroom simulation to industry replication. Through UTS’s innovative use of ACC, the university has created an authentic digital ecosystem that mirrors real project conditions. This allows learners to master the workflows, governance, and data integrity standards demanded by modern infrastructure delivery.
When technology and real project data become the foundation of education, learning environments start to mirror the complexity of real delivery. This is the idea behind an Educational Twin — a governed, data-rich replica of industry practice that enables learners to develop capability within the same digital ecosystem they will one day manage.
— Jenny Tseng, Industry Fellow, UTS / Executive Director, Digital Engineering
How UTS and Autodesk are building the workforce of the future
The workforce of the future is one where data drives decisions, collaboration transcends software boundaries, and digital literacy is the foundation of engineering excellence. The key differentiators of the UTS digital engineering courses include the use of authentic project data, the integration of whole-of-lifecycle thinking, and deep, sustained industry collaboration. Together, this is designed to enable scalable capability uplift in infrastructure digitalisation and data literacy across Australia.
When professionals work inside a real CDE like ACC, with live data, they can finally make decisions based on all the data, not just what happens to be at hand. In that moment, digital engineering stops being an add-on and simply becomes how projects are delivered.
— Aaron Traylen, Industry Fellow, UTS / Co-Founder, Utopia Digital
Real project data gives learners context
Unlike most education programs that rely on abstract examples and simplified exercises, the UTS digital engineering courses are built around real project data from major infrastructure projects such as the Coffs Harbour Bypass, the Singleton Bypass, and the More Trains More Services. These projects are used to teach core competencies in digital strategy, CDE setup, 3D coordination, and more.
Real-world data gives learners context. They see why standards exist, why governance matters, and how every decision in design ripples through construction and operations.
— Julie Jupp, Associate Professor Digital Engineering, UTS
Participants navigate the same issues that project teams face: incomplete data, version control, change management, and integration of design and construction models. Using ACC, students perform model coordination, clash detection, issue tracking, and dashboarding, all within the authentic digital context of these projects.
Live data, real impact
Each project dataset and set of project documents used in the program is anonymised but structurally authentic, preserving the real geometry, coordination complexity, and metadata that typify state-scale transport projects. This ensures learning directly mirrors professional practice.
The results are more than technical proficiency: learners gain fluency in interpreting live, raw data to understand its lifecycle implications.
What’s truly inspiring is the seamless transition between education and practice. We have empowered learners so that the processes taught in ACC are shaping real government projects the next day.
— Jenny Tseng, Industry Fellow, UTS / Executive Director, Digital Engineering
Data-centric mindsets over tool-centric proficiency
UTS’s pedagogy deliberately shifts from “how to use a tool” to “how to think with data,” with ACC taught as the medium through which students build skills in data-driven collaboration.
Each module begins with a structured ACC environment: curated folders in Autodesk Docs, model coordination settings, issue categories, dashboards, and role-based permissions. Participants are introduced to how data moves through this ecosystem, from design authoring to coordination, field updates, analytics, to asset handover.
Through structured assessments, learners generate digital assurance reports, dashboards, and issue-resolution logs within ACC. These deliverables are evaluated on how effectively participants interpret data, trace information lineage, and use insights to mitigate project risk.
Data literacy is fast becoming a valued engineering literacy. Knowing how to read, trust, and act on data is what differentiates a standard engineer from a capable and digitally-enabled one.
— Ryan Townsend, Industry Fellow, UTS / Director, Intelligent Design Services
This data-centric mindset aligns with the next generation of infrastructure delivery, one where the model is the contract, and data integrity underpins safety, sustainability, and productivity outcomes. What UTS’ experience shows is that when digital delivery practices are labelled primarily as a “BIM project” or “DE-enabled,” they can become markers of ownership rather than descriptions of work, creating insider language that unintentionally excludes new adopters.
Lifecycle thinking is essential in infrastructure education
Each UTS course embeds whole-of-lifecycle thinking, showing how data continuity connects design, construction, and operations. In practice, this means teaching engineers not just how to model or coordinate but how to manage the data needed for long-term asset performance.
Real-world case studies, such as how major metro projects manage progressive assurance and issue tracking, are integrated into workshop activities and discussions. Using ACC dashboards and data visualisation tools, participants then trace design intent through to construction verification, testing, commissioning, and digital handover.
Participants learn to design projects “with the end in mind.” This lifecycle approach reinforces the purpose of digital engineering: not to create better drawings, but to create better data for better decisions.
The model is the contract – the data is the truth
This principle, adopted across the UTS curriculum, captures the essence of modern infrastructure delivery. In a data-centric environment, the model becomes the trusted single source of accountability and assurance.
Collaboration and good governance are critical enablers of discipline and innovation
The UTS program is intentionally structured as a collaborative learning ecosystem, connecting students and executive learners to real projects, data, and delivery workflows through a governed digital environment.
This ecosystem is supported by a professional advisory board comprising representatives from government, engineering and construction firms, and technology vendors. This group collectively guides curriculum development to ensure alignment with evolving industry and policy requirements. Industry involvement has been instrumental in aligning course outcomes with government digital policy objectives, including the NSW Infrastructure Digitalisation and Data (IDD) Policy.
The program isn’t hypothetical; it’s built around the same frameworks and data models that government agencies now require on live projects.
— Aaron Traylen, Industry Fellow, UTS / Co-Founder, Utopia Digital
A valuable outcome of the program’s unique technical architecture and industry collaboration lies in the research and development initiatives that have grown organically. One example is the innovative technology developed at UTS which integrates CDE vendor platforms via a synchronisation engine, named as CDE Sync (now available to the AEC industry via the Autodesk Appstore).
Positioning ACC as the head of the digital ecosystem, CDE Sync has enabled UTS to demonstrate best practice in how CDE platforms can map and integrate data between them. Students and professionals work and learn within a unified CDE that mirrors live project conditions with many digital technologies, experiencing first-hand how data integration supports coordinated delivery, quality assurance, and digital handover.
Scaling digital engineering education demands discipline
UTS’s success lies in the careful curation of datasets, configuration of ACC environments, and standardisation of teaching templates.
The authenticity of the ACC learning environment is what makes the program scale. Every learner, joining us online from anywhere in the country, logs into a live project that replicates real practice, creating the conditions for learners to develop transferable judgement under realistic delivery constraints.
— Julie Jupp, Associate Professor Digital Engineering, UTS
Every course includes an operationally authentic environment to include pre-configured ACC projects with realistic permission structures, issue categories, and version controls without compromising data integrity or system performance.
National reach
Since its inception, the UTS Digital Engineering Educational Program has enrolled professionals from every Australian state, spanning government agencies, consulting firms, and construction contractors. Its graduates are now driving capability uplift across transport, utilities, and infrastructure portfolios.
This rigour enables national scalability. Participants now enrol from across Australia, representing transport agencies, councils, consultancies, and contractors, proving that high-fidelity digital education can scale without losing realism.
The course provided several key achievements that have directly enhanced my professional capabilities, including gaining a stronger understanding of CDEs - especially the interaction between multiple CDEs. This has enhanced coordination on complex projects. I’ve also begun utilising a wider range of tools within ACC that I hadn’t previously explored in full, which has improved the efficiency and collaboration in my current projects.
— Mehdi Heydari, Digital Engineering Student, UTS
Building institutional capacity through partnerships and innovation
The UTS collaboration demonstrates how ACC can operate not only as a delivery platform and project repository but as a learning and innovation ecosystem.
Beyond the UTS education program, the Autodesk Construction Cloud Learning Centre is also available with on-demand courses, webinars and training to help expand students’ learning and further advance the industry’s digital capabilities – not just for students but for the entire construction industry.
Future iterations of UTS’s program will extend integration to digital twins and predictive analytics, exploring how AI can be applied to automate data health checks and assurance workflows within ACC.
The program has already demonstrated strong industry traction, with participants reporting improved career outcomes and project performance. Its next challenge lies in scaling internationally and embedding research on digital education outcomes to demonstrate institutional capability uplift.
Developing my knowledge of ACC was very useful. I'm now rolling out ACC for Social Infrastructure contracts to centralise the digital model.
— Santharam Madhavan, Digital Engineering Student, UTS
Accelerating digital capability uplift for the future
The UTS–Autodesk collaboration illustrates what’s possible when academia, government, and industry align around a shared goal: to build the digital capability foundations needed for Australia’s next generation of infrastructure delivery.
This model of partnership demonstrates how authentic data, lifecycle thinking, and data-centric learning can accelerate the sector’s transition from fragmented data toward shared, sustainable data foundations. In doing so, UTS is not only shaping how engineers learn, but how the built environment ecosystem plans, delivers, and manages its assets.
Through this collaboration, UTS has emerged as a global leader in digital engineering education, and ACC has been proven as an enabling environment for the data-literate, sustainability-focused workforce of the future. Together, they are demonstrating that the path to digital transformation begins with education — and that capability uplift is not a by-product of technology, but its foundation.