BIM Manager, Office of Physical Plant, Department of Architectural Engineering, Penn State

Zahra Ghorbani is the BIM Manager at the Office of Physical Plant (OPP) and a PhD candidate at the Department of Architectural Engineering at Penn State. Her primary research focuses on defining and leveraging Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) and Digital Twins (DTs) for capital facilities’ operations.

Ghorbani’s other research interests include immersive technologies (e.g., AR, VR, XR) and automation in construction. She is an officer of the NIBS Digital Technology Council Board of Direction (BOD). She also holds the position of Vice Chair within the NIBS Digital Twin Integration (DTI) subcommittee, where she plays a leading role in establishing the connection between BIM and Digital Twins.

In her capacity as the BIM manager, Ghorbani is responsible for identifying and recommending improvements and best practices to incorporate into OPP’s BIM-related documents and processes to improve project execution and life cycle performance. In addition, she monitors and supports project teams in the execution of BIM on capital projects. Prior to joining Penn State, Ghorbani received a B.E. in architectural engineering from Shahid Beheshti University in Iran and thereafter relocated to the United States to complete her M.S. in construction management at Texas A&M University. Her master’s research focused on using deep neural networks for oil spill detection and segmentation.