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Building Information Modeling (BIM) competitions are a beneficial approach to enhance BIM education, offering students practical experience in BIM application, including mastering workflows and technical tools. However, research exploring the individual perceptions influencing participation intentions and behaviors in BIM competitions is limited. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors affecting university students' behavioral intention and behavior in BIM competitions, providing theoretical support for BIM competitions and educational reform.

This study employs the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework to analyze the factors influencing BIM competition participation among 970 Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) university students.

The results of the study show that social influence, attitude, and self-efficacy play critical roles in shaping students' intentions to participate in BIM competitions. Furthermore, self-efficacy, facilitating conditions, and behavioral intention significantly influence students' actual engagement in such competitions. Surprisingly, effort expectancy negatively influences intentions, as less challenging tasks can lead students to perceive their participation as less impactful on their skills and learning, reducing their behavioral intention to participate.

This research provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of BIM competitions in enhancing BIM education for AEC students. Extending the UTAUT model to include self-efficacy and attitude, provides a novel perspective for understanding students' intentions and behaviors regarding BIM competitions. The study’s theoretical support proposes incorporating BIM competitions to augment BIM teaching methods and offers suggestions for advancing the efficacy of students' involvement in BIM competitions within higher education, thus contributing to educational reform in the AEC sector.

This study aims to enhance evacuation safety and efficiency measures in primary school corridors by considering the impact of adult guidance and evacuation graphical signs on evacuation speed and density by considering different visibility conditions and corridor design.

The experiment setup involved ten carefully designed drills exploring the evacuation behavior of 6–7-year-old students in a primary school, varying factors such as adult guidance, smoke conditions and graphical evacuation signs. Kinovea software was employed for data extraction to transform video footage into frames, facilitating meticulous manual tallies of children’s movements in designated sub-areas during the drills. The research utilized statistical tests, a generalized linear model and curve-fitting techniques to analyze the extracted data.

The findings highlight the vital role of adult guidance in expediting evacuations, emphasizing the importance of trained personnel during emergencies. Additionally, graphical evacuation signs were identified as powerful tools for enhancing evacuation speed during low visibility, as they provide clear visual cues to guide evacuees effectively. Signage and adult guidance are beneficial when the classrooms’ gates opening to the passage are far from each other. In contrast, in areas with close and multiple exits, guidance strategies, especially those involving adults, are more effective in reducing population density during evacuations.

These findings have practical implications for improving emergency preparedness, guiding the design of primary school corridors and informing evacuation protocols. School administrators, architects and emergency planners can utilize these findings to inform the development of safety protocols, enhance evacuation guidance strategies and improve the design of primary school corridors. Further research can expand on these findings by exploring their applicability in diverse educational settings and evaluating the real-world implementation of evacuation measures.