Dr. Awad S. Hanna – University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
BOLDT Company Professor of Construction Engineering and Management
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Dr. Awad S. Hanna is a professor and chair of the construction engineering and management program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dr. Hanna holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Penn State University, and he is a registered professional engineer in the U.S. and Canada. Awad has been an involved construction practitioner, educator, and researcher for over 35 years, of which 10 years as a design engineer and project manager. He has been active in industry-funded productivity research for nearly 20 years. His research sponsors have included the Electrical Contracting Foundation, the Mechanical Contracting Foundation, the New Horizon Foundation, and the Construction Industry Institute, among others.
Dr. Hanna has authored over 100 refereed journal articles on construction-related topics with special emphasis on labor productivity, construction methods, cumulative impact of change, construction risk management and orders.
He has authored 15 major productivity-related books for the Construction Industry Institute, Electrical Contracting Foundation, Inc., the National Electrical Contractor Association, Mechanical Contracting Foundation, and the New Horizon Foundation. These have addressed such topics as the effects of absenteeism and turnover on labor productivity, the impact of change orders on labor efficiency, manpower loading, optimal project peak workforce, optimal project duration, the effect of multi-story construction on productivity, the effect of temperature on productivity and factors affecting labor productivity for electrical contractors.
Dr. Hanna is also the author of both the National Electrical Contractors Association’s course on Construction Labor Productivity Improvement and the Canadian Mechanical Contracting Education Foundation’s course on Improving Labor Productivity. As such, he has presented over 10000 one-day seminars and instructed more than 25,000 people in the U.S. and Canadian construction industries on improving construction labor productivity and improving site performance through proper pre-construction planning. His audiences have included NECA (National Electrical Contractors Association), MCAA (Mechanical Contractors Association of America), Canadian Mechanical Contracting Education Foundation, Electrical Contractors Association of Canada, Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractor’s National Association and the National Association of Boilermaker Construction Employees (NACBE).
Dr. Hanna has served as a consultant and/or expert witness on many major national claims cases that involved craft productivity evaluation, including projects such as the Massachusetts Central Artery (“The Big Dig”) and the New England Patriots Stadium and Apple Inc. new Headquarter in Cupertino, California.
Dr. Hanna was the recipient of CII’s 2006 Outstanding Researcher Award and was the winner of an international competition for the best innovative ideas in construction, and best CII best presentation Award for his work on “Construction Readiness.
In 2009, Dr. Hanna was elected as a Fellow for the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE), an honor given only to two percent of ASCE members.
In 2010, Dr. Hanna was selected by the ASCE Construction Institute Board of Directors to receive its Construction Management Award for his significant contributions as an educator and researcher in quantifying the effects of construction contract change orders and in addressing major construction productivity issues.
The American Society for Civil Engineers also gave Dr. Hanna the Best Paper Award in 2010, and in 2015, Hanna was awarded the Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize.
In 2018, Dr. Hanna’s inducted into the National Academy of Constructors (NAC).
Dr. Hanna’s most recent achievement is the recipient of the CII Outstanding Academic Award for 2022
Dave Thomack
Chief Operating Officer for The BOLDT Company
He is a 30-year veteran of the construction industry, most recently serving as BOLDT’s president of Western and Construction Operations. Thomack joined BOLDT in 2005 and has successfully led major construction projects for owners across the country including California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and Sutter Health, University of California — San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco Airport, The University of Wisconsin — Madison and Sacred Heart/St. Mary’s Health Systems. In addition, he was a business leader and led operations for BOLDT’s Western Operations division for ten years. He is a LEED Accredited Professional and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering and construction management from the University of Wisconsin — Madison where he currently serves as a member of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Industry Advisory Board. He is also a board member of The Construction Employers Association (CEA) and past board member of the northern California Lean Construction Institute (LCI). He is currently based out of the firm’s San Francisco office and manages nationwide operations.
Lucio Soibelman – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
Fred Champion Estate Chair in Engineering Professor Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Professor Soibelman obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Civil Engineering Department of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He worked as a construction manager for ten years before moving in 1993 to the US, where he obtained, in 1998, his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering Systems from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1998, he started as an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. In 2004, he moved as an Associate Professor to the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and in 2008, he was promoted to Professor. In 2012, he joined the University of Southern California as the Chair of the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. During the last 25 years, he focused his research on advanced data acquisition, management, visualization, and mining for construction and operations of advanced infrastructure systems. He published over 150 books, book chapters, journal papers, conference articles, and reports. He performed research with funding from NSF (NSF career award and several other NSF grants), NASA, DOE, US Army, NIST, IBM, Bosch, IDOT, RedZone Robotics, and many others funding agencies. He is the former chief editor of the American Society of Civil Engineers Computing in Civil Engineering Journal.
Dayana Bastos Costa – Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Associate Professor, School of Engineering, Department of Structural and Construction Engineering, Dean of Postgraduate Studies, Pro-Rectory of Research and Postgraduate studies.
Dayana Bastos Costa has Ph.D. in Civil Engineering – Construction Management. She has industrial experience in the Brazilian construction sector and international experience in research. She was a visiting researcher at Salford University-UK and Georgia Institute of Technology-USA. In 2008, Dr. Costa joined the Structural and Construction Engineering Department of the School of Engineering at the Federal University of Bahia-Brazil. She is currently an Associate Professor of Construction Management. Dr. Costa is a permanent professor of the Post Graduation Program in Civil Engineering (Academic Master’s and Ph.D.). Dr. Costa’s research area involves construction management, especially lean construction, production management, performance measurement and benchmarking, and sustainable management in construction, focusing on reducing environmental impacts on construction sites. Currently, she focuses her research on integrating digital technologies into the construction management process. Since 2009, Dr. Costa has been the principal investigator in several research projects the Brazilian governmental agencies and industry partnerships granted. As a result of these research projects, she published 31 journal papers, 31 book chapters, two edited conference proceedings, one edited book, and more than 130 conference papers. She supervised more than 25 doctoral and master theses.
Carlos Torres Formoso – Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Full Professor and coordinator of the Construction Management and Economics Group of the Building Innovation Research Unit (NORIE)
Carlos Torres Formoso is a Full Professor at UFRGS and the Construction Management and Economics Group of the Building Innovation Research Unit (NORIE) coordinator. He was the coordinator of the Graduate Program in Civil Engineering: Construction and Infrastructure (PPGCI) at UFRGS and is currently a permanent professor of the same program. Professor Formoso has a BD in Civil Engineering from UFRGS (1980), a master’s degree in civil engineering from UFRGS (1986), and a Ph.D. from the University of Salford (1991). He did postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, USA (1999-2000). Professor Formoso was a visiting professor at several teaching and research institutions abroad, including the Norwegian Building Research Institute (Norway), ESPE (Ecuador), Strathclyde University (UK), University of Salford (UK), University of Agder (Norway), University of Huddersfield (UK). He is part of the Editorial Board of six international scientific journals. He has acted as an “ad hoc” consultant for FINEP, FAPESP, CAPES, CNPq, CYTED, and other funding agencies. Dr. Formoso works in the construction management area, mainly with the following subjects: project and management of production systems, lean production, work safety management, organizational learning, performance measurement, housing for social interest, and management of the product development process.
Professor Edward Jaselskis – North Carolina State University, North Carolina, USA
E.I. Clancy Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University.
He began his academic career at Iowa State University (ISU) where he achieved the rank of full professor. During his 22 years at ISU, Dr. Jaselskis held several administrative positions including professor-in-charge of the construction engineering program, director of the Engineering Policy and Leadership Institute in the College of Engineering, and interim chair for the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. He has also served as a program director for the Information Technology and Infrastructure Program at the National Science Foundation and as Editor-in-Chief of the ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. His primary research interests relate to modeling construction project success and integrating innovative construction technologies (e.g., laser scanning, RFID, and virtual project teams) into the construction process and has performed research for CII, DOE, NSF, NCHRP, AGC, Departments of Transportation, Ames Laboratory, and several private companies. This research has led to over 130 refereed publications and reports; two book chapters; three patents; numerous invited lectures; and consulting opportunities with the Department of Energy, Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taiwan, and other private companies. He has also worked for Exxon as a cost and schedule engineer and field engineer, Perkins and Will as an electrical designer, and Bechtel as a field engineer. Professor Jaselskis is a member in several organizations including American Society of Civil Engineering, Construction Institute, Transportation Research Board, American Society for Engineering Education, Sigma Xi, National Society of Professional Engineers, and National Academy of Construction.
Professor Jaselskis holds a bachelor’s degree in general engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, master’s degree in civil engineering from MIT, and PhD degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a registered professional engineer in the State of Iowa.
Dr. Makarand (Mark) Hastak – Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Professor and the Dernlan Family Head of Construction Engineering and Management
Professor of Civil Engineering at Purdue University
He has assisted the construction industry for the past 33 years through consulting, research, teaching, and service to the community. His areas of expertise within construction engineering and management include profitability of construction companies, disaster risk reduction, infrastructure management, cost control, project management decision-making, risk management, factory-built housing, contracts, warranties, modular construction, and strategic planning. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE), a Construction Risk Insurance Specialist (CRIS), and a Certified Cost Professional (CCP). Prof. Hastak has worked on numerous projects sponsored by the NSF, State DOTs, City Agencies, and the Construction Industry Institute (CII). As a Fellow of the American Council on Education (cohort of 2013-14) at Cornell University, his work focused on the various facets of Hybrid RCM budget, engaged institution, and Public-Private Partnership in academia.
He has given over 50 keynotes and invited lectures around the world. Prof. Hastak has authored/co-authored over 200 publications and reports in his area of expertise as well as co-authored and edited three widely used books (1) Infrastructure Planning, Engineering, and Economics (McGraw-Hill 2006 and 2015), (2) Skills and Knowledge of Cost Engineering (AACE 6th Ed. 2015), and (3) CCP Certification Study Guide (AACE 2nd Ed. 2016). He served on the AACE Education Board from 2004-2016. He is the current Vice President of the Board of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) (https://cibworld.org/). Also, he serves as the Academic Advisor to the CII Downstream and Chemicals Committee (DCC). He was also the Editor-in-Chief of the ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering (2009-2016) and currently serves on its board. From 2008-2010, he served as the Chair of the National Consortium of Housing Research Centers (NCHRC) and was the invited Scholar-in-Residence (2006) at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center. Dr. Hastak has developed and managed (2007-2019) several websites as a public service to the construction industry including: Emerging Construction Technologies (ECT), Academic Breakthroughs, and Purdue Index for Construction (Pi-C).
Dr. Hastak received his BE (Civil) from Nagpur University, India, MSCE from the University of Cincinnati, and PhD (Civil) from Purdue University, USA. In addition, he is a trained university planner through SCUP and has received training at Cornell University in Executive Leadership, Financial Management, and Advanced Strategic Human Resource Management. He has worked at Georgia Tech, NYU, University of Cincinnati, and currently at Purdue University.
Gerald (Jerry) E. Buckwalter
Chief Innovation Officer of ASCE
Gerald (Jerry) E. Buckwalter has more than 35 years of varied executive leadership in general management, business development, strategy and innovation, program operations and policy development. He has worked in infrastructure, electronics, information technology, commercial security, and technology services markets spanning military, government, international, and commercial domains.
Mr. Buckwalter is the Chief Innovation Officer of ASCE and was formerly the Chief Operating and Strategy Officer. In that role, Jerry directs a forward-leaning strategic assessment and visualization project called Future World Vision where ASCE is creating a virtual and interactive computer model to assess potential built environments 50 years into the future. He also has his own consulting firm, Strategy Essentials, where he specializes in business, market, and technology strategic planning.
Prior to joining ASCE, Mr. Buckwalter was a Northrop Grumman Corporate Director of Strategy. His responsibilities included reshaping the company’s business portfolio, mergers and acquisitions, long-term strategies, innovation initiatives, and professional development. Jerry worked for many years coordinating company-wide homeland security business in border and transportation security, emergency preparedness and response, critical infrastructure protection, and intelligence gathering.
Mr. Buckwalter has also served in several other advisory and management roles such as:
· Member of the ASCE Industry Leaders Council from 2006 to the present
· Created the first global Innovation Contest for ASCE
· Member for the National Infrastructure Advisory Council reporting to the White House from 2008 to 2012, leading two studies, “Defining Infrastructure Resilience” and “Improving Infrastructure Information Sharing”
· Recipient of the ASCE William H. Wisely American Civil Engineer Award in 2018
· Selected as an Engineering News-Record Top 25 Newsmaker in 2019 for imagining tomorrow’s infrastructure
· Executive in residence at the University of Chicago for market strategy education from 2010 to 2019
· Board member of the Center for Public Policy Innovation since 2012
· Chairman of the Board of a non-profit foundation providing support services to adults with challenges
· Author of several reports, such as “Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure”, “Cellular Telecom Infrastructure in Afghanistan: Implications for National Stability”, and “Cyber and Physical Security for Critical Infrastructure”
· Board member of the National Homeland Defense Foundation from 2009 to 2012
· Participant in the 2007 Defense Science Board study “Defending Against Domestic Catastrophe during War”
Mr. Buckwalter earned a degree in Physics from Monmouth University and has extensive continuing education at George Washington University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Professor Wium – Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Chair in Construction Engineering and Management at Stellenbosch University
Professor Wium qualified with a BScEng and MScEng in civil engineering from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and holds a PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. He worked in industry as a structural engineering consultant and project manager for 20 years. In 2003, he joined Stellenbosch University as a specialist in structural concrete and structural dynamics. He was appointed in 2010 to the Chair in Construction Engineering and Management. His research interests are modular construction, collaboration for better constructability, design management, and risk management.
Dr. Nora El-Gohary – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
She earned her PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto. Dr. El-Gohary’s research focuses on data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) for the development and operation of sustainable buildings and infrastructure systems, including information modeling, information extraction, data fusion, machine learning, and big data analytics. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Illinois Department of Transportation, Qatar Foundation, and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada among other funding agencies. The outcomes of her research have been published in over 140 journal and conference publications. She has received several research awards including the NSERC’s Discovery Award in 2009, the NSF’s CAREER Award in 2013, the Center of Advanced Study Award in 2015, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) Award in 2018, and the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) Award in 2019. Dr. El-Gohary currently serves as the Chair of the Executive Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)’s Computing Division, the Chair of the Executive Committee of the ASCE’s Construction Research Council, and the Co-Chair of the Transportation Research Board’s Information Systems in Construction Management Subcommittee. She also currently serves as Associate Editor for the ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering.
Professor Thais Alves – San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA
Associate Professor, and the AGC Paul S. Roel Chair in Construction Engineering and Management, at San Diego State University
For more than 15 years, Professor Alves has been teaching, mentoring students, researching, and collaborating with construction companies in the fields of production planning and control at construction sites, teaching lean production concepts via simulations, and collaborative construction contracts. Dr. Alves is currently the secretary general of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC) and the leader of the Lean Construction Institute Community of Practice in San Diego, California.
Professor Hans-Joachim Bargstädt – Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar, Germany
Professor for Construction Engineering and Management at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Professor Bargstädt research fields are in construction technologies, construction operations, and construction logistics. Special focus is given to the development of software applications like building information modeling for project management and construction site operations as well as simulation of construction operations. Other areas of activity are in construction management, for example in claim management and arbitration.
After studying civil engineering at the Technical University Braunschweig, at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and at the Institut Superieur du Beton Arme in Marseille, Prof. Bargstädt was a structural engineer in a large construction company. From 1986 to 1989, he worked for his PhD in structural engineering at the Technical University Braunschweig. Then, a career in the construction industry followed from working as site engineer to being director of a regional division of a large construction company.
He has been a university professor since 1999. In 2012 and 2013, he was a guest professor at the National Taiwan University in Taipei. Since 2011, he has been regularly teaching as a guest lecturer at Stellenbosch University. Prof. Bargstädt served many years as students’ dean and as dean of the faculty. He is spokesman of the German Association of Professors in Construction Engineering and Construction Management. He serves as Chairman of the German association of civil engineering facilities. Since the beginning of 2017, he is also president of 4ING e.V.—the German Council of University Faculties in Engineering and Informatics.
Dr. Simaan AbouRizk – University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada
Distinguished University Professor, Interim Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Operations Simulation at the University of Alberta
For almost 30 years, Dr. AbouRizk and his research team have focused on advancing simulation modeling for improved management and control of large-scale construction projects. His work has resulted in several long-standing industrial research partnerships and in the development of numerous simulation tools that have been implemented throughout the construction sector. Partnering with over 40 construction organizations and receiving over $4.5 million in research funding from industry alone, the success and distinctiveness of Dr. AbouRizk’s research program are a consequence of building strong industrial research partnerships focused on advancing research, teaching, and overall practice. This collaborative approach has garnered widespread support from numerous funding agencies, policy makers, and industrial practitioners and has been instrumental in the expansion of the University of Alberta’s Hole School of Construction Engineering into one of the most reputable and well-respected Construction Engineering and Management Programs in North America.
Jamie Feuffel
Area Manager, PCL Industrial Constructors Inc.
Jamie Feuffel oversees PCL Industrial Constructors’ western Canadian operations, including the company’s fabrication and the module facilities in Nisku, Alberta. Jamie began his career at PCL in 1996 as a coordinator, spending considerable time learning the ropes in the same operation he now oversees. In 2004, he moved into the field to act as the construction lead on PCL’s first greenfield SAGD oil sands project – Husky Tucker Lake.
Jamie moved into Industrial’s head office in 2010 to oversee the project controls, construction engineering, and business systems teams. In 2013, as operations manager, his responsibilities grew to include oversight of the field coordination, material control, and communications groups. In 2021, he was promoted to area manager for PCL Industrial Constructors.
Jamie graduated from the University of Alberta with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering in 1995 and earned his Master of Engineering degree in Construction Engineering and Management in 1997. His association with the University of Alberta continues as he currently sits on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the university’s Construction Innovation Centre.
Rod Wales
Vice President Pursuits and Strategic Development, Ledcor
Rod joined Ledcor in 2008 and possesses over 27 years of project management and execution experience primarily in the heavy civil, mining, and infrastructure sectors in western Canada. Rod’s diverse project knowledge and experience has been a considerable asset in his management of Ledcor pursuits.
As Vice-President at Ledcor, Rod leads major project design-build and public-private partnership pursuits. His responsibilities include: early engagement with potential construction and engineering partners; preparation of teaming joint venture arrangements; and managing the development of request for qualifications and request for proposals.
Rod holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering (1992), as well as a M.Sc. in Construction Engineering and Management (1994) from the University of Alberta.
Rod is actively involved with the University of Alberta where he acts as a corporate liaison to the Construction Engineering and Management program and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Collaborative Research and Development project, entitled “Simulation Based Analytics for Industrial Construction.” Rod is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee serving the Center for Innovation in Construction at the University of Alberta. His in-kind university contributions include guest lecturer and student research advisor, where he provides graduate students access to industry-based research projects.
Dr. Stephen Mulva
Director, Construction Industry Institute
Dr. Stephen Mulva directs the Construction Industry Institute (CII), a research component of The University of Texas at Austin. His current research projects are focused on the performance and productivity of capital projects in most sectors of the modern economy. In addition to his responsibilities at CII, Stephen teaches graduate courses in Construction Engineering and Project Management at The University of Texas. Before coming to CII in 2007, Stephen taught Construction Management at Texas State University. He has held industry positions at Fluor, Bechtel, Phillips Petroleum, and as a project management consultant for ePM.
Stephen holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Construction Engineering and Management) from Georgia Tech and two degrees from The University of Texas at Austin: a Master’s in Civil Engineering and a Bachelor’s in Architectural Engineering.
Professor Patricia Tzortzopoulos Fazenda – University of Huddersfield, UK
Professor of Integrated Design, Associate Dean for Research at the School of Art Design and Architecture, and Director of the Innovative Design Laboratory and Head of Department of Architecture and 3D Design
Patricia joined the University of Huddersfield in May 2014 as Head of Department for Architecture and 3D Design (up to January 2018). Her role combines research, administration, and teaching activities. She has taught on the areas of Design Management, Value Generation, and Building Information Modelling in architectural design, completed several research projects, supervised research students, and published widely.
Patricia’s career encompasses design, architecture, new product development, and the built environment, with a focus on multidisciplinary integration between design and construction through collaborative working and value generation in design. She initially specialized in design management through a masters at the Postgraduate Programme of Civil Engineering -UFRGS, Brazil. As a design manager, she was responsible for managing client requirements and implementing process innovation to improve effectiveness and efficiency of design and its interfaces with construction. This practical experience underpins her research and teaching interests.
Patricia’s PhD was awarded in 2004 by the University of Salford, UK, and focused on the design and implementation of product development process models in construction companies. Before completing her PhD, Patricia joined the School of the Built Environment at the University of Salford as a research assistant on the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) funded Salford Centre for Research and Innovation in the Built and Human Environment (SCRI). She became an Academic Fellow, developing research on the design of healthcare built environments, and developed the MSc Built Environment for Healthcare. Patricia was appointed as research coordinator at HaCIRIC (Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre, EPSRC IMRC). She has developed and lead the MSc BIM and Integrated Design, launched in 2011. Following, she became Director of the Design and Property Management Directorate at the School of the Built Environment.
Professor Kagioglou – University of Western Sydney, Australia
Dean of Engineering at Western Sydney University
The School consists of Civil, Electrical and Electronic, Mechatronics and Mechanical Engineering. Previous to that, he was the Dean of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Huddersfield in the UK from the 4th of November 2013. The School consisted of three innovative departments: Art and Communications; Fashion and Textiles; and Architecture and 3D design. He was previously at the University of Salford in the UK where he was the Head of the School of Built Environment since 2009, the No.1 Research Power School in the 2008 RAE for Architecture and the Built Environment.
His career spans Engineering, Manufacturing, Creativity, Design, Architecture, and the Built Environment, engaged in inter and multi-disciplinary research at a global level. Professor Kagioglou’s commitment to inter and multidisciplinary endeavours was evident from the beginning of his academic career. Receiving his PhD in 2009, he joined the University of Salford as the Manager of the £8M EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Salford Centre for Research and Innovation (SCRI) in the built and human environment. He became the Director of SCRI in 2008.
Professor Kagioglou’s more recent work over the last 7-8 years focused on process issues in healthcare infrastructure, and he was an Academic Director for the £11M EPSRC funded interdisciplinary IMRC in Health and Care Infrastructures Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC). His current research is around healthcare infrastructure and better decision-making in complex settings, following an outcomes/benefits based philosophy. He is also working on platform design in a number of sectors and Lean thinking. He has published more than 200 academic refereed papers, many industrial reports, and three books. He has taken part in international evaluations and consultancy activity.
Dr Liyaning (Maggie) Tang – University of Newcastle, Australia
Senior Lecturer at The University of Newcastle, Australia
Dr Liyaning (Maggie) Tang received her bachelor’s degree at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and her Ph.D degree from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China. She subsequently worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S., and then as a lecturer at West Virginia University, U.S. for three years. She collaborated closely with government departments in both China and the U.S. on several research projects. These included Public-Private Partnership projects, investigations into highway pavement construction, dust control on construction sites, environmental impact assessments of construction projects, as well as the carbon footprint in construction.
She is now a Senior Lecturer at The University of Newcastle, Australia. She teaches construction courses and supervises both undergraduate and graduate students. She is a World Bank Group / APMG Certified PPP Professional (CP3P) Foundation trainer. She is also a member of CIB and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK. Her current research focuses on “Improving Mental Health of Construction Site Workers and Construction Site Safety by Using Big Data Analytics”.
Joanne Carmichael
Director and Sub Regional Lead for Advisory, Planning and Design NSW and ACT, Arup
Joanne Carmichael is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Highways and Transportation, Director and Sub Regional Lead for the Advisory, Planning and Design business for Arup in NSW and ACT for Arup. She has held a board position with the Transport Planning Society in the UK and was previously the UK, India, Middle East and Africa Skills Network Leader for Transport Planning for Arup. She has over 24 years of experience as a Project Manager and Project Director for large planning projects in the UK, UAE, Qatar, Africa, and Australia with 12 of those years being based in Dubai.
Dr. Geoffrey Shen – Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Associate Dean (FCE) and Chair Professor of Construction Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Dr. Geoffrey Shen, PhD, FRICS, FHKIVM has a proven track record in academic and research leadership in construction management with a special interest in sustainable construction, construction industrialization, and collaborative working. He has led a large number of research projects with total funding over HK$50 million and has authored more than 400 publications, including 200+ papers in academic journals and 50 scholarly books and monographs. He has been frequently invited to deliver keynote presentations at a number of international events. Professionally, he is a Fellow and Past President of the Hong Kong Institute of Value Management and an Eminent Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He has professionally designed and facilitated 50+ value management and/or partnering workshops for large and complex projects.
Luis F. Alarcon – Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
Professor and director of the Production Management Center (GEPUC)
Luis F. Alarcon is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the Catholic University of Chile, where he has served in a progression of administrative positions. He had been a Visiting Professor at the Ohio State University, Valencia Polytechnic (Spain), and Shimizu Visiting Professor at Stanford University. Currently, Dr. Alarcon is the director of the Production Management Center (GEPUC). He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Catholic University of Chile and two master’s and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Alarcon is a founding member of the International Group for Lean Construction and served on the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction board. He has published more than 100 research papers and several books: “Uncertainty Management in Repetitive Construction Projects using WIP Buffers,” “Identification and Reduction of Waste in Construction,” “Administration of Civil Engineering Projects,” “Planning and Control of Projects,” and he is the editor and co-author of the book “Lean Construction” and coeditor/author of Lean Construction 4.0. He has developed research and consultancy for public and private organizations in several areas: Project Risk Modeling, Strategic Planning in Construction, Lean Construction, Production Management, and Improvement of Quality and Productivity. He is currently a member of the Panamerican Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Construction of the USA.
Monica Santos Salgado – Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Full Professor until October 2021 and currently a Senior Collaborator and full member of the Architecture Graduate Program
Monica Santos Salgado is a Senior Collaborator and full member of the Architecture Graduate Program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ/PROARQ). She has a Ph.D. in Production Engineering, a master’s in Architecture, MBA in Occupational Safety Engineering and Environmental Management, and a bachelor’s degree in Architecture. She was a Full Professor at FAU UFRJ from July 1993 until October 2021. Dr. Salgado develops research related to the design management process of buildings and cities, exploring the possibilities offered by digital technologies, emphasizing BIM (Building Information Modeling). She is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal “Gestao e Tecnologia de Projetos.” She supervised more than 100 final coursework at different levels of training (undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate) with publications in journals and national and international conference proceedings. Referee of international journals such as “Architectural Engineering and Design Management”; “World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management, and Sustainable Development”; “Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development”; and national journals such as “Oculum Ensaios”; “Gestão e Tecnologia de Projetos”; “Cadernos do PROARQ.” She is also a consultant ad-hoc for agencies such as CAPES, CNPq, FAPES, FAPESP, and FAPEMIG.
Don Ward
International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB)
Don Ward has been Chief Executive of Conseil International du Bâtiment, the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction, since February 2020. This not-for-profit NGO established in 1953 by the United Nations is the global network for collaboration in built environment research and innovation, and Don is its 10th SecretaryGeneral. Don was previously chief executive of the UK best practice and innovation organization Constructing Excellence for 15 years and its international arm in later years. He has 35 years of experience in innovation and best practices in the built environment sector, specializing in policy-making, industry change, strategic procurement, supply chain integration, collaborative working, and housing, buildings, and infrastructure sustainability. He was an advisor to the UK Government’s Cabinet Office, Secretary to the British Standards Institution’s committee on construction procurement, and a Simon Industrial Fellow at Manchester Business school. He has undertaken speaking engagements and advisory roles in over 30 countries, including Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Scandinavia, the USA, and across the Middle East region.
Akintola Akintoye – Leeds Beckett University
Dean of the School of Built Environment, Engineering, and Computing
Dr. Akintoye is the Dean of the School of Built Environment and Engineering at Leeds Beckett University. He holds the Chair of Construction Economics and Management. He was Visiting Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, and the Department of Building and Real Estate, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He was a Distinguished Scholar at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Chartered Institute of Building. In addition, he was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction. Professor Akintoye is the co-coordinator of the World CIB Working Commission into Public Private Partnership. Professor Akintoye spent many years of his academic life engaged in teaching, research, and academic enterprise directly linked to the economic formation, modeling, and prediction of construction activities. He has gained international recognition for his scholarly work in construction risk management and procurement, construction estimating and modeling, construction economics, and construction inventory management. Dr. Akintoye has supervised 20 doctoral graduates and advised numerous master’s students. In addition, he has over 200 academic publications and outputs and has been a keynote and invited speaker to conferences in different countries. He has continued to work very closely with the industry. He has established a robust international network of experts in many countries with government institutions and private organizations on PPPs and PFIs.
Fernanda Leite – University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Full Professor in Construction Engineering and Project Management, in the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department
Fernanda Leite is a Professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds the John A. Focht Centennial Teaching Fellowship in Civil Engineering. She combines expertise in architectural engineering and computing in her modeling and built environment research. She is the past Chair of a University-wide Bridging Barriers research initiative called Planet Texas 2050. Most of her work has been in building and infrastructure systems information modeling, Scan-to-BIM, visualization and collaboration technologies, and circular economy in the built environment. At UT-Austin, Dr. Leite teaches courses on Building Information Modeling, Project Management and Economics, Construction Safety, and Sustainable Systems Engineering. She serves on the Faculty Council as well as the Presidential Sustainability Steering Committee. Starting September 01, 2023, she will serve as Associate Dean for Research at the Cockrell School of Engineering.
Wellington Didibhuku Thwala – University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, South Africa
Professor of Construction Project Management and Leadership at the Department of Civil Engineering, College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CEST) Chairman of the Construction Management Foundation Advisory Board
Professor of Construction Project Management and Leadership at the Department of Civil Engineering, College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CEST), University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa. He is one of the researchers rated by the National Research Foundation (NRF). Professor Thwala is the Chairman of the Construction Management Foundation Advisory Board. Professor Thwala has varied research interests, including project management, construction management, construction health and safety, engineering design management, economic and social infrastructure delivery, competitive business intelligence, and leadership.
Burcin Becerik-Gerber – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
Chair and Dean’s Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and co-director of the Center for Intelligent Environments (CENTIENTS)
Dr. Becerik-Gerber is the Chair and Dean’s Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California. She is also the co-director of USC’s Center for Intelligent Environments (CENTIENTS). Her research focuses on interactions between the built environment and its users and aims to understand and predict how and why humans interact with their built environment. She then uses this information to develop novel technologies, interfaces, and tools to improve the human experience, well-being, and performance, as well as to achieve societal objectives, such as energy efficiency, safety, security, and health. In her work, Burcin uses machine learning and data science to improve the design, construction, and system intelligence of user-centered built environments. Dr. Becerik-Gerber holds degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture. She graduated from Istanbul Technical University with a Bachelor of Architecture (1999) and an M.S. in Architecture (2001). She attended the University of California at Berkeley, receiving an M.S. in Engineering degree (2002) with a special focus on Construction Engineering and Management. She earned her Doctor of Design degree (2006) from Harvard University. Her doctoral work at Harvard University focused on online collaboration and project management. Upon completing her doctoral degree, she worked as a consultant and taught in the area. Her responsibilities included developing corporate-wide program management information systems for large and complex construction projects. In 2008, she joined the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Sérgio Scheer – Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
Consultant and Full Professor (re-red), Construc-on Engineering Department and Senior Researcher, Civil Engineering Research Center
Sergio Scheer is a retired Professor at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), and now he is acting as a research leader at the Civil Engineering Research Center at the same University. He has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, a master’s degree in Structural Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science. Dr. Scheer is a member of the ASCE Global Center of Excellence in Computing and the ASCE Technical Council on Computing and Information Technology. He is also Brazil’s ‘representative member’ on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Computing in Civil and Building Engineering. He was a member of the Working Committee for Information Technology of the International Society for Bridges and Structural Engineering from 2001 to 2009. He founded and led the ICT Task Group of the Brazilian Association for Technology in the Built Environment (2012-2017), and he was the president of this association from 2018 to 2022. He is one of the founders of BIM Forum Brazil and its first Vice-President from July 2020 to May 2022, where he still acts as a member of the BIM Forum’s Steering Committee. Professor Scheer has a strong experience in Computer Science and Information Technology for applications in Engineering, focusing on Graphical Processing and Visualization, systems development, and teaching and learning environments. He is active in the following subjects: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction, especially in BIM and systems integration for AEC, as well as in collaborative work, innovative applications, and educational object development for engineering education.
Wilson Lu – University of Hong Kong
Professor in the Department of Real Estate and Construction, Faculty of Architecture Associate Dean (Research) of Faculty of Architecture
Wilson Lu holds a BSc in Computer Science and an MSc in Construction Economics and Management. He was awarded his Ph.D. by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK PolyU). He worked as a research fellow at the University of Reading, UK, from 2006 to 2008. His research interests focus on Construction Management in two directions: construction informatics (BIM, smart construction, big data, and blockchain) and construction waste management (management, economics, and public policies). Prof. Lu is the Director of iLab@hku, an urban big data hub that facilitates multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary urban big data collection, storage, analysis, and presentation to inform decision-making in urban development. Prof. Lu has been the Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Architecture (FoA) since March 2016. He is pledged to serve colleagues and assist the Dean of FoA with Scholarship (e.g., grant applications), Knowledge Exchange (KE), and other ad hoc businesses (e.g., Research Assessment Exercise 2020). Prof. Lu is the President of the Chinese Research Institute of Construction Management (CRIOCM).
Mohamed Al-Hussein – University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Professor, Faculty of Engineering – Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept NSERC Industrial Research Chair in the Industrialization of Building Construction
Dr. Al Hussein is the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in the Industrialization of Building Construction and a Professor at the University of Alberta. Dr. Al-Hussein’s research has proffered a number of contributions to the industrialization of the building construction process through the development of modular and offsite construction technologies. This has included construction automation for equipment selection and on-site utilization; 3D and 4D modeling and automation; optimizing construction operations (from the initial planning stage to project completion, including scheduling, budgeting, and general project management); automating the design and drafting process; minimizing construction material waste through intelligent 3D-design; quantifying and reducing CO2 emissions during the construction process, improving invoice processing for construction organizations through the application of lean and post-lean principles, conducting evidence-based studies to reduce health and safety hazards in the built environment through improved design, and improving the health and wellbeing of construction site workers and the quality of life for the public/users of completed projects.
Professor Wellington Didibhuku Thwala – Walter Sisulu University (WSU), East London, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology (FEBEIT)
Professor of Construction Project Management and Leadership at the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology (FEBEIT), Walter Sisulu University (WSU), East London, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. He is the immediate past Director School of Engineering, College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET). He is the past Head of the Department of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying, University of Johannesburg, South Africa and Director of the SARChi Chair in Sustainable Construction Management and Leadership in the Built Environment. He is a National Research Foundation (NRF) rated researcher. He was recognised by the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) in 2022 for the much-coveted Engineering Research Capacity Development Award for his impressive work in sustainable construction management, digitalisation, smart cities, design error containment, and leadership within the built environment. He is an active participant in many national and international scientific conferences. His worked had been recognised internationally and has been appointed to serves as an editorial board member and editor to various reputable international journals.
More information coming soon.