Editor’s Note

Giovanni Migliaccio is an assistant professor affiliated with the construction engineering and management program in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of New Mexico (UNM). Dr. Migliaccio has been studying the relationship between architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) projects and their organizational, environmental, and social contexts. Dr. Migliaccio’s contributions are mainly in the area of innovative project contracting and delivery. In addition, under a contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Dr. Migliaccio’s research team is identifying best practices for communication, cooperation, and coordination between transportation agencies and tribal communities. Finally, Dr. Migliaccio is one of the faculty on the UNM Pavement Evaluation Program. Every year, under a contract with the New Mexico Department of Transportation, this program collects pavement condition data for above $\mathrm{7,000}\text{miles}$ of roads.

The Department of Civil Engineering is one of five departments within the School of Engineering, currently with 18 full-time faculty and four full-time staff members. The department is unique in that it offers three accredited undergraduate degrees (civil engineering, construction engineering, and construction management). The department offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in various concentration areas and a relatively new Master of Construction Management degree specifically targeted toward nonengineering majors. The department’s annual research expenditures exceed $2 million and allow the faculty to engage in a broad spectrum of research activities.

As a Hispanic-serving institution, the University of New Mexico represents a cross-section of cultures and backgrounds. In spring of 2008, 24,177 students attended the main campus with another 6,658 students at branch campuses and education centers. UNM boasts an outstanding faculty that includes a Nobel Laureate, two MacArthur Fellows, 35 Fulbright scholars, and several members of national academies. UNM offers a broad range of academic programs focused on education and research, including 94 baccalaureate degrees, 74 master’s degrees, and 40 doctoral and professional degrees. The University’s outreach mission is to serve the citizens of the State of New Mexico either through satellite campuses located throughout the state, or through distance education programs. In addition, the UNM environment presents the uniqueness of having a culturally diverse student population with 6% of its students being Native Americans and 31% Hispanics (2007 data). Consequentially, the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque is the only Hispanic-serving institution in the United States (U.S. Department of Education “High Hispanic Enrollment”) that is also classified by the Carnegie Foundation as RU/VH (research university-very high research activity).

Khaled El-Rayes is an associate professor and an O’Neil Faculty Scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. El-Rayes has more than $20\text{years}$ of professional experience in both academia and the construction industry. He taught numerous graduate and undergraduate courses in the area of construction engineering and management and he was repeatedly named to the “List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their Students” at the University of Illinois in recognition of his teaching effectiveness. He also served as PI and Co-PI on numerous research projects that were funded by the National Science Foundation, Illinois Center for Transportation, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and Qatar Foundation. The outcome of his research projects were published in more than 100 articles including more than 40 journal papers. The contributions of his research have also been recognized nationally and internationally, receiving numerous research awards including the ASCE Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize in 2007; the NSF CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation in 2003; and the Doctoral Prize of the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science from Concordia University in Canada in 1999. El-Rayes has been serving as an assistant specialty editor for the ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management in the area of information technologies since 2003. He also served as the secretary, vice-chair, and chair of the ASCE Construction Research Council.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a consistently top-ranked program with approximately 50 faculty members and 1,200 undergraduate and graduate students. Established in 1871, the department enjoys a world-class reputation for teaching, research, and service to society. Annually, department researchers conduct more than $20 million in research with significant impact on quality of life around the world. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is home to the nation’s largest engineering library, Grainger Engineering Library.

Dr. Aminah Robinson Fayek is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta. Her core research is in the development and application of fuzzy logic techniques to incorporate subjective reasoning and linguistic variables within intelligent decision support systems that assist all stakeholders in improving the productivity and performance of construction projects. Currently, she is developing hybrid systems that incorporate fuzzy logic with other artificial intelligence and modeling techniques (such as artificial neural networks, expert systems, and simulation models) to provide more robust modeling approaches. Her applied research has contributed to the development of a number of construction industry best practices related to workforce training and development, construction rework, and project performance and benchmarking. She holds an NSERC/Alberta Construction Industry Associate Industrial Research Chair in Construction Engineering and Management and is the Ledcor Professor in Construction Engineering and Management at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Robinson Fayek served as an assistant specialty editor in quantitative methods for the ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. She serves as an associate editor in construction for the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering. She is a joint coordinator of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) Task Group 58 on clients and construction innovation.

The University of Alberta, founded in 1908, is one of Canada’s foremost research-intensive universities with over 37,000 students, including over 6,000 graduate students. The faculty of engineering has over 3,800 undergraduate and 1,200 graduate students, of which 950 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students are in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has 45 full-time faculty and offers B.Sc., M.Eng., M.Sc., and Ph.D. programs. The Hole School of Construction Engineering program has more than 80 graduate students and five full-time faculty members. The program houses the NSERC/Alberta Construction Industry Research Chair in Construction Engineering and Management, in collaboration with over 25 construction companies.

Dr. Ioannis K. Brilakis joined the Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in January 2009. He received his diploma in Civil Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece, in 2001. He continued his studies at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, where he obtained an M.S. in 2002 and a Ph.D. in 2005. After graduating from the University of Illinois, he worked as an assistant professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (July 2005 to December 2008). Dr. Brilakis is the director of the Construction Information Technology Laboratory (CITL), an active member of several academic and professional organizations, and a member of the editorial boards of the ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, the ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, and the Elsevier Journal of Advanced Engineering Informatics.

The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the nation’s top research universities, distinguished by its commitment to improving the human condition through advanced science and technology. Georgia Tech’s campus occupies 400 acres in the heart of the city of Atlanta, where more than 19,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive a focused, technologically based education. Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the institute offers many nationally recognized, top-ranked programs. Undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered in the Colleges of Architecture, Engineering, Sciences, Computing, Management, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. Georgia Tech is consistently ranked in U.S. News and World Report’s top ten public universities in the United States.

Dr. SangHyun Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta, Canada. His primary research interest is the understanding and management of construction dynamics through the design and development of mechanisms, models, and systems that integrate computer simulation, automatic data capture technologies, and qualitative data, particularly in mega construction projects. Dr. Lee’s research efforts have been supported by government agencies (e.g., the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) and industry. Dr. Lee received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from MIT and is an ASCE Associate Member.

The construction engineering and management (CEM) program, called the Hole School of Construction Engineering (HSCE) at the University of Alberta, emphasizes innovative construction research to advance both the body knowledge in CEM and state-of-the-art practices in the construction industry. HSCE has the dedicated support of the construction industry. Currently, there are five full-time faculty members, 49 Ph.D. and M.S. students, and 30 M.Eng. students.

Dr. Min Liu has a BSCE from the Department of Civil Engineering at Tsingdao Institute of Architecture and Engineering in China, an MSCE from the Department of Civil Engineering at Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology in China, an M.S. from the Department of Building Science at National University of Singapore, and a Ph.D. from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She worked in the China Construction Bank as an engineer from 1997–1999. She is currently an assistant professor of construction engineering management at the North Carolina State University. Dr. Liu is an associate member of ASCE, and a member of ASEE and LCI.

Dr. Liu’s research interests include construction labor productivity improvement, lean construction (project-based production management for the architecture-engineering-construction industry), project performance improvement (budget/cost, schedule/time, quality, and safety), and international project management.

North Carolina State University (NCSU) is one of the nation’s leading public universities and land-grant colleges with a current total enrollment in excess of about 34,000 and over 8,000 faculty and staff. The College of Engineering at NCSU has more than 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students in 10 departments. NCSU has a distinguished history of providing educational and research support to the construction industry. NCSU’s undergraduate construction program was the first professionally accredited construction engineering program in the nation. The master’s program has an enrollment of approximately 60 students. The Ph.D. program provides students with a common core of substantial, integrated knowledge, and offers areas of specialization in discrete fields of knowledge and practice.

Dr. Chuan Chen is a lecturer (equivalent to an assistant professorship in the United States) in construction management at the Faculty of Architecture, Building, and Planning at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He received his B.Eng., M.Eng., and Ph.D. from Tsinghua University, China, the National University of Singapore in Singapore, and the Pennsylvania State University respectively. Dr. Chen has work experience in industry, government and academia. He once worked for the Kvaerner Group as an assistant commercial manager; the Ministry of Construction in China as a visiting research fellow; and Tsinghua University in China as an assistant professor. Dr. Chen’s research interests include strategic management in construction, infrastructure financing and development, entry strategies for international construction markets, and global virtual teaming. He has authored and coauthored one book and more than 30 papers.

The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia, and the oldest in Victoria. It is a member of Australia’s “Group of Eight” group, the Universitas 21 and Association of Pacific Rim Universities networks. Melbourne is ranked among the top universities in Australia and in the world. The university has over 40,000 students, who are supported by nearly 7,200 staff members.

Dr. Hartman is an assistant professor at Twente University’s Construction Management and Engineering Department. In his research and practical work he develops state of the art visualization and simulation technologies and integrates these technologies with the working processes of construction professionals. Dr. Hartman believes that such a development and integration is only possible by understanding both technical and social factors. To reach such an understanding, he applies sense-making and structuration theories to development and implementation processes of construction management software. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University where he was a student at the Center for Integrated Facility Management. He also received a diploma in Civil Engineering and his M.S. in computational mechanics from the Technical University of Munich. His work has been published in Advanced Engineering Informatics, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Building Research and Information, and ITCON. Dr. Hartman has worked in a variety of different practical and research fields, including design management, finite-element software development, and energy simulation of buildings. He also worked in practice with diverse companies such as Parsons Brinckerhoff, Turner Construction, Max Boegl (Germany), and Zelan Construction (Malaysia) where he supported project management activities for mega projects such as the Fulton Street Transit Center project in New York City, the Sutter Medical Health Center in Sacramento, the Teluk Gong $720\mathrm{MW}$ CCGT Panglima Power Plant in Malaysia, and the Doyle Drive Project in San Francisco.

The University of Twente, in Enschede, The Netherlands, is a research university that focuses on technological developments in a social context within an active knowledge economy. This focus is reflected in 22 bachelor’s and 31 master’s programs in the fields of engineering, social, and behavioral sciences. Students are challenged to look beyond their field’s borders and to interact with other disciplines. This multidisciplinary approach stimulates innovation in science and society. Currently 5,500 bachelor’s and 2,500 master’s students study at the University of Twente. The University Twente’s research is internationally acclaimed, especially in the areas of ICT, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, and with respect to social sciences applied to societal sectors, such as health, water, sustainable energy, safety, and education. The strength of the University of Twente lies in its multidisciplinary research approaches that combine design sciences, natural sciences, and life and social sciences.

The educational and research activities of the Department of Construction Management and Engineering of the University of Twente encompasses all aspects of managing the construction life-cycle of buildings and infrastructure objects from early definition phases, over appraisal, design, and delivery, to the operation phase. During these research and educational activities the department’s special focus is on management practices that allow for the consideration of the interests of all stakeholders involved on projects, but also on construction business and innovation processes. To support this focus the thrust of the department’s research is an interdisciplinary program concentrating on the integration of societal, technological, and managerial issues in close cooperation with practice.

Dr. Amlan Mukherjee received his B.E. in civil engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India; an M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Buffalo, State University of New York, and his Ph.D. from University of Washington in Seattle. He is currently an assistant professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Michigan Tech. Dr. Mukherjee focuses his research and professional activities primarily in the areas of planning and decision making. His research involves the development of models and simulations that support strategic decision making for construction management processes. His research interests also include development of decision support systems that promote sustainability and long-term resilience of civil infrastructure systems. His research has been funded by organizations such as the NSF, the Michigan Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Department of Education, and he has published in various international journals.

Dr. Mukherjee teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in the civil engineering programs that emphasize the integration of design and construction methods using advances in information technology. He also teaches classes in risk analysis and system dynamics in the interdisciplinary undergraduate B.S. program in service systems engineering. Dr. Mukherjee is also actively involved in advising and co-advising M.S. and Ph.D. students in civil engineering, environmental engineering, and computer science.

Michigan Technological University was founded in 1885 in response to the first mining boom in the United States. At its outset, the college trained mining and metallurgical engineers. Today, the university offers certificates, associate, bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in arts, humanities, social sciences, business, economics, computing, engineering, forestry, environmental science, sciences, technology. Michigan Tech undergraduates benefit from an education that emphasizes study across disciplines, team learning, and research. Graduate students receive intensive, advanced instruction and the opportunity to pursue research in a wide range of academic programs. Michigan Tech is ranked in the top tier of national universities according to the U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges 2009.” Overall, the institution has gained worldwide attention for innovative education, outstanding faculty members who strive to be mentors, academic programs that stress learning hand-in-hand with application, and students who learn to inquire and discover knowledge.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Michigan Tech includes 26 faculty, 24 professional staff, over 100 full-time graduate students, and over 500 undergraduate majors. Research funding exceeds $3 million per year. The environmental engineering degree program is ranked number thirteen in the nation by U.S. News. Department faculty members work collaboratively with the University Transportation Center, Transportation Materials Research Center, Center for Structural Durability, Michigan Tech Transportation Institute, Michigan Tech Research Institute, Sustainable Futures Institute, and the D80 Center (which includes a graduate partnership with the U.S. Peace Corps), and other campus wide initiatives.

Dr. Baabak Ashuri is director of the Economics of the Sustainable Built Environment (ESBE) Lab. He specializes in economic decision analysis, strategic risk management, investment analysis under uncertainty (e.g., the real option methodology), capital budgeting, and project finance. His current research focuses on the identification and evaluation of flexible technologies and systems for sustainable buildings, enhancing the value of healthcare facilities by incorporating flexible features, and developing real option models for the financial assessment of PPP highway projects under traffic uncertainty. The findings of the in-depth industry case studies, economic model development, and simulation analysis on the aforementioned topics are then used to generate fundamental theory about sustainable investment in the built environment. All research includes an integrated education research program to disseminate knowledge to professional associations and ensure infusion in next generation architects, engineers, facility managers, and policy makers. Dr. Ashuri is an assistant professor in the Building Construction Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he teaches “Decision Analysis and Risk Management,” “Building Economics and Value Engineering,” and “Real Option Analysis for Life Cycle Costing of Flexible Infrastructure Assets,” and advises undergraduate, masters, and Ph.D. students.

The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the nation’s top research universities, distinguished by its commitment to improving the human condition through advanced science and technology. Georgia Tech’s campus occupies 400 acres in the heart of the city of Atlanta, where more than 19,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive a focused, technologically based education. Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the institute offers many nationally recognized, top-ranked programs. Undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered in the Colleges of Architecture, Engineering, Sciences, Computing, Management, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. Georgia Tech is consistently ranked in U.S. News and World Report’s top ten public universities in the United States.

Dr. Amir H. Behzadan is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He received his Ph.D. in civil engineering (2008) and his M.Eng. in construction engineering and management (2005) both from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He also earned a B.Eng. in civil engineering from Sharif University of Technology (Tehran, Iran) in 2003. His research interests encompass innovative computing, information, and sensing technologies and their applications in life cycle engineering and management of civil infrastructure systems. Amir has extensive research experience in advanced simulation, visualization, and tracking technologies and their application in engineering operations. He has developed ARVISCOPE, a full-scale augmented reality visualization platform capable of interactively animating simulated engineering operations in real time. Using GPS and head orientation tracking data communication, ARVISCOPE provides an environment that enables navigation inside a 3D-augmented space while studying a simulated engineering operation. He is currently conducting research on dynamic construction process design and equipment control in which advanced tracking and sensing technologies are used to automate construction processes under uncertain conditions.

The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a metropolitan public research university located in Orlando, Florida. With more than 53,000 enrolled students, UCF is currently the largest university in the state, and the third-largest university in the United States by enrollment. UCF is currently offering 225 degree programs and it has become an academic and research leader in numerous fields, such as modeling and simulation, engineering, computer science, optics, business administration, education, science, hospitality management, and digital media.

The Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering is an active academic unit within the College of Engineering and Computer Science. It offers B.S. degrees in civil engineering, environmental engineering, and construction engineering as well as Ph.D. degrees in both civil engineering and environmental engineering. The department also offers M.S. degrees in civil engineering (M.S.C.E.) and environmental engineering (M.S.Env.E.). In addition, more specialized M.S. degrees are offered in structures and foundations, transportation systems engineering, environmental engineering sciences, and water resources engineering.