Abstract
Recent increases in technical requirements for constructed facilities along with new contractual approaches and technologies used to deliver them provide special opportunities for increased project performance and for the career paths of new engineers. Construction engineers provide resources and complete technical activities to increase performance in meeting all types of project objectives. This paper describes these key activities, the knowledge required to complete them, and options to acquire and maintain that knowledge. It also describes related topics including recent trends in construction engineering education, technical fundamentals related to construction engineering topics and activities, and the results of a practicum course focusing on construction engineering. The concluding sections describe applications in continued self-directed learning throughout careers and conclusions and recommendations for leveraging career success. A second related paper describes the author’s research related to construction engineering. Both are offered to express thanks for receipt of the Peurifoy Construction Research Award and to encourage and assist new faculty and engineers in an industry whose career paths include construction engineering activities.
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Data Availability Statement
Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. Information about the Journal’s data sharing policy can be found here: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%29CO.1943-7862.0001263.
Acknowledgments
This paper further elaborates and illustrates the main points from the author’s Peurifoy Construction Advancement Address delivered at the Construction Research Council Congress, Montreal, Canada, 30 May, 2013. The author greatly appreciates receipt of the Peurifoy Construction Research Award and acknowledges the key role of students, teaching and research assistants, and construction professionals, who contributed greatly to construction engineering courses and research.
References
Fruchter, R. (2017). “PBP lab.” ⟨http://pbl.stanford.edu⟩. (Dec. 11, 2017).
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Tatum, C. B. (2005). “Building better: Technical support for construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 23–32.
Tatum, C. B. (2010). “Construction engineering education: Need, context, learning approaches.” Proc., 2010 Construction Research Congress, ASCE, Reston, VA, 183–193.
Tatum, C. B. (2011). “Core elements of construction engineering knowledge for project and career success.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 745–750.
Tatum, C. B. (2012). “Integrating construction engineering activities to satisfy challenging project objectives.” Construction Congress 2012, ASCE, Reston, VA, 139–148.
Tatum, C. B. (2017) “Construction engineering research: Integration and innovation.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., in press.
Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 144 • Issue 3 • March 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 21, 2017
Accepted: Aug 10, 2017
Published online: Jan 9, 2018
Published in print: Mar 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jun 9, 2018
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