Abstract
Construction engineering is a vital discipline in industry practice, providing essential facilities and systems for modern society. Despite its undisputed importance, basic research intensity and focus has been declining, which is compounded by challenges in collaboration between industry and academia. This study therefore aimed to revitalize construction engineering by emphasizing basic research, exploring barriers and enablers, and collaboratively establishing an ambitious research agenda. These objectives were addressed via a dedicated research conference and workshop held in March 2014 in Seattle. The event outcomes included new collaborations for 49% of workshop participants. In addition, the workshop identified four fundamental attributes of basic construction engineering research, including the drive to further knowledge, to improve construction delivery, to serve industry, and to pursue sustainability. Ultimately, this paper presents a research agenda for construction engineering based on workshop participant contributions. This agenda is a call for action that focuses attention on global systems and sustainability (for example, creating and maintaining vast distributed infrastructure systems), technology and management (for example, designing for the hybrid technical–human nature of construction engineering), and research methods (for example, adapting interdisciplinary research methodologies for construction engineering research). It is intended as the starting point for junior and senior researchers, industry representatives, and government agencies to develop, participate in, and support their targeted research projects that endeavor to address a specific part of one of these major themes.
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Acknowledgments
The support of National Science Foundation Grant CMMI-1353242 (PI: Gunnar Lucko) for portions of the work presented here is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
The authors would like to thank the workshop hosts, Dr. Jesús M. de la Garza, NAC, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and Dr. Edward J. Jaselskis, PE, NAC, North Carolina State University, for graciously sharing their time and expertise on basic research, as well as all other members of the organizing team, including Dr. John E. Schaufelberger, PE, NAC, University of Washington, Conference Chair; Dr. Paul M. Goodrum, PE, University of Colorado at Boulder, Proceedings Editor; Dr. Clifford J. Schexnayder, PE, Arizona State University; and Dr. Clyde B. Tatum, PE, NAC, Stanford University, for making the event a reality. Last, not least, thank you to the NSF researchers, Dr. Erin F. Haynes, Dr. Jack D. Kartez, Dr. David J. Mendonça, and Dr. Sigurdur O. Sigurdsson for venturing into a new knowledge area and sharing their interdisciplinary views.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 142 • Issue 4 • April 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 19, 2015
Accepted: Sep 23, 2015
Published online: Nov 19, 2015
Published in print: Apr 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Apr 19, 2016
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Buildings
- Business management
- Construction engineering
- Construction industry
- Construction management
- Construction methods
- Engineering fundamentals
- Facilities (by type)
- Hybrid methods
- Industrial facilities
- Infrastructure construction
- Management methods
- Methodology (by type)
- Practice and Profession
- Structural engineering
- Structures (by type)
- Sustainable development
- Systems engineering
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