Courses

CEE 498: Construction Safety (2024 -- Present @ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

The objective of this course is to provide students with an understanding of current construction safety issues, concerns, and necessary safety requirements and procedures. This course aims to equip students with the ability to identify and mitigate common hazards on construction sites, implement effective safety management plans, and understand the role of human factors in construction safety. Furthermore, the course introduces students to innovative technologies that enhance safety in construction, providing both theoretical knowledge and practical skills relevant to these cutting-edge advancements.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the fundamentals of construction safety, including the human factors that impact safety in construction environments

• Identify the most common hazards on construction sites and effectively assess and manage the associated risks

• Develop and implement safety management plans using established safety management techniques 

• Understand the training needs and requirements necessary for maintaining a safe construction environment

• Leverage innovations in construction safety that are revolutionized by cutting-edge technologies

​​

CEE 598: Construction Robotics (2024 -- Present @ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

​This course aims to equip students with a thorough understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by robotics in the construction industry. It provides familiarity with the current state of relevant technologies and a foundational comprehension of the principles, technologies, and applications of robotics in construction. Additionally, the course offers the essential skills required to start programming for construction robotics.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the unique challenges faced by robotics within the construction sector

• Gain insights into the evolution of construction robotics, covering past, present, and future innovations

• Learn the fundamental concepts of cutting-edge technologies used in construction robotics, including both hardware and software components

• Acquire practical programming skills and hands-on experience using languages like MATLAB or Python for robot control and automation tasks

​This course provides an introduction to robotics and their application to civil and construction engineering. The fundamentals of robotics are described at a conceptual level to provide an understanding of what robots are and how they function. The course also includes spatial descriptions of robots, kinematics (mobile robots), and an introductory programming component. These topics provide students with essential knowledge and skills to initiate basic control and operation of robots.

​

AE 573: Construction Automation and Robotics (2019 --​ 2023 @ Penn State)

The goal of this course is to provide an understanding of the challenges confronting automation and robotics in the construction domain, a familiarity with the state of such technologies, a basic understanding of automation and robotics, and the fundamentals needed to begin programming for construction automation and robotics.

At the completion of this course, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the specific challenges confronting automation and robotics in the construction domain

• Gain knowledge of the past, present, and future innovations in construction automation and robotics

• Learn the fundamental concepts of what leading technologies for construction automation are and how they function

• Learn the fundamental theory needed to begin analyzing data for construction automation and robotics

• Gain programming skills and experience using such languages as MATLAB or Python

This course provides an introduction to automation and robotics and their application to construction engineering and management. The history, current state, and future of construction automation and robotics will be overviewed. The fundamentals of automation and robotics are described at a conceptual level to provide an understanding of what robots are and how they function. An introduction to spatial descriptions of robots, kinematics, and programming are covered so students can begin commanding the basic motions of robotic arms.

​

AE 597: Data Science for Construction Safety (2021 --​ 2023 @ Penn State)

The abundance of data, statistical analysis, and machine learning algorithms for utilizing the data are expected to significantly improve decisions about how construction safety is maintained. The appropriate exploitation of contextual safety-related data offers efficient, resilient, and sustainable health and safety management in construction sites. The primary purpose of this course is to provide an understanding of current construction safety issues and concerns; safety requirements and procedures; and equip students with data science, especially for the applications related to construction safety, familiarity with different datasets obtained in construction job sites, a basic understanding of current machine learning algorithms for data analytics, and the fundamentals needed to apply relevant machine learning algorithms to promote and enforce safety on the jobsite.

At the completion of this course, students will:

• Gain an understanding of construction safety and human factors in construction

• Understand data science principles in the safety management in construction sites

• Learn innovations in construction safety that are revolutionized by the increasing availability of data

• Identify the most common machine learning algorithms used in data analytics

• Understand relevant concepts and methods in data analytics to solve practical problems

• Use appropriate data analytics in prediction, classification and anomaly detection for application in construction safety  

• Use existing data sets to train and evaluate selected methods for real-world applications

• Implement methods and algorithms for data analytics in a programming language

The ability to utilize the data with statistical methods and machine learning algorithms can provide a fast and efficient understanding of the current dynamics of the construction job site and ways to improve onsite safety. This course aims to familiarize graduate students with the fundamentals of applicable data mining techniques for analysis, inferences, and prediction of large-scale data obtained via physiological sensing, crowdsensing, and remote sensing technologies within the construction site. Throughout the semester, classes will utilize a combination of lectures, discussions, activities, and case analyses.

​

AE 475: Construction Engineering I (2019 --​ 2023 @ Penn State)

The objective of this course is to develop the student's fundamental understanding of the required steps for planning and constructing a successful building project.

At the completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. In a given situation, such as reviewing the design of a proposed project:

• Identify the construction methods for the building systems

• Describe the method

• Explain why the method is used

• Provide alternatives for the design

• Provide a rationale to support or evaluate the choice of alternatives

2. Use their knowledge of building materials and equipment, such as concrete, steel, and masonry, to support their decision-making on related issues in different construction projects.

3. Describe different construction procedures, identifying the best one for a construction project.

4. Develop and evaluate a project budget and schedule using the tools for cost estimation and time schedule.

5. Work in teams to strengthen communication and interpersonal skills for professional practice.

​

AE 481/482: Construction Engineering I (2019 --​ 2023 @ Penn State)

Building project selection and preparation of overall plan; preliminary investigation of building design and construction issues; creation of individual Capstone Project Electronic Portfolio (CPEP) and project proposal required. AE 481 Comprehensive Architectural Engineering Senior Project I (4) The course sequence of AE 481 and AE 482 comprises the capstone engineering design program for Architectural Engineering students. AE 481 is taken by all undergraduate architectural engineering (A E) students and also serves as the writing intensive course requirement in A E. Based on an actual building project model, students will investigate the building, perform technical analysis, develop project criteria and prepare a written proposal for more detailed work to be accomplished in AE 482. Evaluation methods include but are not limited to written reports, verbal and written presentations, faculty consultations, and the development of a capstone project electronic portfolio (CPEP).​

​

CEE 431: Construction Contracting (University of Michigan) 

Introduction to construction contracting for contractors, architects, and owners, content including organization and administration, industry structure, construction contracts, bonds and insurance, planning, estimating, control, quantity takeoff, pricing, labor and equipment estimates, estimating excavation and concrete, proposal preparation, scheduling, accounting, and control. Students use contract documents to prepare a detailed estimate.