[Session 1] Economic Analysis and Data Analytics Applications for Construction Engineering and Project Management

Recent advancements in theoretical foundations and applications of construction and infrastructure economics will be presented. These advancements have transformed decision making about civil infrastructure systems by leveraging the unprecedented availability of big data sources and computing capabilities. Construction and infrastructure economics is a distinctive research area in civil infrastructure systems, bridging the fields of civil and environmental engineering, construction engineering and infrastructure management, economics, and operations research. Three applications will be presented:

1. Infrastructure Finance & Innovative Project Delivery – Advancing investment evaluation methods for infrastructure systems and streamlining infrastructure project delivery through risk analysis;
2. Economic Decision Analysis – Advancing valuation of sustainable and resilient infrastructure investments under uncertainties; and
3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Analytics – Envisioning future of work in design: imitating human designers by AI design agents.

These applications demonstrate opportunities to rethink the grand challenges of civil engineering and infrastructure management, particularly infrastructure financing gap, high energy consumption, and limited automation.

Bio:

Prof. Baabak Ashuri is Executive Director of the Professional Master’s in Occupational Safety and Health (PMOSH), Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Fellow of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) at Georgia Tech.  Dr. Ashuri’s research has advanced theoretical foundations and applications in data analytics, economic decision analysis, and quantitative methods in infrastructure and construction engineering and management, allowing other researchers to use his findings for enhancing the performance of infrastructure operations on several subdomains directly related to pre-construction decisions, e.g., artificial intelligence (AI) and design automation, alternative project delivery selection, and sustainable technology investments. Dr. Ashuri has 228 publications in these fields, including 77 refereed journal articles, 101 peer-reviewed conference papers, 47 research reports and guidebooks, 1 co-edited book, and 2 referred book chapters. Dr. Ashuri secured a funding amount of over $17M from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Department of Energy (DOE), Build America Beurre (BAC), Georgia Department of Transportation (Georgia DOT), South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), Construction Industry Institute (CII), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Southeast Transportation Consortium (STC), Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC), Turner Construction, and Perkins + Will, to name a few. Dr. Ashuri received many awards including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (Thomas Fitch Rowland paper award), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) High Value Research “Sweet Sixteen” Award, and the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) (Distinguished Leadership – Faculty). Dr. Ashuri has chaired the ASCE Construction Research Council (CRC) and served on the ASCE Construction Institute (CI) Board of Governors.

[Session 2] Sustainable and Integrated Built Environments for Decarbonization

Bio:

Soowon Chang is an Assistant Professor of Construction Management Technology at Purdue University. She received her Ph.D. in Building Construction from the Georgia Institute of Technology. During her doctoral studies, she conducted research on smart and sustainable Tokyo redevelopment at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan. She also serves as a Global Professor in the Graduate School of System Design and Management at Keio University, Japan, and as an Early Career Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Sustainable Cities and Society – Elsevier. With diverse background in architectural engineering, construction management, and urban planning, she focuses on engineering efficient and decarbonized civil systems. She currently dedicates herself to integrating low-carbon strategies across buildings and infrastructure networks, as well as utilizing generative AI approaches in research and education. As an educator, she is committed to fostering students’ professional and ethical awareness, as well as a lifelong learning attitude. At Purdue, she teaches a variety of courses, including Computational Design Data and Interoperability, Building Information Management (BIM), Sustainability in Design, Construction, and Development, Building Energy Modeling, and Construction Management.