Background

The Construction and Project Management Group is increasingly playing a central role in expanding research activities at OISD and the Department of Real Estate and Construction. The group brings together an international team of experts in different fields of construction. A primary focus is on application of intelligent knowledge-based decision support and knowledge creation and diffusion techniques in the industry.

We are also developing a major new area of work in sustainable construction and green jobs creation. The group undertakes both fundamental and applied research that provides the construction industry and policy makers with innovative decision making tools and solutions for planning, procuring and delivering construction projects and services that maximise economic, social and environmental benefits to society.

Research expertise

The areas of current interest include:

• Climate change and sustainable construction
• Carbon foot printing and waste management
• Collaborative planning and supply network management
• Procurement, Project and Process management
• Whole-life cost and value modelling
• Risk analysis and management
• Lean construction and applied operations research
• Sustainable building maintenance
• Scaffold and pallet rack structures

• Emerging technologies and innovations for sustainable buildings
• Social networks and innovation diffusion
• Information and knowledge management
• Advanced ICT and applied artificial intelligence
• Knowledge-based decision support systems
• Building Information Modelling (BIM)
• Virtual prototyping

Recent/Current research activity

• 2010-2012 Integrated Carbon, Waste and Cost Modelling for Design of Low Impact Buildings (TSB/EPSRC funded) (https://sites.google.com/site/ lowimpactbuildingsproject/)
• 2008 Green Jobs creation through sustainable refurbishment in the developing countries, (International Labour Organisation)
• 2005-2006 Knowledge creation capability and absorptive capacity of integrated project teams in the construction industry (EPSRC)
• 2004-2005 Analysis and design of scaffold structures (Interserv UK Ltd and NASC)

Recent Research Publications:

• Ren, Z., Anumba, C.J., and Tah, J (2010 - Forthcoming) RFID Faciliated Construction Materials Management (RFID-CMM) – A Case Study of Water Supply Projects, Advanced Engineering Informatics.
• Keivani, R, Tah, J, Kurul, E, Abanda, H (2010) Green jobs creation through sustainable refurbishment in the developing countries, International Labour Organisation, Working Paper No. 275, Geneva.
• Sahin Guchan, N., and Kurul, E. (2009) A history of the development of conservation measures in Turkey: from the mid 19th century until 2004, METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture, 26 (2), p. 1-18.
• Wood, B.R. (2009) Building Maintenance, Wiley-Blackwell, New York and Oxford.
• Ng A L Y, Beale R G and Godley M H R. (2009) "Methods of restraining progressive collapse in rack structures", available online in Engineering Structures, doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2009.02.029.
• F. Cheung, M. Wong and M. Skitmore (2008) A study of clients' and estimators' tolerance towards estimating errors, Construction Management and Economics, 26(4), p. 349-362.
• Tah, J.H.M. (2008). Future Agent-Driven Virtual Prototyping Environments in Construction (Chapter 15) in Virtual Futures for Design, Construction & Procurement, Edited by: Peter Brandon and Tuba Kocatürk, Blackwell Science.
• Dikmen, I, Birgonul M.T., Anac, C., Tah J.H.M., Aouad, G. "Learning from Risks: A Tool for Post-Project Risk Assessment", Automation in Construction, vol. 18, no. 1, 2008, pp42-50.
• Godley, M.H.R and Beale, R.G. (2008) Investigation of the effects of looseness of bracing components in the cross-aisle direction on the ultimate load-carrying capacity of pallet rack frames, Thin-walled Structures, 46 (7-9), 848-854.

External links

• Internationally, we have established research and training links with several leading universities across the globe including Eastern Europe, Japan, China and Brazil (for example, Melbourne University, Georgia State University, Osaka University). We are also actively involved with international organisations including private sector working group of UN-Habitat, management board of European Real Estate Society (ERES), and the FIG.
• Nationally, we have ongoing research links with other UK universities (for example, University of Oxford, Cambridge University, Salford University, and UCL), professional institutes and organisations (CIOB, BRE, IPF, CORENET and RICS) and property and construction firms and consultancies, (Berkeley Homes, King Sturge)
• Our staff are also on the management board of European Real Estate Society (ERES) and the FIG.

Training opportunities

• PhD studies in Construction and Project Management
• MSc degree in Project Management
• BSc degree in Construction Management
• Foundation degree in Built Environment
• CPD and international training programmes