Che Maznah Mat Isa

• PhD in Civil Engineering
• Professor at MARA University of Technology

Recent trends indicate a significant rise in artificial intelligence (AI) usage in engineering education, highlighting the need for alignment with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) and 21st-century skills. Traditional assessment methods often fail to promote higher-order thinking skills needed to solve complex real-world problems. This paper...

The application of VM has played a significant role in improving project outcomes in the Malaysian construction industry (MCI). Despite clear evidence of the benefits of VM, this discipline has significant setbacks in its application because of the theory–practice gap. Therefore, this study identifies the PM activities that can be integrated into t...

The twelfth Malaysia Plan (12th MP) outlined by the Malaysian government for 2021–2025 emphasizes the significance of digitalization, specifically through the implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the construction industry. Despite BIM’s introduction in 2007 and the government’s target of achieving an 80% implementation rate by 2...

Firms often ask several questions before entering the international market, ranging from “Where are the markets with potential?” to “What are the factors that influence the firm’s decision in choosing the location?”. It is important for researchers to continue investigating and developing strategies to address this issue. In this regard, models are...

Delays are a common occurrence in the construction industry across the globe. The purpose of this study was to investigate the primary causes of construction delays and examine methods for minimizing delays in public projects in Kota Kinabalu using the RII method. Based on a review of secondary data, four categories were identified as contributing...

Disparities between rural and urban areas continue to face the dilemma of spatial inequality in social and economic development. Sustainable development plays a major role in rural areas since it can improve their quality of life through socio-economic development whilst preserving the environment. This study is conducted to explore the knowledge a...

Value Management (VM) is a structured approach to maximising a project’s value by analysing its functions, materials, and costs to meet objectives at the lowest cost without compromising quality, performance, or functionality. In Malaysia’s construction industry, VM has significantly enhanced project outcomes. However, VM faces challenges despite i...

Assessment plays an essential role in learning and must be designed to measure the student's learning and align with the intended learning outcomes. Prior to the pandemic, most of the assessments were performed face-to-face. However, during the pandemic, the assessment could not be conducted as face-to-face activities, which caused challenges to th...

The urgency to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions (‘carbon emissions’) has gained significant societal attention as the consequences of climate change continue to unfold. There is a notable scarcity of studies conducted on carbon emissions for construction operations. Hence, the aim is to identify the key influence factor of carbon emissions to deve...

The Awakening to Languages (ATL) approach has seen positive outcomes in foreign language classes. However, research on the approach in the Malaysian context is scarce, especially among university students. Hence, this study analyses the approach’s effectiveness after it has been implemented, through descriptive analysis, specifically regarding the...

Implementing Building Information Modelling (BIM) into part of the design process is beneficial for civil and structural (C&S) engineering consultants involved in construction projects to ensure the project completion is within the stipulated time, cost, and quality of product delivery. However, there is still a lack of a systematic BIM process in...

Infrastructure development is critical to the country’s economic integration goal, and sustainable infrastructure is a vital enabler of economic, social, and environmental development. Several assessment frameworks and tools have emerged in response to growing concerns about sustainability. Despite this, a comprehensive study has yet to examine the...

Green highway differs from conventional due to their concept, fundamentals, characteristics, technologies, and innovations. Although the Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA) has been introducing guidelines for green highways, the implementation in Malaysia is still far behind because of the challenges faced by the highway concessions in complementing...

The construction industry employs workers of all levels and roles, from professionals to skilled and unskilled labourers. Subcontracting is increasingly being used in the construction industry to transfer risk from the main contractor to the subcontractor, and it will have a positive impact on specialisation in construction work. However, failure i...

Value management (VM) is a discipline in ensuring that the projects planned to be executed and implemented can meet the project's objectives, especially against cost, schedule, and quality. Although VM has been around for decades, the theory–practice gap has constrained the successful implementation of value management, especially in the technique...

There is a significant demand in curbing the generation of carbon emissions globally due to the detrimental effects of climate change all over the world. The construction industry was among the largest contributors to carbon emissions. However, the previous efforts of reducing carbon emissions were only focused on quantifying embodied carbon from b...

“Land reclamation” is defined as creating new land from the sea, lake, or riverbed. Land reclamation occurs to construct residential areas, commercial or industrial estates, major roads, or other public purposes. In the context of road and highway construction, the effects of land reclamation have always been overlooked. Therefore, in this research...

Cost overruns are typical in infrastructure projects all around the world. However, previous studies have shown a lack of understanding of the term complexity in the construction industry, specifically regarding infrastructure projects. This paper is part of the research project, which aims to identify the most significant complexity factors contri...

Malaysian construction firms were found to have an in-depth grasp of the international market experience and cross-border networks. In line with the Construction 4.0 Strategic Plan (2021–2025), previous research indicates insufficient studies focused on developing a systematic assessment to measure entry timing decisions (ETD). This flaw was discov...

Design Thinking (DT) is a robust framework to identify and solve various human problems creatively. It offers a systematic solution to train engineering students in critical and creative thinking to solve complex engineering problems. The DT method is integrated within the Engineers in Society (EIS) course to develop problem-solving skillset among...

Complex problem solving is identified as a top skill required to thrive in the 4th Industrial Revolution, and it is emphasized in the Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) Standard 12 Graduate Attributes. However, in many cases, engineering programmes lack a clear understanding of the requirements of complex engineering problems, hindering the st...

Despite government efforts and enforcement, alarming statistics in road crashes with high fatality rates in mountainous roadways are a significant concern to the authorities and community. This research has aimed to produce road crash profiling of Cameron Highlands based on secondary data using Tableau software. Results show that 66 cases involving...

Nowadays, the construction industry has negatively affected the local environment and community through the noise, air, water, and land pollution. The implementation of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) has been recognized as a green approach in reducing environmental issues in the construction industry. However, GSCM had no significant effect o...

This study examined the entrepreneurial knowledge and skills of engineering graduates and the entrepreneurial mindset of engineers. It also examined how entrepreneurial knowledge and skills affect the mindset of the entrepreneurial engineer. The study population consists of twenty-five Jordanian public and private universities that offer engineerin...

A recent study has focused on environmental challenges due to the construction industry’s elevated energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A more effective low-carbon development implementation relies on proper emissions management throughout the construction industry. The purpose of this research is to investigate current industry p...

The integration of Prevention through Design (PtD) concept into the engineering education has evolved progressively in response to accreditation requirements. Despite the previous studies focusing on the integration of PtD principles into the curriculum, practical knowledge integration through effective teaching and learning mechanism remains elusi...

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a true challenge to students and educators in the teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) of the psychomotor domain integral in laboratory experiment and design work. The pandemic has opened venues for open distance learning (ODL) with a completely new outlook for educators. The objective of this paper is to...

Service-Learning Malaysia-University for Society (SULAM) has served as a learning experience in Malaysia for the past few years, merging theories and practices to expose students to real-world community problems. SULAM was developed as a cutting-edge teaching and learning technique in Malaysia's higher education institutions (HEIs). Alternative ass...

Many Malaysian construction companies are looking for opportunities to generate revenues through international projects. However, not many of the previous studies examined the companies’ strengths related to entry mode decision to sustain in international markets. It is important for construction companies to make the right decision in selecting th...

Sustainable housing design, materials and energy efficiency has been a focus of Malaysian Governments in recent years. Such a focus should improve the quality of the built environment, create better places for people to live and at the same time, improve and protect the environment. However, there are issues pertaining customers’ interest on the be...

Poor project performance has been imperative to both private and public construction stakeholders to ensure organizational sustainability. Most previous studies generally focused on project delays, cost overruns, and lack of quality during the construction phase, but still lacking literature on infrastructure project performance during the post-con...

The successful planning and implementation of poverty alleviation projects are crucial for establishing optimum benefits to its intended target groups in line with the Sustainable Development Goals charted by the United Nations. This chapter focuses on exploring the project governance practices in poverty alleviation projects from public officials’...

Rural development projects are essential as a catalyst for balanced development between urban and rural areas as well as tools for enhancing the living standard of rural poor. This study focuses on the identification of factors that influence the governance practices in a rural road project in Malaysia. A single case study was conducted from the pe...

Rural public infrastructure projects are essential as a catalyst for balanced development between urban and rural as well as tools for enhancing the living standard of rural poor. This study focuses on the identification of factors that influence the governance practices in a rural road project in Malaysia. A single case study was conducted from th...

The Engineering Accreditation Council Standard 2020 requires the stipulated 12 programme outcomes that address complex engineering problems (CEP) and complex engineering activities (CEA) to be incorporated in the engineering programmes. However, the implementation of outcome-based education with regards to CEP and CEA is still in the infancy stage....

Programme outcomes (POs) are the attributes that reflect the student skills expected to be acquired upon graduation. The Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) under Board of Engineers Malaysia requires 12 POs with complex engineering problems (CEP) and knowledge profiles to be incorporated in engineering programmes. Despite considerable research...

Poverty alleviation projects are implemented as part of the national development and prosperity agenda. This study aimed to gain an understanding of the factors that contribute to the project governance practices in poverty alleviation efforts for the rural poor in Malaysia, which will lead to better project delivery and the successful outcome of t...

The development of PtD-Edu Model is based on the conceptual framework of Prevention through Design (PtD) Educational Framework for Engineering Curriculum (EFEC). The system is a blueprint for designing an engineering curriculum based on the concept of Outcome Based Education (OBE) aligned with requirements as in the guidelines of Engineering Accred...

Sustainable Townships and Homes (STSH) have become a trend in a number of countries throughout the world. However, being a developing country, Malaysia faces significant challenges in implementing the STSH idea. One of the challenges would be public support for sustainable development for new townships. Previous research has mostly focused on the f...

Despite the benefits, globalisation and liberalisation impose challenges to local contractors. Main problem statement: The local contractors’ lack of competitive advantages provides opportunities to their competitors, limiting chances to secure local projects. This study aims to appraise local contractors’ competitiveness with the objective to asse...

The development of green buildings has been able to draw considerable interest from society to achieve sustainable solutions. However, there is limited understanding of how green buildings affect behavioural change of industry towards green practices in developing countries such as Malaysia. As part of an intervention strategy to improve green prac...

Malaysian construction firms have increasingly gained investment opportunities in foreign countries pushed by the competitive and saturated domestic market. However, the entry location decision involves complex factors to be considered by these firms prior to their international operations. Currently, based on a secondary data obtained from the Con...

In Malaysia, one of the main challenges of the Internationalisation Thrust under Construction Industry Master Plan (CITP) 2016-2020 is an increasingly competitive local market, especially with the presence of foreign players as a result of globalisation and liberalisation. Apart from specialised and highly technical projects, foreign players are al...

A substantial amount of practice is required throughout an engineering programme to develop the psychomotor skill for a practice-oriented industry and fulfil the hands-on component of the accreditation requirements. This study aims to analyse the engineering students" psychomotor skill development based on psychomotor programme outcome (PO) attainm...

Risk allocation (RA) is one of the important elements in risk management (RM) considered by construction project practitioners such as client, consultant and contractor to manage the risks in order to enhance organizational performance and to create value for their shareholders. This paper presents the allocation of risk factors that affect project...

Many construction projects report poor performance due to various complexity factors. The literature reviews have shown current or lack of understanding of the term complexity in the construction industry especially with regards to infrastructure projects. The purpose of this paper is to identify the complexity factors affecting the quality perform...

Green highway is a management concept of an expressway project during the planning, design and construction stages. This concept combines transportation and ecological sustainability which is the backbone of the transportation system, ecosystem, municipal well-being and town development. The implementation of green highway in an expressway design i...

An Integrated Society Project (ISP) was designed as an alternative assessment to replace the final examination for Engineers-in-Society course during Covid19 pandemic. Four-hundred students attended this course during February-July 2020 semester and facilitated by three lecturers. An innovative assessment tool was designed to assess the intended co...

Objectives of this project are: 1) to demonstrate the intra-and inter personal and professional (IIP) skill progression and attainment of civil engineering students. 2) to observe the attainment of cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills under Bloom’s domains through an enhancement of the current system (myCOPO). 3) To fulfils Engineering Acc...

The urban public housing project, especially for low-income people, is essential to cater to the increasing urbanisation rate in Malaysia. This study aimed to gain an understanding of the project governance practices in urban public housing projects in Malaysia, which will lead to better project delivery and the successful outcome of the projects....

Poor construction project performance is a fundamental issue for both private and public stakeholders. Previous studies highlighted on poor project performance in terms of delay, cost overruns and poor quality for construction projects in general, but lack of literature that highlights particularly on infrastructure project performance. While most...

The strategy in making firms that are entering new foreign markets expand their businesses in terms of services, products, technology, human and other resources has been widely studied. However, a review of the literature suggests that a comprehensive model with existing theories to clearly guide the firms in adopting effective market entry decisio...

Ineffective construction waste management has become a serious problem that impacted significantly to environmental pollutions especially in a developing country like Malaysia. Despite the enactment of law by the government, Malaysia is still far behind as compared to other countries like Denmark and Hong Kong in terms of implementation of recyclin...

The increase of global carbon emissions has become an important global issue worldwide including, Malaysia. The construction industry is a large contributor to global emissions despite its efforts of becoming more aligned with sustainability practices. Malaysia has announced a commitment to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions by delineating the...

A risk management course offers a systematic solution to train engineering student's critical and creative thinking in identifying, assessing and controlling project risks to minimize the impact on both project and organization. Most of the past literature focused on the importance of risk management implementation in the construction industry, but...

Purpose: The competitive and saturated construction industry has led many domestic firms to expand their businesses in foreign markets. In the early stage of strategic planning, construction firms use SWOT analysis by identifying their strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) attribute prior to their decision to expand internationally. Thu...

Psychomotor domain involves physical movement, coordination and applied motor-skill areas, where substantial practices are needed in order to develop these skills overtime. Assessment of psychomotor domain can be carried out in aspects of speed, precision, distance, procedures. The attainment for program outcomes under psychomotor domain can be mea...

Objectives of this project are to demonstrate the intra-and inter personal and professional (IIP) skill progression and attainment of civil engineering students. to observe the attainment of cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills under Bloom’s domains through an enhancement of the current system (myCOPO). To fulfils Engineering Accreditation...

Affective domain in learning consists of feeling, emotion and attitude which has received less attention in engineering education research as compared to cognitive domain. Assessment on affective domain is commonly associated with communication and teamwork elements. The attainment for program outcomes (PO) under affective domain can be measured di...

Design thinking (DT) is a robust framework for creatively identifying and solving various human problems. It offers a systematic solution to train engineering student"s critical and creative thinking to solve complex engineering problems. The DT method can be integrated with the conceive-design-implement-operate (CDIO) framework to develop personal...

Engineers-to-be are expected to have acquired both intra-personal and inter-personal (IIP) skills, upon graduation to prepare them to be industry-ready with 21 st Century Skills.  It has been a greater challenge for Higher Education Institutions in fulfilling industry's expectation of the graduates, particularly in the era of Industrial Revolution...

Construction industry plays a vital role in the economic sector at both domestic and international levels. The international construction operations keep growing, and many construction firms are found continuously seeking opportunities in the new markets. However, in recent years, domestic prospects have not been good due to many unknown factors. I...

The paper aims to provide a holistic approach to address how construction firms make decisions covering all three domains (location, timing and mode) across country, market, firm and project factors within the Ownership, Locational and Internalisation plus Specialty (OLI+S) paradigm. Questionnaires were administered to 62 project managers based on...

Construction industry plays a vital role in the economic sector at both domestic and international levels. The international construction operations keep growing and many construction firms are found continuously seeking opportunities in the new markets. However, in recent years, domestic prospects have not been good due to many unknown factors. In...

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a revolutionarily technology and coordinated process to create an intelligent and information-rich 3D representation of the projects for stakeholders to cost-effectively design, construct, operate and manage construction projects. Effective implementation of BIM throughout the life cycle of construction proje...

Rapid growth in construction activities in Kuala Lumpur resulted in increasing of construction waste problems. Construction waste gives a negative impact to the environment, cost, time, productivity and social of the country. This paper studies the challenges of construction waste management faced by the contractors undertake projects in Kuala Lump...

Construction projects are difficult to be built exactly as stipulated in the original contract or construction drawings. Most of this agreement requires As-Built Drawings (ABD which represent construction modifications. Despite of the importance of ABDs, producing accurate and timely ABDs have been persistent problem in the construction industry in...

Neglecting to properly choose the right combination of entry mode and entry timing strategies can lead to poor performance in international business ventures. The paper focuses on the linking of entry timing (ET) and entry mode (EM) decisions and the factors influencing both decisions. By consolidating the findings for both entry decisions, an ETEM...

Market expansion into international markets has been increasingly important for Malaysian construction firms. Thus, firms must adopt effective strategies to face various challenges in unfamiliar environments. Entry location (EL) consideration is the first and most critical business strategy for firms to determine "where the markets are", in order t...

The international market expansion process involves a combination of many strategic entry decisions. Most previous studies have dealt with entry location, entry timing and entry mode (ELETEM) decisions in an isolated way by considering one dimension or a combination of dimensions in particular. Although there have been var- ious models relating t...

Competitive positioning and sustaining the gained international operations are difficult challenges that international construction firms commonly face. The aim of this study is to assess the level of Malaysian contractors’ sustained international operations (CSIO). The measurement scales for the CSIO were developed from secondary data provided by...

Market entry timing decision is among the most critical strategies made by a firm to expand internationally. In a dynamic and competitive international environment, the entry timing decision involves the need to balance the early entry risks and the problems in losing opportunities as a result of late entry. This study proposes a theoretical framew...

This paper proposes a model for entry location (EL) and entry timing (ET) decisions to guide construction firms in accessing targeted international markets. Neglecting to properly choose the right combination of the entry location and entry timing (ELET) decisions can lead to poor performance of the firms' international ventures. The sampling frame...

International market expansion is inevitable in a borderless and increasingly globalized world. It involves a process where firms move from operating in their domestic domain to international markets. Three main strategic decisions of firms that plan to engage in the international trades are the entry location (EL), entry timing (ET) and entry mode...

Domestic firms have increasingly turned to foreign countries in gaining investment opportunities brought by globalization. However, to sustain the gained international operations is a challenge for construction firms. The aim of this preliminary study is to assess the level of Malaysian construction firms' sustained international operations (CSIO)....

International market entry strategies involve three major decisions: which market to enter (entry location), when to enter the selected location (entry timing) and how to enter (entry mode). Entry modes and factors influencing the entry mode choices have been the subjects of interest in international market strategic management research but is stil...