Ibukun Awolusi

The University of Texas at San Antonio | UTSA

Workers in the U.S. steel manufacturing industry encounter many hazardous situations and conditions which result from the unique characteristics of the occupation. The extent to which safety procedures and regulations are followed within an organization is a function of the safety program and existing safety culture of the establishment. A typical...

The construction work environment remains one of the most hazardous worldwide. As a result of dangerous working environments, construction workers often face safety and health risks throughout the construction process. However, an emphasis on construction safety has increased mainly in the aspect of safety performance, and efforts are required to n...

IN BRIEF •One common hazard in manufacturing environments is struck-by events between forklifts and pedestrian workers. •This article reviews research conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of magnetic field proximity-sensing technology deployed in an active indoor manufacturing environment. •The technology was used to assess multiple variables a...

The construction process is considered a very risky endeavor because of the high frequency of work-related injuries and fatalities. The collection and analysis of safety data is an important element in measurement and improvement strategy development. The adoption of wearable technology has the potential for a result-oriented data collection and an...

In hot and humid work environments, construction workers can experience heat stress and heat-related illnesses (HRIs). While several studies have investigated engineering and administrative control methods to prevent certain heat stress risk factors, a comprehensive understanding of all existing risk factors and their corresponding control strategi...

Traditional construction safety monitoring, primarily based on manual observation, is increasingly challenging due to site complexity, human error, and the time-consuming nature of inspections. Wearable Internet of Things (WIoT) devices offer potential solutions by enabling real-time monitoring of workers’ health, environment, and location, enhanci...

Landing on unprepared lunar surfaces can excavate tons of regolith, send high-velocity lunar regolith particles kilometers from the landing site, and inject particles into lunar orbit. Therefore, lunar launch and landing pads (LLPs) are needed to protect surface and orbital assets from debris damage and to provide solid, impervious surfaces for mul...

The complex nature of the steel manufacturing environment, characterized by different types of hazards from materials and large machinery, makes the need for objective and automated monitoring very critical to replace the traditional methods, which are manual and subjective. This study explores the feasibility of implementing computer vision for sa...

The adoption of collaborative robots in construction is one major step toward achieving intelligent and automated construction to improve productivity and safety. Many construction tasks require physical human-robot collaboration (HRC), where workers and robots collaborate side-by-side in a common workspace. Such close-distance interactions may cau...

Robotic construction and 3D printing are revolutionizing the construction industry by offering numerous advantages over traditional building methods. Automated construction with robotics is faster, more efficient, and more precise, resulting in cost savings and shorter project timelines. Moreover, the use of robots reduces the reliance on manual la...

Recent advances in robotics and artificial intelligence have influenced the broader adoption of human-robot collaboration (HRC) in industries such as manufacturing and healthcare, but the same cannot be said about construction due to the dynamic nature of the work environment. To facilitate informed decision-making in HRC adoption, there is a need...

The reliance on networked technologies in construction safety and health management is expected to increase; however, studies have reported potential resistance to the broad implementation of smart technologies within structured construction safety management systems (SMS). This study examines the challenges and drivers impacting the implementation...

Construction is a highly hazardous industry typified by several complex features in dynamic work environments that have the possibility of causing harm or ill health to construction workers. The constant monitoring of workers’ unsafe behaviors and work conditions is considered not only a proactive but also an active method of removing safety and he...

The active nature of the steel manufacturing plants characterized by the multifaceted assembly and interaction of humans, heavy equipment/machinery, and materials pose potential safety hazards in the work environments. Although the steel industry has been developing and applying different safety management measures to prevent injuries, the implemen...

Construction workers sustain a large number of work-related injuries. These injuries sometimes result in irreversible damage, life-long disability, and even the loss of life. Therefore, strategic initiatives to reduce work-related injuries are necessary. To help achieve this goal, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently in...

Technology use in the construction industry fosters improvements in schedule, safety, cost, productivity, and quality. In this domain, the construction technologies adoption highly depends on stakeholders, who may exhibit some resistance to operational use. This underscores the importance of determining technology integration success using effectiv...

Due to the dynamic and complex nature of construction sites, the conventional method of construction safety monitoring which relies mainly on manual observation by inspectors is highly susceptible to human errors, is time-consuming, and is also becoming increasingly difficult to identify all incidents. Wearable Internet of Things (WIoT) in the cons...

Building roof inspections must be performed regularly to ensure repairs and replacements are done promptly. These inspections get overlooked on sloped roofs due to the inefficiency of manual inspections and the difficulty of accessing sloped roofs. Walking a roof to inspect each tile is time-consuming, and as the roof slope increases, this difficul...

With the gradual congestion of underground utility pipelines, the traditional open-cut method of installation is becoming problematic and almost infeasible in most conditions, increasing the need for the adoption of horizontal directional drilling (HDD) as a preferred method of installation of underground utility infrastructure. HDD is arguably one...

The hazardous nature of the construction environment and current incident statistics indicate a pressing need for safety performance improvement. One potential approach is the strategic analysis of leading indicators for measuring safety performance as opposed to using only lagging indicators, which has protractedly been the norm. This study presen...

Construction safety education will continue to attract the interests of construction educators, researchers, and industry professionals due to its immense influence on accident reduction and prevention. A well-educated workforce with a thorough understanding of safety requirements and procedures is needed to develop and apply effective safety and h...

Modular building is a fast-growing construction method, mainly due to its ability to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to construct a building and produce higher-quality buildings at a more consistent rate. However, while modular construction is relatively safer than traditional construction methods, workers are still exposed to hazard...

In addressing the goal for sustainability in the construction industry, the very materials used for construction and the methods utilized to implement said materials must be analyzed. Specifically, some traditional residential construction materials consist of wood, steel, and concrete. Because these materials vary in their levels of sustainability...

Energy harvesting from transportation infrastructures has garnered more attention over the past few years. Owning to the severe climate change and depletion of non-renewable resources, it has become pertinent to devise and implement sustainable energy harvesting methods. One of the most energy abundant yet least utilized areas to harvest energy are...

COVID-19 has significantly impacted the construction industry when it comes to the safety of workers. While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has come up with some requirements for improving workplace safety for COVID, no study has been done on its effects on construction companies. The guide provided by OSHA talks about topi...

E-procurement has been a part of several industries for more than three decades now. Although the construction industry is commendable for its wonders, there are few studies about the current applications of E-procurement in construction. The main objective of this research is to survey the construction companies to collect the current practices of...

Construction workers are often faced with several safety and health risks due to their constant exposure to extreme weather elements and hazardous materials in form of chemicals, gases, particulate matter (PM), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Continuous automated sensing of these inclement environmental conditions and hazardous materials for...

Building technology can promote environmental sustainability and is a critical component of energy conservation. Well-functioning indoor microclimates do not only affect buildings, however—occupant health must also be considered. Recent research has demonstrated that sustainability and occupant health go hand-in-hand when designing or retrofitting...

The present study investigates the success factors (SFs) for implementing wearable sensing devices (WSDs) for safety and health monitoring within the construction industry. A questionnaire survey was designed and administered to stakeholders in the Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry in the United States. A total of 416 vali...

Machine Learning (ML) has made significant progress in several fields, and materials science is no exception. ML models are popular in the materials science community, especially for predicting the compressive behavior of high-performance concrete. However, little attention has been given to enhancing the predictive capabilities and explainability...

The specialty electrical and mechanical contracting sectors provide crucial services and perform functions that are vital to the products delivered by the construction industry. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the causes of fatal and nonfatal injuries in these specialty construction sectors over time as well as their effects on the...

Purpose This study aims to examine relationships between several key technology acceptance variables that predict workers’ wearable sensing devices (WSDs) acceptance in the construction industry by using technology acceptance model, theory of planned behavior and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model. The study proposes a...

Wearable sensing devices (WSDs) are increasingly helping workers stay safe and healthy in several industries. However, workers, especially in the construction industry, have shown some aversion towards the use of WSDs due to their ability to capture specific information that may be considered personal and private. However, this revered information...

Identification of hazards is the first step in accidents prevention. As hazards can be caused by different energy sources, the awareness of all the energy sources is key to identifying potential hazards and creating a safe environment. Accidents result from the interaction of energy, equipment, or materials, and one or more people, and the potentia...

Due to the hazardous nature of the construction environment, the rate of fatalities in the construction industry has continued to increase and has been a source of concern for stakeholders. Most of the existing data collection and analysis approaches have not yielded the desired results because they are largely manual in nature and are prone to err...

Research has demonstrated that a career in construction is neither sought after nor considered lucrative by young students and that there is little awareness about the preparation and education required to pursue a career in construction. This study provides insight from high school students’ perspective of who a construction manager is. In additio...

Safety is considered a top priority due to its significance in safeguarding human lives and properties, especially in high-risk industrial sectors such as aviation, oil and gas, construction, transportation, steel manufacturing, and mining industries. These industries are plagued by workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities because of the dange...

Pipelines remain the primary means of transporting and delivering petroleum products, natural gas, liquid hydrocarbons, and water to consumers. Gas pipeline leaks which are the main threat to the reliability of the pipeline network can cause major incidents and environmental disasters resulting in both human injuries and financial losses. As techno...

The objective of this article was to investigate the impact of Wearable Sensing Devices (WSDs) as a control measure by showing how WSDs features could have prevented fatalities using archival data. Also, the study investigated the perception of top management towards the use of WSDs. Results from the study suggest that 29% - 34% of fatalities inves...

In construction, high fatality rate remains a major concern of both practitioners and researchers. Wearable Sensing Devices (WSDs), a sub-system of Internet of Things (IoTs), has the potential to improve safety performance. Studies suggest that safety management systems (SMS) can improve safety performance also. However, the interconnectedness betw...

The high frequency of work-related injuries and fatalities experienced on construction sites makes the construction process a very hazardous endeavor. The collection and analysis of safety data is an important element in measurement and improvement strategy development. Wearable sensing devices (WSDs) and the internet of things (IoT) have been iden...

In recent times, construction operations have reported enhanced performance as a result of utilizing reality capture technologies, robotics, and the Internet of things (IoT). However, recent studies indicate that these technologies could struggle to diffuse across the construction industry at an acceptable rate. One reason for the predicted stagnat...

Due to the hazardous nature of the construction environment, the construction industry experiences one of the highest rates of occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities when compared with other industries. Incidents statistics in the construction industry obviously show an immediate need to reduce the prevalence of these severe and costly oc...

Highway construction work zones are hazardous environments characterized by a dynamic and limited workspace. A host of interactions between workers, passing commuter vehicles, and moving construction equipment occurs in highway work zones, fostering dangerous situations that can result in injury or death. Active strategies, such as the deployment o...

The U.S. construction industry continues to be plagued by workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. Many construction companies choose to invest more in safety (discretionary safety funding) than required by safety regulatory agencies. The objective of this research is to explore the correlation between a construction company’s discretionary s...

Construction worker safety is a continuous source of concern in most developing countries. Available literature indicates that Nigeria's built industry has struggled to promote innovation in construction practices. Past studies indicate that the level of innovation correlates to construction performance. Currently, no prior study has looked into th...

The construction industry continues to rank as one of the most hazardous work environments. As a result, construction safety remains a critical concern for both practitioners and researchers. Several construction industry members and government agencies have identified a lack in the number of safety personnel within the construction industry. Also,...

The construction industry experiences a disproportionately high number of injuries and fatalities among the total U.S. employed workforce. Although correlations have been identified between physiological information, worker fatigue, and safety, minimal research efforts have collected and analyzed construction-worker physiological metrics. The objec...

Construction sites are characterized by rugged outdoor environments, changing site conditions, and dynamic interactions between resources including personnel, equipment, and materials. These harsh environmental conditions and working situations have a unique impact on construction equipment operator’s physiological information. The primary objectiv...

IN BRIEF •The construction industry continues to rank as one of the most hazardous work environments, experiencing a high number of workplace injuries and fatalities. •Safety performance improvement is needed to achieve zero injuries, illnesses and fatalities on construction sites. One systematic method of achieving this improvement is through the...

The construction industry continues to be among the leading industries for workplace fatalities in the U.S. After experiencing 824 fatal injuries in 2013, the construction industry continues to rank as one of the most dangerous work environments when compared to other private industrial sectors in the U.S. Conditions of construction sites often pro...

Sandcrete blocks have been in use in many parts of the world for a very long time. The prominence of sandcrete blocks as part of the local building materials that make up the wall units in a building or any construction work cannot be underestimated because houses are mostly built of blocks. This paper examines the quality of machine-vibrated hollo...

Sandcrete blocks have been in use throughout Nigeria and in many parts of the world for a very long time. The prominence of sandcrete blocks as part of the local building materials that make up the wall units in a building or any construction work cannot be underestimated because houses are mostly built of blocks. This paper adopts an experimental...