Richard Burt

Auburn University | AU · McWhorter School of Building Science

Virtual Reality (VR) technology has become readily available and affordable through different devices from desktop to head-mounted displays. A potential use case for VR is to create virtual tours (VTs) of tourist destinations. The VT becomes: a way to reach a wider audience, a source of knowledge that extends information gained during the visit, an...

As the construction industry continues to grow, there is an increased demand for recruiting students from construction management programs. Many companies implement effective recruiting strategies and company branding at career fair events. However, there is no definitive research that objectively identifies the characteristics a company portrays a...

Invited presenter at the “Digitals Futures? Built Environment 4.0, Innovation in Built Environment Education Conference” at University of Salford, Media City Campus, United Kingdom. Presented on 360° photography and virtual reality for the construction curriculum.

Identifying direct assessments appropriate to the requirements for the American Council of Construction Education (ACCE) has become a topic of increased interest among construction educators. The Associate Constructor exam is one such direct assessment under consideration. Although the AC exam has been validated as a mechanism for the certification...

A joint geophysical and archaeological field school was conducted near the third line action at the battle of Guilford Courthouse, located at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, Greensboro NC. The location of the third line is under debate by historians and archaeologists. A ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey revealed a linear featur...

The storming of the medium coastal battery of Pointe du Hoc by elements of the 2nd Ranger Battalion under the command of James Earl Rudder is considered one of the most daring missions of D-Day. Most of the published literature on the subject correctly focuses on the heroism of the Rangers in storming and capturing a heavily defended coastal fortre...

The integration of best industry practices into construction curricula can be used to advance the knowledge base of construction graduates and better prepare them to effectively respond to industry challenges. Arguably, construction programs in North American colleges and universities are rather slow in the adoption of industry best practices. This...

The Second World War brought levels of destruction to cities previously thought inconceivable. The bombing missions aimed at cities in the United Kingdom sought not only to destroy industrial targets essential for the war effort but also the homes of workers. Cities such as London and Coventry suffered huge amounts of damage to dwellings. In the Lo...

The Construction Industry Institute (CII) has a long line of research products that have been successfully implemented by industry organizations. When properly implemented, such products are found to be lead to enhanced project delivery processes. However, there is a perception that colleges and universities have been rather slow in the utilization...

The D-Day battlefield at Pointe du Hoc is one of the best preserved battlefields of the Second World War. Many of the buildings and structures remain in a semi-ruinous state and provide tangible evidence of the damage inflicted by pre-invasion aerial bombardment and naval shelling. However the most easily identifiable effects of the bombing and she...

From September 7, 1940, when the first force of German bombers attacked the docks and the East End, until March 27, 1945 when the last V2 rocket landed in Stepney, London was an area of conflict; effectively a battlefield. Despite the fact that the majority of buildings in the city suffered damage that ranged from broken windows to complete obliter...

Construction Education all over the world is constantly evolving to adapt to the changing demands of the construction educator's stakeholders; society, industry and students. The construction programs at Texas A&M University and Colorado State University are two of the more mature programs in the United States and can trace their origins back to th...

The D-Day invasion site at Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, France is an important WWII battlefield and cultural resource but is at risk from chalk cliff collapse. The American Battle Monuments Commission seeks to evaluate the geohazard to the observation post and other cliff-side buildings. Geophysical multi-electrode resistivity profiling is used to stud...

This research profiles, measures and ranks Associate Schools of Construction (ASC) publications as one way to create a system that would affect a C-school top-ranking solution. Past attempts highlight a peer-group evaluation process that is fraught with conflict between academic construction programs. This new methodology introduces a categorical r...

Documentation of historic buildings and battlefield sites is often understood as mapping and seen as an end in itself, the products of which are 2D drawings. While this is certainly one goal for the involvement of the Historical Resources Imaging Lab at Pointe du Hoc it would be misleading to let it rest there. Documentation of existing physical co...

A near-surface geophysical survey at the D-Day invasion site atop the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, France was carried out using ground-penetrating radar, electromagnetic induction, and magnetic gradiometry equipment. The subsurface targets of investigation are predominantly buried concrete and steel structures and earthworks associated with t...

The purpose of this paper is to describe and assess one of the first comprehensive residential green-builder programs in the U.S. It compares trends of items used in residential construction during the past five years and reports why participating builders chose to incorporate specific items and their level of commitment to the program. This descri...

A relatively simple regression equation can be created for contractors that will allow them to estimate the number of non-work days for any month during a highway construction project. The variables used to predict non-work days are monthly precipitation, monthly temperature, number of weekend days per month and number of holidays per month. All th...

Traditionally, construction education in the United States has focused primarily on the management, materials and methods and technical aspects related to the construction of a structure. Environmental concerns have been left to the architect - after all, a construction company simply performs what the specifications require. Recently, however, it...

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of the construction industry as well as the construction educators regarding the need for technical writing skills among Construction Science graduates. An instrument was prepared to gather the data related to the technical writing skill set of construction science graduates. This instrumen...

Recent United States construction graduates have witnessed strong competition for their services during the recruitment period. As a result, the majority of construction graduates receive multiple offers from prospective employers. In this environment, it becomes increasingly important for recruiters to understand how students decide what job they...

Between 1919 and 1920 the British Government, under the direction 01' the Department 01' Scientific and Industrial Research, built a series 01'experimental cottages in Amesbury, England. The experiment was in response to the shortage 01' available construction materials after the end 01'W orld War 1. The Cottages were built on land purchased by the...

The development of a mathematical model to predict the annual salaries of construction educators is presented. A review of the literature identified a number of factors that are hypothesized to affect the annual salary of construction educators; academic qualifications, longevity, academic rank, parent college of the department, region in which the...

Unbaked earth structures, like adobe structures are found in abundance throughout the world. Like most structures, they are subject to deterioration through time. The preservation of historic adobe structures requires careful attention and evaluation of several factors, but material erosion is the main concern. In order to calculate the amount of e...

In recent years, the construction industry has become more reliant on accredited construction education programs to supply individuals who are educationally and intellectually equipped to enter into an increasingly complex and demanding work environment. As this dependency grows, the necessity to assess industry needs and educational program produc...

In 1997 the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University conducted a survey of accredited construction programs and construction companies that consistently hired from these programs to identify if the demands of the industry were being met by the supply of construction graduates. A time series regression analysis was used to predict...

An incremental approach to developing a web site to support an introductory structures course at Texas A&M University is presented. The development of the web site from an initial on-line presence at the start of the Spring 2000 semester through to a fully functioning web site in Fall 2000 is described. The structure of the web site is outlined and...