Tarek M. Hassan

• PhD, MSc, BSc
• Professor at Loughborough University

Purpose-The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of using computer vision and deep learning (DL) techniques for improving safety on construction sites. It provides an overview of the current state of research in the field of construction site safety (CSS) management using these technologies. Specifically, the study focuses on ident...

Countless efforts were conducted worldwide to obtain the BIM position of markets. Yet, a gap in the contemporary literature to comprehensively assess construction markets’ BIM adoption status (CMBAS) exists. A comprehensive assessment will assist decisionmakers in making insightful decisions regarding the wide adoption of BIM in order to make appro...

Higher education and research and innovation in Europe continue to suffer from an indefensible waste of female talent and gender inequality. The European Commission recommends that these organizations adopt gender equality plans (GEPs) and other initiatives for institutional change. However, the levels of readiness, expertise, and experience with s...

Many of the obstacles to effective delivery of rail projects (in terms of cost, time and quality) can be traced back to poor collaboration across complex design teams and supply chains. As in any infrastructure delivery process, it is important to make decisions collaboratively at an early design stage. Advanced systems such as Building Information...

The transition of early career researchers into academic posts is understood to be a crucial career step and marks a point at which representation of women declines significantly. The research adopts a participatory qualitative research methodology through career narrative interviews and group discussions with women engineers recently appointed int...

The Lumped Parameter technique is a simplified thermal modelling method, which can be informed by measured operational data whilst allowing for physical interpretation of components and processes. The application of Lumped Parameter methods to the residential sector has been limited, primarily due to the lack of availability of operational data and...

Purpose Basic project control through traditional methods is not sufficient to manage the majority of real-time events in most construction projects. The purpose of this paper is to propose a Dynamic Scheduling (DS) model that utilizes multi-objective optimization of cost, time, resources and cash flow, throughout project construction. Design/meth...

In this paper an interoperability solution is proposed, aiming to go from (building) construction models to energy simulation. Moreover, the energy simulation results will feed the KPI’s analysis of a designed building. The proposed solution will be used to translate different data formats allowing the communication between different systems in an...

In building refurbishment projects, dynamic building simulation is popularly used to predict the energy-saving potential of various refurbishment scenarios. However, in this process, it is not clear whether occupant behaviour should be carefully modelled due to the lack of evidence about its impact on the prediction results. To answer this question...

Today, in many European countries, research and higher education institutions have made steps to implement gender mainstreaming: integrating the gender issue in management processes, in staff and leadership development programmes and assessment procedures. There are signs of concerted efforts to tackle persistent gender inequality, with varied leve...

Occupants’ window opening behavior influences the performance of buildings significantly. Good window use can provide a comfortable indoor environment with a minimum energy use, while improper window use may result in bad indoor environment and may also waste great energy. This paper identifies improper window uses in an existing building in Beijin...

This paper describes development of a methodology to support better retrofit and maintenance with optimised energy consumption using evolving technologies in material, components and systems both at building and neighbourhood levels. It is based on a retrofit and maintenance scenario focused on specification of the functional requirements, database...

Occupant behaviour has an important role in both the environmental performance and energy performance of buildings, which has been thoroughly demonstrated in the past several decades. Based on a review work, some research gaps have been identified in the area of occupants’ ventilation behaviour and to answer those gaps a field study was carried out...

In building refurbishment projects, dynamic building simulation is popularly used to predict the energy saving potential of various refurbishment scenarios. However, in this process, it is not clear whether occupant behaviour should be carefully modelled due to the lack of evidence about its impact on the prediction results. To answer this question...

This paper introduces a longitudinal study monitoring occupants’ window opening behaviour in a mixed-mode office building in Beijing, China, when natural ventilation is specifically used for controlling the building’s indoor thermal environment. Based on the field measured data, the influence of factors, including outdoor air temperature, outdoor P...

A simple 1st order data-driven lumped parameter model of a domestic building is developed to explore the effect of using different model parameter values in the model outputs. The adequacy of the Ordinary Least Square estimation technique is explored. Results show that an improved fit to the measured data can be achieved by varying the initial mode...

Occupants’ window behavior influences the performance of buildings significantly. A good window usage can provide comfortable indoor environment, but improper window usage may result in bad indoor environment and may also cause energy waste. This paper identifies improper window usage based on year-long date collected from an office building in Bei...

Retrofitting existing buildings to improve energy efficiency is crucial for achieving sustainable development. In retrofit projects, dynamic building performance simulation is being used to provide evidence on the energy saving potential of both individual retrofit measure and a combination of several retrofit measures. However, in this prediction...

Justification is a simple technique which was presented for improving the quality of schedules generated with algorithms for solving RCPSPs. Few researches implemented justification with meta-heuristics and proved that algorithms optimization results using justification outperforms the performance of the same algorithms without justification. In th...

There is great potential for novel decision support tools to aid in the provision of tailored advice for both domestic and non-domestic buildings. The method described in this paper will rely on a combination of data from BIM - monitoring technologies such as smart sensors and performance-based analysis, user behaviour, and expert knowledge - for t...

Real-time events extremely disrupt the integrity of project schedules. The presence and implementation of a predefined Dynamic Scheduling strategy to mitigate these disruptions is a must for the successful implementation of projects planning. Despite of the wide practical applications of dynamic scheduling in various industries, especially manufact...

During discussions related to an ongoing research for the prospects of using dynamic scheduling concepts in construction industry in several forums, we received in many cases a similar question: What is dynamic scheduling? This is mainly because the dynamic scheduling topic is quite new in relation to construction field; despite of its wide applica...

Background: Dynamic Scheduling is a new topic in construction planning and scheduling research field. Understanding the planners’ day to day scheduling/rescheduling problems and studying the practicality of the problem’s characteristics are key issues in the development of any new dynamic scheduling system. Objective: The purpose of this study was...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on a geometrical integration methodology that can be used to organise some types of these systems. Most multipath delivery systems, such as Building Services (BSs), are arbitrarily distributed with no known solution to reduce the complexity in the way channels are arranged. Design/methodology/approa...

With the introduction of key information sets (KIS) for all university programmes in the UK from 2012, the character, content and delivery of university degrees may be increasingly used by potential students to differentiate between degree programmes. Therefore, developments in curricula and the relationship to the profession are of growing importa...

Purpose – The potential and opportunity offered by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to enable Energy Efficient (EE) viable operations has been thoroughly laboured with respect to sustainability goals. Often the issue is not a lack of technological options, but rather an issue in understanding what choices will lead to the greatest...

This paper describes a novel methodology to group building services into a single trunking system at minimal proximal distances between them. The study focused on solving the geometrical complexity encountered in conventional arrangements of building services, while taking into account thermo-physical and electromagnetic interactions between servic...

Despite sustained efforts to promote engineering careers to young women, it remains the most male-dominated academic discipline in Europe. This paper will provide an overview of UK data and research on women in engineering higher education, within the context of Europe. Comparisons between data from European countries representing various regions o...

Despite sustained efforts to promote engineering careers to young women it remains the most male dominated academic discipline. This paper will provide an overview of UK data and research on women studying engineering in higher education, within the context of Europe. Reporting on preliminary findings of a EUfunded project we will discuss how gende...

Social and organisational semiotics seek to understand organisations based on the use of signs, documents and communication, and how information can be best used in the scope of organised activities and business domains. This theoretical approach was the ground for a study conducted by a European Commission project envisioning the single integrated...

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are expected to have a significant impact on improving energy efficiency in buildings. Currently there is limited understanding of the potential of ICT to reduce energy consumption in buildings. In order to put ICT at the core of the energy efficiency effort and to enable reaching their full potentia...

Construction - and its significant impact on quality of life - has received considerable attention in recent years, however, there is little agreement on how to create an environment that will allow construction to move from a supply-driven industry to a demand-driven industry focusing on delivering extra values such as sustainability, productivity...

Research suggests that women in academia face problematic career paths as a result of masculine cultures and horizontal segregation. At the same time, research in the construction sector has documented the barriers women face in entering and remaining in construction careers. Construction academia is investigating in this exploratory study to deter...

Introductione-Hub concepte-Hubs' servicesEngineering e-HubEngineering servicesProblems and challengesConclusions AcknowledgementsReferences

Many Information Technology (IT) tools now exist to support collaborative working between engineering organisations. These often address operational issues rather than tactical or strategic issues. In particular, there are no effective tools for collaborative project planning between project partners. An electronic engineering hub (e-Hub) is consid...

This article was published in the Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon) and is also available at: http://www.itcon.org/2008/30 The objective of the work reported in this paper was the development of an XML based standard which would enable project data, such as contacts, drawings, documentation, instructions and emails, to be tr...

This article was published in the journal, Automation in Construction [© Elsevier] and the definitive version is available at: www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon As part of an industry-lead initiative, standards have been developed to enable bulk exchange of project data between project collaboration systems used by the construction industry. Through t...

Although various e-Hubs have been developed in recent years, most of them are designed to facilitate the business aspect of online collaboration. The universal collaborative engineering e-Hub developed within the EU research project e-HUBs (e-Engineering enabled by Holonomic and Universal Broker Services) provides engineering services to facilitate...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and analyse the criteria and sub‐criteria of an excellence model for construction that would aid construction contractors in measuring and improving their business performance. Design/methodology/approach The methodology of evaluation was based on similar evaluations of total quality management fram...

This paper presents the strategy and roadmap for the evolution of a European legal framework to support the advancement of information and communication technologies (ICT) based on the research work undertaken within the European funded project LEGAL-IST (Legal Issues for the Advancement of Information Society Technologies - IST-2-004252-SSA). The...

The construction sector plays an important role in economic growth, yet has a poor performance record in research and innovation. At the same time, the construction sector remains male-dominated and women's growing role as decision-makers and buyers is not reflected by their input into construction innovation and creativity. The WOMEN-CORE project...

e-HUBs (URL1) is an ongoing research project partly funded by the European Commission, aiming to develop a web hosted e-engineering service (or “e-Hub”) which is able to facilitate the outsourcing of engineering services. A key issue for the success of the e-Hub is how to build a secured and reliable On-line Contracting System” (OCS). To build such...

The advancements in Information and Communication Technologies have not been fully exploited by industries despite the great potential they offer. A major initiative by the European Commission to establish a single electronic European market (SEEM) will provide a platform for e-Business on a pan European level. Legal issues represent one of the top...

With increasing awareness of gains and importance of the strategic use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), the implementation rate of ICTs in the construction sector is increasing. However, these technologies have not been covered by legal and contractual practices. The industry needs to implement application frameworks and legal...

This paper presents the results and conclusions of the European FP6 projects LEGAL-IST and SEEMseed using a specific roadmapping approach. The paper includes an outline of the main projects' issues, the roadmapping methodology and results integration. The contributions of this paper are related to a holistic view of the issues of a harmonised regul...

Due to the complex and dynamic nature of the construction industry, construction material management faces many unique challenges from material planning, ordering, receiving and storing, handling and distribution, site usage and monitoring (Johnston and Brennan 1996). Poor material management has been identified as a major source for low constructi...

Very little is known about the role of women in construction research and the factors hindering the equal presence of men and women, despite wider research addressing women's participation in science and engineering generally. This paper reports on the development of the 'WOMEN-CORE' project, co-funded by the European Commission's Research Director...

Volatile partnerships are becoming popular and important in the global economy with the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the development of e-business and e-engineering. This requires a new generation of collaborative project planning tools to be built. The e-HUBs (e-engineering enabled by Holonomic and Universal Broker...

: This paper presents an e-engineering contracting system developed for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) by the EU funded e-HUBs project ("e-Engineering enabled by Holonomic and Universal Broker Services", IST-2001-34031). As a dedicated service within the Business to Business (B2B) arena, the engineering e-Hub is designed to facilitate th...

Trust building is a vital issue and enabler for e-Business. It has been studied at various stages of e-Business from initial trust establishment, contract negotiation and formation, fulfilment to closure. Current studies mainly focus on building trust through the improvement of the social business environment and online security by adopting latest...

The Value and Risk Management Protocol (VRMP) is an innovative decision making tool developed by the authors to manage dynamic brief development in construction projects. Application of the protocol on real case studies showed that it is a time-consuming tool and there is a large amount of information that needs to be managed. In order to overcome...

Since 2003 the bulk of major UK construction project collaborative software providers have been working together to develop standards that will allow for project data to be transferred between vendor applications. Under the umbrella of the Network of Construction Collaboratin Technology Providers (NCCTP) , an XML standard for project exchange has b...

The importance of business performance measurement across industries has elevated in the last decade in what has been described as a revolution. Meanwhile, the construction industry has been criticised for its underperformance and the Latham and Egan reports emphasized the need for performance improvement and measurement. Companies have had to face...

The growth of Business-to-Business (B2B) e-Markets provides Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with a great opportunity to expand their business. However, SMEs are encountering many uncertainties and challenges in these new e-Business relationships. Trust building is strategically important for them to enter, develop and maintain e-Business...

Achieving client satisfaction as a key measure for construction projects success necessitated the importance to build clear understanding of the drivers that lead to brief development. 30 brief development drivers were identified, quantified and classified. In order to complete the picture of these drivers and understand how could the project team...

Limitations of the current briefing process to achieve client satisfaction are attributed to confining the development of the project brief to a certain stage. This perspective hinders the interaction between the client and the designer since clients' ideas develop and mature as the design alternatives unfold. In addition, it inhibits the incorpora...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the factors that drive changes to the construction project brief and the background to those factors. The founding argument, that incorporating these changes is paramount for achieving client satisfaction, introduces the concept of dynamic brief development (DBP), which permits changes throughout th...

This chapter describes the legal and contractual considerations for organisations wishing to use ICT in their virtual organisation. The chapter describes a number of legal and contractual conditions, (mainly contracts), that must be met to enable legal and contractually valid transactions amongst the VO participants. These contracts and how to achi...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to discuss the scope for improving the delivery of FM services through the use of wireless web‐based communications infrastructure, delivered via an application service provider (ASP) business model. This paper discusses the findings from case studies of three organisations and their approach to the management...

The construction industry is a project-based business bringing together many different organisations to complete a desired goal. The strategic use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has enabled this goal to be completed more effectively. Two issues require addressing, the technology itself and the implementation factors of the tech...

Confining the development of the project brief to a certain stage hinders the interaction between the client and the designer. In addition, it inhibits the incorporation of the influential internal and external factors that may affect the project. In spite of the frequently adverse impact of change orders on project cost, time and quality, literatu...

Performance measurement has been subject to a considerable amount of research and attention over the past IS years. The inadequacy of traditional financially based performance measurement systems and the introduction of nonfinancial measures have been the triggers for much of this research. The purpose of this paper is to review the main performanc...

e-HUBs (URL1) is an ongoing research project partly funded by the European Commission, aiming to develop a web hosted e-engineering service (or e-Hub) which is able to facilitate the outsourcing of engineering services. A key issue for the success of the e-Hub is how to build a secured and reliable On-line Contracting System (OCS). To build such an...

This paper reports on macro (on an organisational level) and micro (on a process level) models developed within two major research projects aiming at improving the competitiveness of the large scale engineering (LSE) construction sector. The macro model was based on investigations of the emerging trends in the LSE sector based on findings from the...

The use of email and project collaboration websites for construction project communications is now relatively common. However, these communications generally operate without contractual support, resulting in a number of potentially serious legal implications—such as validity of contract notices, ownership of data and intellectual property rights. T...

In recent years, the Large Scale Engineering (LSE) construction industry in Europe has seen profound change reflecting on the emerging political, economic, social and technological developments. Increasing competitive pressure globally, clients' demand for lower costs and better quality, coupled with new developments in information and communicatio...

This paper presents a view on these issues, including the application of ICTs to construction and typical contractual relationships within the indust, before introducing the eLEGAL project. eLEGAL (IST-I99920570) is a European cooperative research and development project, which is focusing on legal conditions and contracts regarding the use of ICT...

The use of email and project collaboration websites for construction project communications is now relatively common, However, these communications generally operate without contractual support, resulting In a number of potentially serious legal implications-such as validity of contract notices, ownership of data and intellectual property rights. T...

Advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) should assist with the coordination of "virtual enterprises" - the type of arrangement often formed to execute large-scale engineering and construction projects. However, a range of legal issues is emerging which threaten to reduce the benefits available from such technologies, in particu...

The universal impact of Large Scale Engineering (LSE) projects is in evidence in diverse aspects of the personal and working lives of citizens around the globe. This does not only include the direct impact of the LSE product or facility but also encompasses the effects on society resulting from new ways of working. These new ways of working have be...

eLSEwise is the acronym of ESPRIT project 20876 which investigated the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) needs of Large Scale Engineering (LSE) construction over the next 10 years. eLSEwise investigated the business needs related to market and client demands for change in the future delivery processes of LSE construction projects and h...

This paper reports on recent research the aim of which was to study, model and simulate the information flow at the conceptual and schematic stages of building design. The development of a generic model of the conceptual and schematic design process for buildings is described. This model comprising design tasks and their information requirements wa...

In recent years the Large Scale Engineering (LSE) construction sector in Europe has seen profound change. This is mainly due to increasing competitive pressures from the United States and the Asian–Pacific countries which has led in turn to increased pressures to improve competitiveness, productivity and client satisfaction. Lack of understanding o...

In recent years the Large Scale Engineering (LSE) construction sector in Europe has seen profound change. This is mainly due to increasing competitive pressures from the United States and the Asian-Pacific countries which has led in turn to increased pressures to improve competitiveness, productivity and client satisfaction. Lack of understanding o...

Successful project management requires the effective control of the design teams and the exchange of information between them for successful design management. This paper describes a methodology involving discrete event simulation that can help the planning and control of building design. Discipline-based information flow models of the building des...

The growth of Business-to-Business (B2B) e-Markets provides Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with a great opportunity to expand their business. However, SMEs are encountering many uncertainties and challenges in these new e-Business relationships. Trust building is strategically important for them to enter, develop and maintain e-Business...

The advancements in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has not been fully exploited by the construction industry despite of the great potential they offer particularly in the applications of eBusiness to construction. A major initiative by the European Commission to establish a Single Electronic European Market (SEEM) will provide a p...

Advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) are promoting the formation of "virtual enterprises" – the type of arrangement often formed to execute construction projects and large scale engineering projects. A range of legal issues are beginning to emerge which threaten to inhibit the growth and prosperity of these virtual enterpris...

A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University. The design of modern buildings has become an increasingly complex activity. This is because of greater demands by Clients in terms of performance, quality, economy and time. These demands coupled with the complex...