Talk for ECRs and other participants on Toward improving construction engineering and management research outcomes
May 22nd from 8:00 – 8:45 AM
By Charles T. Jahren, Morrill Professor Emeritus, Iowa State University.
Research in construction engineering and management is challenging because a combination of natural, technical, and social science approaches is required. Furthermore, industrial research users require relevant and useful outcomes, while rigorous execution and documentation is required to provide such outcomes and maintain credibility. Projects that do not meet these requirements efficiently exceed time and cost allocations, delay student graduations, are difficult to document concisely in reports and journal articles and make disappointingly small contributions to the body of knowledge. As research leaders, it is our role to provide guidance for students and others on how to conduct research that meets such requirements.
This presentation will expose resources intended to aid in providing guidance based on the presenter’s experience in leading research, past service as editor-in-chief of a prominent journal, and lead editor on a special collect on research methods. Resources will include topics that have been included in successful courses on construction engineering and management research methods, and supporting books, journal articles (including special collections), and presentation materials. Sources of information on appropriate construction engineering and management research methods will be emphasized. Examples of how these resources have been used to improve research outcomes will be shared based on activities of the Global Leadership Forum for Construction Engineering and Management (GLF-CEM) Scientific Principles in CEM Research Task Force.
Biography
Charles T. Jahren, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering was conferred the title of Morrill Professor by Iowa State University in 2019 and was inducted into the National Academy of Construction (https://www.naocon.org/) in 2018. He served as the Professor-in-Charge of Construction Engineering and as an associate chair for his department from 2001 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020 and held the W.A. Klinger Teaching Professorship for all but two of those years. His emeritus status commenced in 2022. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management from 2006 to 2011, the Chair of the Editorial Board from 2011 to 2024 and is currently an Associate Editor.
He earned his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (1977) and his Master of Business Administration (1982) from the University of Minnesota and his PhD in Civil Engineering (1987) from Purdue University. He has over six years of industrial experience as a bridge construction project engineer and as a research engineer. His research interests include the use of advance technologies to improve learning, electronic data exchange in design and construction, and the improvement of road construction and maintenance methods. His teaching interests include construction equipment, planning and scheduling, and design of construction systems.