The $3.2 Trillion per year Architecture/Engineering/Construction (A/E/C) industry is moving at an unprecedented pace towards globalization, while simultaneously seeking new methods to ensure a faster and more economical project delivery. As a result, A/E/C professionals have to collaborate, interact, exchange, produce, and share their intermediate and final products with remote colleagues using new communication technologies. This new modus operandi further complicates an already intricate construction process, which inherently involves complex interactions among a series of construction factors—including the physical attributes, logistics, resource availability, budget restrictions, and environmental impacts of a project. All of these changes are occurring while the industry is seeking to shorten the development time of a project, through fast-tracked concurrent construction in which design and construction are performed in parallel, challenging the collaboration required to complete the project successfully. Complicating matters further, the construction industry’s cost is increasing while gains are decreasing as a result of changes in the construction processes that threaten smooth collaboration among the different parties involved. For all of these reasons, the collaboration process is a crucial area that has to be examined for the A/C/E industry to survive in this new era.


RESEARCH ACTIVITIES: To assist the A/E/C industry with the new-age collaboration challenges, my research focuses on the three crucial elements that define and defy collaboration in global A/E/C projects: Namely, the collaboration itself, the management of change during a project, and the handling of conflicts.


COLLABORATION: I am interested in understanding the main drivers that govern collaboration in globally dispersed teams working on large-scale A/E/C projects, in order for the collaboration process to be improved. Previous Researchers have failed to combine technology, physical space and organizational perspectives in an engineering systems approach, in order to improve the collaboration process.

My research efforts on collaboration have resulted in the development of the Interaction Space theory. This theory explicates that the communication technology, physical space, and organizational protocols of the global team come together to form what I have coined the interaction space. In turn, this interaction space affects the performance of the global team. For example, collaboration is more successful when the communication technology used is one that simultaneously maximizes reliability, functionality, accessibility and simplicity. In addition, collaboration improves when the organization protocols established elicit good understanding of the expectations of each team member with respect to the overall team and the project’s goals. Lastly, collaboration can be enhanced by using the interaction space to provide information about the membership of the team that motivates efficient participation by allowing team members to assess their contribution to the project’s objectives in relation to others. Through the triangulation of data obtained using both quantitative and qualitative methodology (e.g. open-ended interviews, interaction observations, and closed-ended, longitudinal surveys that range from one to three years), I have developed an interaction space continuum and effectiveness model to assist collaborating teams in a global environment identify the characteristics of an effective interaction space. This model takes into consideration the team members’ needs, the tasks at hand, and the goals and objectives of the project. My research is the first to introduce the team’s ‘interaction space’ as a mediating variable to explain the role of technology, organizational processes and spatial setup on the performance of a globally dispersed team. I have demonstrated unequivocally that, to have a successful collaboration, the interaction space must be taken into consideration.

A practical result of the Interaction Space Theory has been the development of two computer systems that support interaction for geographically, professionally, and time-dispersed teams; the CAIRO (Collaborative Agent and Interaction control and synchROnization) and the MICE (Mobile Interactive Collaboration Environment) systems. These two computer systems were designed by my research group and have been received with acclaim within the A/E/C industry. These programs are currently being utilized by national and international corporations such as Intecap in the United States and Kajima Corporation in Japan.


CHANGE MANAGEMENT: My research efforts in change management focus on understanding the development of large-scale infrastructure projects under pressures of shortened delivery time (e.g., fast tracking) and how these pressures impact the collaboration process. Previous studies in this area have not explicitly addressed the potential effects of the feedback processes involved in fast-tracking construction. Neither have they identified the different impact patterns of changes that may be generated; nor how those changes influence concurrent construction processes and, in turn, collaboration.

My work in this area has concentrated on defining the general determinants that influence the effectiveness of fast-tracking strategies and the dynamics that affect them. In this sector, I have developed the Dynamic Planning Methodology. This methodology integrates the following four drivers that define the effectiveness of a fast-tracking development strategy: (1) the activity production profile; (2) the accuracy of the work produced on an activity; (3) the sensitivity of an activity to external changes introduced during predecessor activities or itself, and (4) the time at which a change is introduced or discovered during the development of an activity. Based on the understanding of such drivers, I have been able to introduce the concepts of change cycle (the iterations created in a set of interrelated activities due to a change in one of them) and reliability buffering (the time allocated at the beginning of an activity to absorb any impact from predecessors activities, and to prepare for the development of the activity under study). These two concepts were developed to capture the dynamics of fast-track large-scale civil infrastructure projects and to absorb any increase on the duration of any individual activity of the project. My research in change management has, among other things, involved analyzing the quantitative data obtained from the first public, large-scale, privately financed design-build-operate-transfer project in Massachusetts— the $400 Million Route 3 North Project with Intecap Inc and CRA (Charles River Associates), my research sponsors. My work has demonstrated, that by taking into consideration the change cycle as well as the reliability buffering, the effectiveness of fast-tracking strategies can be improved in order to maintain smooth collaboration among the organizations involved. This research has resulted in a patent pending reliability buffering methodology as well as a computer software called DPM (Dynamic Planning and Control Methodology). The pending patent and the DPM system are being commercialized by a construction consulting firm called InteCap Inc under license from MIT.


CONFLICT RESOLUTION: Many valuable techniques have been developed in research settings and practice-oriented studies for conflict resolution in order to decrease a conflicts’ effect on collaboration. However, previous research efforts have failed to addressed such crucial areas as: (1) what the conflict space looks like in large-scale civil infrastructure projects, in terms of the conflicts and their escalation over the development of the project; (2) how the conflict space is defined for a particular large-scale civil infrastructure project; (3) how current conflict resolution techniques affect the conflict space of a project; and, more importantly, (4) what effect the interactions of these conflict resolution techniques have on a project.

My research efforts in conflict resolution have identified five main drivers that define the context of conflict resolution during the development of large-scale civil infrastructure projects. These are: (1) the collaborative-competitive environment, (2) the domain-dependent information, (3) the strategy-influenced outcomes, (4) the geographical and time distribution of the individuals trying to resolve the conflicts, and (5) the project structures and delivery methods boundaries definitions. Building on the understanding of such drivers, I have been able to develop several crucial indices and related concepts for successful conflict resolution. First, the conflict index identifies how prone a project is to conflicts under a particular contractual arrangement, according to the project delivery system and the conflict resolution techniques used in a project. Second, the conflict space definition of a project specifies how conflicts may escalate with or without intervention measures during the development life cycle of a project. Third, the conflict resolution index evaluates the effectiveness by which team members resolve conflicts in a project. Lastly, the framework for a conflict mitigation plan lets participants in a project identify potential conflicts, analyze the probability of occurrence of those conflicts, and the potential impact of those conflicts on a project. It also lets participants identify a combination of techniques for avoiding, mitigating or resolving those potential conflicts by taking into consideration the interaction among the different techniques and the feedback process that they introduce. Finally, this framework also lets participants evaluate the costs of implementing the different conflict resolution techniques, and their benefit on reducing the probability of conflict occurrence, mitigation, or resolution in order to increase successful collaboration in a project. This framework has been encoded in the DARTS system, which has been successfully implemented in the Tren Urbano Project in Puerto Rico and the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project.


RESEARCH IMPACT: A number of researchers, educators and practitioners in several countries are using my research to further understanding in collaboration as well as to improve their educational programs and construction projects. In particular, researchers and practitioners are using the interaction space theory—one of the pioneering aspects of my research—to improve the telepresence, work space design, and performance of globally dispersed teams, as well as the experience of remote students participating in distance education programs. For example, the University of Loughborough in England incorporates my interaction space research in their prestigious Innovative Construction Engineering Education and Research program to teach their students about global collaboration in large-scale civil infrastructure projects. Draper Laboratory in Massachusetts is currently including my research findings in its tactical planning node operations, which involves the planning of rescue missions in hostile environments. Additionally, Kajima Corporation (one of the largest general contractors in Japan) has also tested my two systems on some of their highly distributed development projects improving the collaboration process among project personnel, which resulted in a 25% reduction in the time taken to identify new or recurring problems that affect the quality and cost of Kajima’s projects. In addition, my findings on collaboration, change management, and conflict resolution have been tested in several important large-scale infrastructure projects throughout the United States, including the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel project in Boston, Route 3 North project in Massachusetts, and the Tren Urbano project in Puerto Rico.

Further attesting to the impact of my work is the types of awards and grants I have received over the years. First, in 1995, my work won the Best Paper Award from the Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering—one of the most prominent journals of civil engineering in computing. In 1998, I was awarded the NSF CAREER Award, in recognition of the importance of the current and future direction of my research. Finally in 1999, I won the White House PECASE Award—given each year to a selected group of young scientists through out the country. Another indicator of the impact of my work is the fact that my former PhD students are playing key roles both within the academy and within the civil engineering industry. Two of my students are faculty members at such great institutions as Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, the National University of Singapore and Seol University; two others are the Vice-Presidents of Technology of such thriving technology companies as RiskClick, ACT and Merrill Lynch. My former Ph.D. students are not only promoting but advancing the concepts developed in my research group.


EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES: In education, I have aimed to prepare a new cadre of professionals who see change in large-scale infrastructure projects as a natural event in a dynamic design and development process. Towards that vision, I have developed an integrated research laboratory and classroom alliance at MIT and UIUC directed at improving students’ skills and their understanding of the effect of geographic, professional, and time dispersion on large-scale infrastructure projects. This classroom alliance has been supported, augmented and complemented by the involvement of industry sponsors, such as Kajima Corporation from Japan and Intecap from Massachusetts, as well as professors and students from institutions outside of the United States—e.g. Centro de Investigación Científicas y de Educación Superior de Ensenada in México and Universidad Pontificia de Chile in Chile. This classroom alliance takes place in virtual space, and each instructor, spread throughout several institutions, teaches a portion of the class to a student body that is globally located. In these classroom alliances, we stress that education is not only obtained from printed material but also from the intrinsic elements in the environment where learning is taking place—specifically from extra curricular and research activities as well as informal interactions with peers and instructors throughout the world. Given that UIUC is one of the leading institutions in research and education, the classroom alliances I have developed attempts to export UIUC's out of the box entrepreneurial, research and educational thinking to other institutions while bringing to UIUC the other institutions strengths. Given that not everyone could be physically at UIUC, the classroom alliance is a globally dispersed learning environment that assures that the distance education experience is meaningful and true to the UIUC axioms. These principles affect not only the type of delivery of the educational program, but also the infrastructure to be used in globally dispersed learning environments. Additionally, my pedagogical underpinnings aim to emphasize meta-cognition and reflection along project-based, collaborative, and distance learning to avoid creating “second-class citizens” along the geographic, institutional and temporal divide. The students that have participated in the classroom alliance have indicated that this setting has provided them with a significantly better “real world” skills and contextualization than other classroom settings they have experienced. This innovative approach to education has been markedly successful and as a result is being implemented at other institutions such as the University of Loughborough in England.

To extend my educational endeavors from the traditional UIUC academic environment to the industry, I have participated for several years in both UIUC and non-UIUC industry-focused programs. I have been involved with the System and Design Management, Business Channel Broadcasting, Master of Engineering Information Technology, and Professional Institute programs. I was instrumental in the creation of the MIT-Prentice Hall International Series in Civil, Environmental, and Systems Engineering, which aims at defining the future of the profession; presently, I am member of its Editorial Board. Furthermore, I am in the process of publishing three electronically enhanced books—Interaction Space for Designing and Managing Dispersed Work and Learning Environments, System and Project Management, and Introduction to Construction Dispute Resolution— aimed not only to increase the knowledge of undergraduate and graduate students but also of practitioners. These three electronic enhanced books will provide the foundation for the profession to successfully undertake collaboration in large-scale civil infrastructure projects involving globally dispersed teams.


PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: I have been actively involved in many of the local, national, and international organizations of my field, such as the Boston Chapter of the American General Contractor and the American Society of Civil Engineers. I also currently serve on the editorial board of three prestigious journals in civil engineering—the ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering in USA, the Revista Ingeniería de Construcción in Chile, and the International Journal of Computer-Integrated Design and Construction in England. Additionally, I have served on the NSF review panels for the Engineering, Computer, and Education Directorates.

Moreover, I have been invited to address my peers at several prestigious conferences. I was the keynote speaker at the Japanese Conference on Productivity in Construction, Tokyo, Japan, at the Distance Learning Symposium at the Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile and at the XXII Conferencia Latino Americana de Informática, Bogotá, Colombia. Additionally, in 2001, I gave the Caterpillar Lecture at the University of Iowa on globally dispersed teams as well as I was invited to present at the by-invitation-only National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering. In 2004 I was invited as a plenary speaker at the National Convocation on Facilitation Interdisciplinary Research, Washington DC.

Finally, I have been asked to provide consulting services for both Industry and Government agencies at the national and international level. I have consulted for such companies as Omega Alpha in Colombia, Barrington in the United States, Techint in Argentina, the Boston Public Facilities Department, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and the Ministry of Economic Development in Colombia.


FUTURE ACTIVITIES: My work in collaboration, change management, and conflict resolution is changing the paradigm on how the A/E/C industry approaches the development and management of large-scale infrastructure projects. I envision my methodology becoming the industry standard for the management of global projects that are challenged with all of the constraints associated with the protection of the natural, social, and political ecosystem. I plan to use the knowledge gained from my research to lead the evolution of strategies to manage collaboration, change and conflicts in time-sensitive projects involving civil engineering infrastructures in multi-national, unstable and/or hostile environments—such as international fast-tracked projects, international disaster relief or military rescue missions in which timely, and effective, collaboration between humans and autonomous computational devices is an absolute necessity for saving lives and improving the mission's success. More broadly, I foresee my work playing a key role in the identified strategic direction of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Hazard-and threat-resistant infrastructure systems and Infrastructure and Environmental Management and Sustainability, and also that of the College of Engineering in Engineering Systems, Information Technology and Computation, and Tiny Technologies. In my view, the combination of research, practical, and educational initiatives that I have brought about has provided, and will continue to provide, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the College of Engineering and UIUC with a unique leadership position in the development and management of large-scale engineering systems.