Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

Ed Jaselskis Accepts NSF Directorate

 

Dr. Ed Jaselskis, professor of construction engineering, will begin a one-year appointment with the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a director for the Information Technology and Infrastructure Systems (IT IS) program beginning August 14, 2006.

His primary duty involves managing a $2.7-2.8 million research program in the construction, transportation, and civil infrastructure areas.

He will serve as an NSF Engineering Directorate representative on national committees and panels. His goal is to help fund deserving research projects that will have long term impact on the construction industry.

Jaselskis's vision is to expand on a theme of building infrastructure projects more efficiently using a systems optimization approach.

"The construction process today has only incrementally improved from where it was at turn of the century with the use of computers, automated equipment, and new materials?unlike the manufacturing industry which as seen revolutionary changes. A great deal can be learned from these other industries and best practices can be brought into construction," says Jaselskis.

Information technologies (IT) will play a pivotal role in helping accelerate the work pace and minimize disruption on infrastructure projects.

The benefit IT can provide is the rapid sharing of information among the participants on a real-time basis to facilitate decision making and accelerate development of changes, facilitate the distribution of field inspection results, and achieve a better understanding of the project.

This approach will ultimately lead to a reduction in delivery time, costly overruns, and errors.

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