UBC Civil Engineering

Dr. Alan Russell

Dr. Alan Russell
Dr. Alan Russell,
Professor

Professor & Chair, Computer Integrated
Design & Construction

Location: CEME - Room 2014
Telephone: 604.822.4753
Facsimilie: 604.822.6901
Email: adr@civil.ubc.ca

Personal Home Page

Biography:

Professor and Chair, Computer Integrated Design and Construction
B.A.Sc., M.A.Sc. ( British Columbia), Ph.D. (M.I.T.), Eng., Fellow (CSCE)

Research Project and Interests:

Two thrusts guide current research efforts. Thrust I is focused on the execution phase of a project, with the application domain being both building and civil engineering construction. Of particular interest are projects that involve significant repetition - high-rise buildings, bridges, tunnels, highways, transit guide ways, etc. However, the work conducted under this thrust is applicable to projects of all types. Thrust II is focused on the front end of a project, when decisions are made about scale, feasibility, risks and their assignment, selection of procurement mode, etc. The two research thrusts intersect and share themes dealing with the multi-view representation of a project, knowledge management, causal reasoning, and data visualization.

Research Thrust I: How do you design decision support systems (DSS) so that construction management personnel will find them responsive to the broad range of functions that they must perform? We believe that a partial answer lies in the use of an integrated multi-view representation of a project.

We are more interested in the creation and validation of ideas than in the development of a specific system. Having said this, extensive use is made of a research system called REPCON for implementing the ideas and testing them on full-sized projects. This research system allows reasonably fast prototyping and provides the infrastructure support necessary for exploring the benefits of integration and the modeling of and data capture from actual projects. Screen captures shown later highlight some of the features of the research system.

Research Thrust II: To enhance the understanding and decision making capabilities of government and private sector firms when faced with decisions regarding the procurement, financing and negotiation of public infrastructure projects.

A significant amount of the work under this theme relates to public – private partnerships (P3 projects) and deals with the economic and financial modeling of projects, risk identification and management, public sector comparator analysis, assessment of innovation, and the treatment of complex value systems.

Courses:

  • CIVIL 403 Engineering Economic Analysis
  • CIVIL 520 Construction Planning and Control
  • CIVIL 522 Project and Construction Economics

Recent Publications

  • Nelms, C., Russell, A.D. and Lence, B. (2007) “Assessing the performance of sustainable technologies: a framework and its application, “Building Research & Information, 35(3), 237-251.
  • Russell, A.D., Tawiah, P. and De Zoysa, S. (2006). “Project innovation – a function of procurement mode?”, Canadian Journal of Civil Enginering, 33(12), 1519-1537.
  • Abdel-Aziz, A. and Russell, A. (2006). “Generalized Economic Modeling for Infrastructure and Capital Investment Projects”, to appear in ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems, March 2006.
  • Nelms, C., Russell, A. and Lence, B. (2005). “Assessing the Performance of Sustainable Technologies for Building Projects”, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, Vol. 32, no. 1, 114-128.
  • Dissanayake, M., Robinson-Fayek, A., Russell, A., and Pedrycz, W. (2005). “A Hybrid Neural Network for Predicting Construction Labour Productivity”, Proceedings, ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering, 12-15 July 2005, Cancun, Mexico, 12 pages, refereed. PDF
  • Korde, T., Wang, Y. and Russell, A. (2005). “Visualization of Construction Data”, Proceedings, CD Rom, 6th Construction Specialty Conference, Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, June 2-4, 2005, Toronto, Canada, 11 pages, refereed. PDF
  • Russell, A. and Udaipurwala, A. (2005). “Case Study for Construction Planning and Control Course”, Proceedings, CD Rom, 6th Construction Specialty Conference, Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, June 2-4, 2005, Toronto, Canada, 10 pages, refereed. PDF
  • Li, M., Korde, T. and Russell, A. (2005). “Explaining Construction Performance Using Causal Models”, Proceedings, CD Rom 6th Construction Specialty Conference, Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, June 2-4, 2005, Toronto, Canada, 12 pages, refereed. PDF
  • Zhang, K. and Russell, A. (2005). “Quality Management and IT”, Proceedings, CD Rom, 6th Construction Specialty Conference, Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, June 2-4, 2005, Toronto, Canada, 10 pages, refereed. PDF
  • Korde, T., Li, M. and Russell, A. (2005). “State-of-the-Art Review of Construction Performance Models and Factors”, ASCE Construction Research Congress, 05 – 07 April 2005, San Diego, California, pgs 156 - 162 (14 pages – 2pgs/proceedings pg), refereed. PDF
  • Udaipurwala, A. and Russell, A. (2005). “Hierarchical Clustering for Interpretation of Spatial Configuration”, ASCE Construction Research Congress, 05 – 07 April 2005, San Diego, California, pgs 566- 571 (11 pages – 2pgs/proceedings pg), refereed. PDF
  • Dissanayake, G.M., Chen, L., Pedrcyz, W., Robinson-Fayek, A. and Russell, A.D. (2004), “Fuzzy Logic Modeling of Causal Relationships – Case Study: Reasoning about Construction Performance”, 2004 NAFIPs International Conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada (North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society), 27-30 June 2004, Banff, Alberta.
  • De Zoysa, S., Wang, Y. and Russell, A. (2005). “Use of IT in Managing Environmental Risks in Construction Projects. ASCE Construction Congress, 05 - 07 April 2005, San Diego, California (12 pgs) PDF
  • Nelms, C., Russell, A. and Lence, B. (2005). “Assessing the Performance of Sustainable Technologies for Building Projects”, CJCE, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 114-128.
  • Tawiah, P. and Russell, A. (2005). “Influence of Procurement Mode on Innovation Potential in Infrastructure Project Delivery”, presented at the 6th Construction Specialty Conference, Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, June 2-4, 2005, Toronto, Canada, 11 pages, refereed. (omitted by accident from CD Rom Proceedings) PDF
  • AboMoslim, S. and Russell, A. (2005). “Evaluating Innovative Design and Construction Technologies for Super Hi-Rise Buildings on an International Basis”, Proceedings, CD Rom, 6th Construction Specialty Conference, Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, June 2-4, 2005, Toronto, Canada, 10 pages, refereed. PDF
  • Abdel-Aziz, A. and Russell, A. (2005). “Generalized Economic Modeling for Infrastructure and Capital Investment Projects”, accepted for publication in ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems, February 2005.
  • Abdel-Aziz, A. and Russell, A. (2005). “Assessment of a Four Moments and Pearson Distribution Approach for Risk Analysis in Construction Estimates and Economics”, ASCE Construction Research Congress, 05 – 07 April 2005, San Diego, California, pgs 337 - 344 (15 pages – 2pgs/proceedings pg), refereed. PDF
  • Russell, A.D. and Udaipurwala, A. (2004), “Using Multiple Views to Model Construction”, CIB World Building Congress, 02-07 May 2004, Toronto, Canada, refereed, 12 pages. PDF
  • Russell, A.D., Udaipurwala, A., Robinson-Fayek, A. and Pedrycz, W. (2004), “Interpreting Data Derived from a Holistic Representation of Construction Projects”, Proceedings, 1st International Conference, World of Construction Project Management, Toronto, Canada, 27-28 May 2004, 455-469, refereed. PDF

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