Texas A&M hosted Associated Schools of Construction confab

Julian Kang

Construction science educators and graduate students from across the United States and throughout the world came to Texas A&M April 22-25, 2015 to discuss emerging technologies’ effects on construction management practice and education at the [Associated Schools of Construction] (http://www.ascweb.org/) ’s 51 st Annual International Conference, hosted by Texas A&M and the [Department of Construction Science] (http://cosc.arch.tamu.edu/) .

The event attracted approximately 250 educators and graduate students, said Julian Kang, co-chairman of the conference and associate professor of construction science.

“The conference highlighted the research and teaching taking place in our department to construction educators from throughout the world,” said Kang. The conference also showcased the newly renovated [Francis Hall] (http://cosc.arch.tamu.edu/francis-hall/) , new home of the Department of Construction Science, after it underwent a $10 million renovation. Conference attendees also took tours of Kyle Field, which was undergoing a $450 million renovation.

The ASC is a professional, interdisciplinary association whose members seek to develop and advance construction education. The construction managers, architects, engineers and other professionals in other fields in the ASC believe that sharing ideas and knowledge inspires, guides and promotes excellence in construction curricula, teaching, research and service.

Workshops at the conference, led by Texas A&M construction science faculty, focused on the theme “Emerging Construction Technology” and investigated how technological tools — mobile devices, building information modeling, geographic information systems, surveying, software advancements and robotics — are poised to bring great changes to the construction industry, said Kang.

“We considered which emerging technologies managers want to use,” said Kang, “how these technologies change procedures at the construction jobsite, and how we teach construction management to our students.”

The conference included presentations of more than 100 peer-reviewed papers detailing research projects by construction faculty in the United States and abroad. Additionally, graduate student research was featured in oral and poster presentations and conference participants will hear from university and department officials and industry practitioners.

posted March 21, 2014