Construction Management (Graduate Program)

For information regarding the UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM, click here. 

Program Overview

The construction management (CM) graduate program is designed to blend the technical aspects with the business aspects of the construction industry to produce a professional graduate who can manage construction processes effectively and efficiently. The CM graduate students will have an in-depth education in state of the art construction specializations including, sustainable construction, hazard management construction, building information modeling, and advanced productivity with emphasis on industrial and heavy highway construction sectors. The program will be offered with a thesis option or with a project and report option (non-thesis).

Administration

Admission

Applications and supporting materials for all graduate study must be submitted through the online application site for the LSU Graduate School: www.lsu.edu/gradapply. Official transcripts, official test scores, and other materials that come from third-party sources must be mailed to: Graduate Student Services, 114 West David Boyd Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. These paper documents are stored electronically and departments have access to all materials submitted by and/or on behalf of a student applying to graduate study.

Applications for admission are received and evaluated by the department. Applicants must adhere to the application deadlines established by The Graduate School.

Applicants for admission to the master’s program in construction management or the interdisciplinary doctoral program must meet or exceed all requirements stipulated by The Graduate School, including satisfactory scores on the verbal and quantitative portions of the GRE, an overall grade point average of 2.75 or 3.00 for the last 60 hours of undergraduate work, and a satisfactory TOEFL or IELTS score for international students. Although most applicants will have undergraduate degrees in construction management or engineering, applicants from other disciplines may be accepted if they complete a sequence of engineering science prerequisite courses.

Financial Assistance

Some departmental assistantships are available for qualified students, and are awarded each semester, based on departmental needs and student qualifications. Except in unusual cases, no master’s candidate will be awarded a departmental assistantship for more than four semesters. A doctoral candidate may be awarded a departmental assistantship for up to six semesters. Faculty who have funded research projects provide additional assistantships for participating graduate students. Faculty members also recommend students for fellowships and stipends when these become available.

Facilities

The Construction Management computer laboratory, used for computer lab instruction and open use by CM students, is equipped with 48 computers. Software includes Microsoft Office Professional, Visio, Microsoft Project, Primavera P6, Timberline, Bid2Win, On-Center Takeoff, AutoCAD, Arena (factory simulation), Lingo (optimization), SAS, Minitab, MATLAB, Maple, Visual Studio.NET (C++, C#, VB, ASP), Java, and many other applications supporting CM course work. The lab is supported by a bank of twelve servers providing support of course work in development of information systems, Web application systems, eCommerce systems, and client/server support for project management and estimating courses. The CM Annex Computer Lab (48 computers) is used for computer lab instruction and open use by CM students. Software includes Microsoft Office Professional, Visio, Microsoft Project, Primavera P6, Timberline, Bid2Win, On-Center Takeoff, and AutoCAD. As with the CM Computer Lab, a bank of servers provides client/server for project management and estimating courses.

The LSU Sustainable Materials Testing Laboratory (approximately 2000 ft2) is also housed in the Department of Construction Management and managed by Dr. Hassan. This dedicated space is equipped with 4 explosion-proof fume hoods and is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment to for characterizing and testing performance of advanced sustainable materials. The lab includes a number of major research equipment including Thermo Fisher NOx analyzer, Thermo Fisher SO2/H2S analyzer, two photoreactor chambers, a UV light meter, ovens, furnaces, autoclaves, four fume hoods, a Shimadzu UV-VIS spectrophotometer 1800, deionized water system with 60 L tank, freezers (-60oC), oil bath, centrifuges, pH meters, temperature and humidity sensors, various flow meters, oil bath, centrifuges. In addition students have access to the Socolofsky Microscopy Center’s that houses both electron and light microscopes including a Nikon Microphot-FXA, V12 fluorescence stereomicroscope, JSM-6610, JSM-6610LV high and low vacuum SEM, JEOL 100CX TEM, as well as a darkroom with automatic X-ray film developer.

Graduate Faculty

(check current listings by department by clicking this link)

Charles W. Berryman (M) • Sustainability, material science, soil stabilization, construction education, decision support systems.
Carol Friedland (6A) • Hurricane Damage Assessment, Damage Modeling, Remote Sensing, Structural Engineering, Industrial Construction
Craig M. Harvey (7M) • Human Factors Engineering, Construction Safety, Construction Management, and Law
Marwa Hassan (6A) • Sustainable Construction, Life Cycle Assessment, Infrastructure Sustainability, Highway Construction, Advanced sustainable materials including nano-materials, and Productivity Analysis of Construction Operations.
Laura Ikuma (6A) • Human Factors Engineering, Safety, Musculoskeletal Disorders, Psychosocial Factors
Isabelina Nahmens (6A) • Construction Quality, Construction Mass Customization, Lean Construction and Lean Healthcare
Emerald Roider (6A) • Construction Scheduling, Sustainable Construction, LEED, Construction Project Management, Construction Labor Issues

Degree Programs

Programs

• Engineering Sciences, Ph.D.

• Construction Management, M.S.

• Engineering Sciences, M.S.E.S.