Construction Management (Graduate Program)

For information regarding the UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM, click here.   

Program Overview

The construction management (CM) graduate programs are designed to blend engineering, business, and construction management concepts together to produce a professional graduate who can manage complex 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, decision-making, and advanced productivity. There are several focused research areas: Advanced Materials & Sustainability, Building Science for Disaster-Resistant Communities, Built Environment Informatics, and Capital Facility Management, Building Information Modeling, and Construction Robots. These correspond with the disciplines of Construction Management, Construction Engineering and Facilities Management.

Administration

Admission

Applications and supporting materials for all graduate study must be submitted through the online application site for the LSU Graduate School. Official transcripts, official test scores, and other materials that come from third-party sources must be mailed to: LSU Office of Graduate Admissions, 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 requirements stipulated by the Graduate School and have an overall grade point average of 2.75 on a 4.0 scale or a 3.00 on a 4.00 scale for the last 60 hours of undergraduate work. International students must have a satisfactory TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE score. All applicants are to have satisfactory scores on the verbal and quantitative portions of the GRE; however, the GRE can be waived for admission into the master’s program if the applicant has a construction management, engineering, or architecture undergraduate degree from a US accredited program (i.e. ACCE, ABET, etc.) AND has more than 3 years of managerial construction experience. A resumé must be submitted that details this experience along with contact information for verification purposes.

Applicants from disciplines other than Construction Management are strongly encouraged to apply; however, they may need to complete Construction Management leveling (foundation) courses before they can be fully admitted into the program.

Financial Assistance

Teaching assistantships are available for graduate students with the priority for the doctoral students, and are awarded each Fall based on departmental needs and student qualifications. Faculty who have funded research projects provide additional research assistantships for qualifying 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 coursework. The lab is supported by a bank of twelve servers providing support of coursework 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.

The Construction Equipment Simulator Lab has two CAT® simulators, each of which consists of three 43-inch Smart TV monitors, a frame, controls needed to operate the simulator, a computer, mouse, keyboard, software that supports four languages (English, Spanish, French and Chinese), and a motion system that allows users to feel vibration and movement when the simulated machine is running during training exercises. The educational intent is to have students analyze the different facets of productivity, cost estimating, maintenance schedules, and safety protocols through various equipment simulations. The students have the opportunity to learn the complexities of operating large pieces of equipment through operational simulations.

The BIM CAVE facility is a virtual reality visualization platform featuring a 20 foot diameter circular formation composed of 44 55” OLED displays running on a cluster of 11 high performance gaming computers and a master computer. The facility uses the Unreal engine for virtual reality applications and development and supports drafting, building information modeling (BIM), estimating, scheduling, and general purpose software tools.  

The BIM classroom has 40 high performance workstations, each with two 22” monitors. The software and hardware are customized to support BIM, as well as visualization, simulation, and analysis of buildings and construction processes. The classroom is also equipped with a multimedia system for teaching purposes. Students can develop BIMs, simulations, estimates, and schedules in the BIM classroom and conduct review and presentation sessions in the BIM CAVE.

The climate chamber is a 12’(L) x 12’ (W) x 9’ (H) space where temperature and humidity are controlled for experiments while simultaneously optimizing airflow and noise. The chamber is equipped with a radiant panel to simulate heat sources. It is situated adjacent to an air-conditioned office space where computers are used to monitor and control experiments and activities inside the chamber.   

Graduate Faculty

(check current faculty listings by department here)

Gabriel Andres Arce Amador (3F) • Concrete materials, cementitious composites, geopolymer composites, infrastructure aterials, pavement engineering
Charles W. Berryman (M) • Sustainability, material science, soil stabilization, construction education, decision support systems
Carol Friedland (M) • Hazard-resistant construction and mitigation, natural hazard vulnerability/risk assessment, community resilience, hazard mitigation planning, industrial construction
Marwa Hassan (M) • Sustainable construction, life cycle assessment, infrastructure sustainability, highway
construction, advanced sustainable materials including nano-materials, productivity analysis of construction operations
Amirhosein Jafari (6A) • Sustainability in construction, smart buildings and communities, decision support systems in construction, project management systems
Ali Kazemian (6A) • Robotic construction methods, construction 3D printing, real-time quality monitoring/control, automated progress and quality monitoring, and special concretes
Yongcheol Lee (6A) • Building/city information modeling, construction informatics, sensing, disaster recovery, construction safety and health
Charles Francis Pecquet (3P) • Construction safety, workforce training and development, visual communication
Husam Sadek (3F) • Pavement engineering, advanced materials characterization, accelerated pavement testing, infrastructure sustainability
Donald R. Schneider (3P) • Contract law, project management, leadership
Jonathan Shi (M) • Modeling and simulation for construction operations, AI in Construction
Chao Wang (6A) • Wearable sensors and robotics for construction, construction safety and health, facility energy assessment
Kimberley Williams (3F) • Online learning, leadership, project management, workforce training and development
Yimin Zhu (M) • built environment sustainability, informatics, systems integration and construction optimization  

Programs

• Construction Management, M.S.CM

• Construction Management, Ph.D.