Board # 33 : Positioning Students to Understand Urban Sustainability Strategies through Vertical Integration: Years One through Four

Abstract

Mohamed ElZomor has earned a B.Sc and M.Eng in Construction from the American University in Cairo, in addition to M.Sc. in Architecture with an emphasis on Design and Energy Conservation from University of Arizona. He is currently a Construction Management Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Sustainability and the Built Environment at Arizona State University. Before embarking on his academic career, he gained valuable local and international construction experience while working in the construction industry for different capacities, both in the office and the field. Mr. ElZomor worked as a Project Manager for several years and delivered complex projects, one of which was an iconic $150 million office park.Not only is Mohamed a specialist in the construction field, but also with extensive research within the advanced educational pedagogies, energy, and environmental disciplines. Mr. ElZomor developed an index to define small infrastructure projects' scope and associated risk. The overall goal of ElZomor's work is to leverage the integration of energy efficiency measures into construction, building design and operation processes for societal good. Prof. Kristen Parrish, Arizona State UniversityKristen Parrish is an Assistant Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University (ASU). Kristen's work focuses on integrating energy efficiency measures into building design, construction, and operations processes. Specifically, she is interested in novel design processes that financially and technically facilitate energy-efficient buildings. Her work also explores how principles of lean manufacturing facilitate energy-efficiency in the commercial building industry. Another research interest of Kristen's is engineering education, where she explores how project-and experience-based learning foster better understanding of engineering and management principles. Prior to joining ASU, Kristen was at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) as a Postdoctoral Fellow (2009-11) and then a Scientific Engineering Associate (2011)(2012) in the Building Technologies and Urban Systems Department. She worked in the Commercial Buildings group, developing energy efficiency programs and researching technical and non-technical barriers to energy efficiency in the buildings industry. She has a background in collaborative design and integrated project delivery. She holds a BS and MS in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Civil Engineering

Targeted Communication Trainings to Foster Minority Students’ Presentation Skills

“…That said, many international students, including women and first-generation students, still lack the necessary professional skills, particularly communication and presentation skills, which are vital to convey technical information to audiences. Engineering curricula could integrate objective communication activities that make up for this gap [14], and/or explore new pedagogies that encourage the development of minority students' professional skills [15] [16]. Thus, the purpose of this study is to (1) identify the major deficiencies in STEM students' communication skills at Florida International University, a minority-serving institution; (2) analyze the relationship between students' presentation skills and factors such as academic level, gender, first-generation and international status; and (3) assess the outcomes of a lecture-style communication skills training on Construction Management students' presentation skills.…”