Indianapolis, Indiana
June 15, 2014
June 15, 2014
June 18, 2014
2153-5965
Construction
12
24.589.1 - 24.589.12
10.18260/1-2--20480
https://peer.asee.org/20480
457
Dr Essam Zaneldin earned his PhD in 2000 from the University of Waterloo in the area of Construction Engineering and Management. Dr Zaneldin is a professional engineer currently working as an associate professor of Construction Engineering and Management at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, United Arab Emirates University. Dr Zaneldin is also the head of the College of Engineering Requirements Unit at the United Arab Emirates University. In addition to his experience in the academia, Dr Zaneldin has more than thirteen years of work experience in areas related to design, construction supervision, and project management of mega size projects in North America and the Middle East. He has authored and co-authored several journal and conference publications in topics related to engineering education and course management, design coordination, change management, site layout planning, constructability, claims and disputes, and simulation of design and construction operations.
Amr Sweedan is an associate professor of Structural Engineering and the Chairman of th Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the UAE University. He is a registered professional engineer in the province of Ontario, Canada (P.Eng.). Sweedan earned his Ph.D. in Structural Dynamics from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He received his M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Structural Engineering from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. Before joining the UAE University, Sweedan held the position of a Senior Engineer at the head office of Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin Inc. (RWDI), Consulting Engineers and Scientists, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Sweedan areas of research interest include: Modeling and Testing of Solid, Cellular and Castellated Steel Elements; Strengthening of Steel Structures using FRP Laminates; Evaluation of Structural Response to Seismic and Wind Loading; and Design and Behavior of Shell Structures under Hydrodynamic and Hydrostatic Pressures.
Munjed Maraqa is an associate professor and assistant director of the Roadway, Transportation and Traffic Safety Research Center at the UAE University. His research covers a broad range of issues related to modeling environmental systems, water quality, waste management, and traffic safety. Between 2008-2012, Maraqa acted as an advisor to Al Ain Municipality on the development of an EHS management system for the Building and Construction Sector in Abu Dhabi Emirate. Maraqa holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Jordan, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Michigan State University.
Extent of Construction Safety in the Engineering Curricula from the Perspective of Practitioners in the MENA RegionThe level of safety implied by the construction industry records is significantly low compared toother industries. The construction industry has the most dismal record of safety among allindustrial segments, with a risk of fatality that is about five times higher than in any otherindustry. The higher rate of accidents and fatalities in the construction industry could be due tothe nature of the work; however, several factors have been identified that could affectconstruction safety. Among these factors is the provision of construction safety education toengineering students. It is also believed that there is a greater ability to influence safety on aproject earlier in the project’s life cycle and such ability diminishes as the schedule moves fromconceptual design toward start-up. Thus, provision of construction safety education toengineering students will have benefits both for the project design and later in the procurementstage.Construction safety education for engineering students may involve two main aspects;construction site safety and design for construction safety (DfCS). Progress has been made inthe developed countries to incorporate both aspects in the engineering curriculum. However, theextent to which engineering students in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regionreceive construction safety education during their undergraduate study is not known. To assessthis extent, a survey was designed and distributed to engineering practitioners in some MENAregion countries. The survey was also utilized to assess the need for comprising constructionsafety education in the engineering curriculum. The study showed that about the majority of thesurveyed practitioner engineers did not receive construction safety knowledge during theiruniversity education. Of those who did, almost half received such knowledge during internship.Meanwhile, about half of those who received some construction safety education ranked thereceived level as being “average”. Initial results showed that the majority of the surveyedpractitioners believe that there is a need for more construction safety education at the universitylevel. The study will also suggest some modifications to enhance the current level ofconstruction safety education in the MENA region such as incorporating some topics of DfCS tobe included in traditional design courses in order to address this crucial issue.
Zaneldin, E. K., & Sweedan, A. M., & Maraqa, M. A. (2014, June), Extent of Construction Safety in the Engineering Curricula from the Perspective of Practitioners in the MENA Region Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--20480
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