Mounir El Asmar joined the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment in 2012 as assistant professor.
El Asmar’s work covers innovative project delivery systems, including integrated project delivery (IPD) and design-build (DB), as well as evaluating the sustainable performance of built facilities.
IPD is a relatively new method that collaboratively integrates all key participants in a multiparty contract very early in the project timeline. The goal of this new delivery system is to maximize efficiency and reduce waste, to ultimately deliver better facilities in a faster timeframe. Since IPD has only been used recently, El Asmar has been researching projects that use IPD and comparing their performance, in terms of costs, quality, and time, to traditional project performance. El Asmar is extending this research to look at the lifecycle of facilities in an effort to develop a framework for sustainable building performance.
El Asmar has been involved in applied research related to innovative delivery systems for highway projects. Another research interest is cost estimating, which led to him developing new cost estimating tools for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation,
At ASU, El Asmar will continue to work on advances in innovative delivery systems, coupling it with sustainable performance of the built environment. He has developed 5D models that evaluate project performance based on contractual terms, social tone of project participants, and technology and tools used in the process. The model visually demonstrates how integrated delivery systems are superior in performance to traditional systems.
El Asmar will be teaching a class on sustainable construction at ASU. He says he would like to work with ASU students interested in contributing to his research in both IPD and sustainability.
“Buildings account for about half of the U.S. energy usage. If you really want to have a meaningful impact on the world, buildings are a great place to start,” he says.
El Asmar holds a Ph.D. in construction engineering and management and M.S. in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a B.E. in mechanical engineering from the American University of Beirut.
For more information, visit his website: faculty.engineering.asu.edu/asmar.
