Tariq
Abdelhamid, Ph.D.
Construction Management Program
·
CMP411
(BCM 411) - Construction Project
Scheduling (Fall of every year – since 2001)
Course
Description: Basic construction project scheduling procedures. Work breakdown
structure. Critical path method and scheduling logic. Activity durations. Status reports.
Resource allocation and control. PERT.
·
CMP
811 (BCM811) - Advanced Project Scheduling (Fall
of every year – since 2001)
Course
Description: Critical path analysis for effective and logical scheduling of
construction projects, Identification of project activities and their
relationships. Schedule development, analysis, and updating.
Relationship of project costs and resources to the schedule.
Effective communication of schedule information.
·
CMP831
(BCM891)- Lean
Construction Principles and Methods (Spring
of every year– since 2002)
Course Description: Origins and
elements of lean production. Lean Construction principles and methods. Lean-based productivity
improvement.
·
BCM
436 - Commercial Building Projects (Spring 2005)
Course Description: Evaluation,
procurement, and management of commercial building projects.
·
BCM
491- Introduction to Lean Construction (Spring 2003)
Course Description: Lean production
principles; Lean construction principles; Lean-based productivity improvement.
·
BCM 817- Computer-Integrated
Construction Management (Spring 2001)
Course
Description: Information generation and utilization for the management of
construction projects. Integration of construction management
software, conceptual modeling and knowledge-based models.
Teaching Philosophy
“Education
is not to teach men facts, theories or laws, not to reform or amuse them or
make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons,
inflame their intellect, teach them to think straight, if possible, but to
think nevertheless.” Robert M Hutchins.
My desire to move to academia was and still is to share all
I know about construction management in the best way I know how. I also respect the fact that every student
has a unique set of skills, experiences, and knowledge that I would like to
learn from and about.
The
traditional model of “Teacher” knows everything is something I
don’t subscribe to. Just like you,
and for numerous classes, I have been taught by a teacher who often
self-proclaimed to be omniscient and believed that he/she was omnipotent over
his/her students. To me, this model is
akin to a physician prescribing treatment to patients without actually talking
to them or even examining them. Other
teachers I had, attempted to change this conventional norm of teaching by
following a “Student” centered approach. I never liked this approach either because it
is a teaching model where the “Student” is expected to know everything
through a process of osmosis! To use the
physician analogy again, this is akin to asking patients to treat themselves
while a physician merely “signs-off” on their self-prescribed
treatment. I am fully in favor of a
topic-based approach where students and teacher all form a “circle”
and have meaningful discussions around the topic. This approach was followed by the teachers I
consider to have been the greatest I’ve ever had.
In general, I believe that
good teaching means that a student walks away from a class with a solid
foundation that would enable him/her to tailor the subsequent superstructure to
individual and personal desires and interests.
Teaching Quotes
·
“The
teacher does not exist for the sake of the student: both teacher and student
have their justification in the common pursuit of knowledge, and hence there is
unity of research and teaching.” Humbolt (1809)
·
Education fails unless the
three R's at one end of the school spectrum lead ultimately to the Four P's at
the other -- Preparation for Earning, Preparation for Living, Preparation for
Understanding, Preparation for Participation in the problems involved in the
making of a better world. - Norman Cousins.
·
Education is not to teach
men facts, theories or laws, not to reform or amuse them or make them expert
technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their
intellect, teach them to think straight, if possible, but to think
nevertheless. - Robert M Hutchins
·
Today only the
well-educated man or woman is equipped to work in an age of technology or to be
a good citizen in an age of complexity - John F Kennedy
·
"What are the purposes of and
priorities of teaching? First, to
inspire. Second, to challenge. Third, and only third, to impart information."
- J. Michael Bishop
·
"What all great teachers appear
to have in common is love of their subject, an obvious satisfaction in arousing
this love in their students, and an ability to convince them that what they are
being taught is deadly serious." - Joseph Epstein
·
The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to
be kindled.
·
Education is less expensive than ignorance.
·
The
more we learn, the less we know.
·
It’s
better to ask questions than to know all the answers.
·
Creativity
is to allow yourself to make mistakes. Art is to know which one to keep.
·
Learn
from the mistakes of others. You will
not live long enough to make them all.
·
Never
confuse the finger pointing at the moon with the moon itself.
·
A
teacher for a day is like a parent for a lifetime.
·
You
can take a horse to the water, but you can’t force it to drink.
·
Experience comes from good judgment,
but good judgment comes from bad experience.
·
Comfortable problems are more
acceptable than uncomfortable solutions.
·
Time is an excellent teacher, unfortunately it kills all its students.
·
What is true is not new, and what is
new is not true.
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Research is what I'm doing when I
don't know what I'm doing.
·
It's a damn poor mind that can only
think of one way to spell a word."-- Andrew Jackson
·
A flow of words is not proof of
wisdom.
·
As far as the laws of mathematics
refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do
not refer to reality.
·
It is not what we eat but
what we digest that makes us strong
It is not what we read but what we remember that makes us wise,
It is not what we earn but what we save that makes us rich,
It is not what beliefs we hold but what we do with those beliefs that make us
what we are!!