RESEARCH AREAS
The University of Alberta’s Nasseri School of Building Science and Engineering is working on different research areas to make residential construction more sustainable. Some of these research areas include:
Industrialized construction: Building parts of buildings in a plant and assembling them on site to reduce waste and emissions.
Sustainable building materials: Exploring new materials and manufacturing processes that are more environmentally friendly and sustainable, such as bamboo and straw.
Energy-efficient building systems: Developing new systems for heating, cooling, and lighting that use renewable energy sources and can optimize energy usage.
Building performance analysis: Using advanced sensors and monitoring systems to track building performance and identify areas for improvement.
Building codes and regulations: Examining building codes and regulations to encourage the use of sustainable building materials and systems.
The school is committed to promoting sustainable construction practices through innovative research and education. Its research areas aim to reduce waste, improve safety and affordability, and use sustainable building materials and systems.
PROJECTS
Project 1 – Data-driven estimation of the electrical energy flow dynamics of community-shared solar PVs (CSS-PV) associated with net-zero energy ready (NZEr) communities:
This project, funded by NSERC/Alliance, aims to develop new techniques for estimating the electrical energy flow dynamics of community-shared solar PVs (CSS-PV) associated with net-zero energy ready (NZEr) communities. Led by Dr. Mustafa Gül and co-applicant Dr. Yuxiang Chen, the project will leverage data-driven approaches to optimize the performance of CSS-PVs and develop a better understanding of the dynamics of energy flows in NZEr communities. The project will run from March 2022 to March 2025.
Using renewable energy in buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a well-accepted strategy. However, most applications are at the building level, with less than 30% using renewable energy on-site. To address this, community-shared solar energy has gained popularity due to its flexibility and financial advantages. But there’s currently no method to estimate the energy dynamics of communities using this technology.
This project aims to develop a framework to evaluate the energy performance of residential communities with solar energy systems. It will include a simulation model that considers minute-by-minute energy consumption and generation data, providing insights into energy dynamics under different climates. The research will also provide guidelines for designing community-shared solar energy systems.
By promoting renewable energy in residential communities, the project will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and introduce new technology to the Canadian homebuilding market, potentially changing perceptions about solar energy feasibility and economics.
→ Funder/Program: NSERC/Alliance
→ Applicant: Dr. Mustafa Gül
→ Co-applicants*: Dr. Yuxiang Chen
→ Tenure: Mar 2022 to Mar 2025
Project 2 – Industrialization and decarbonization of the construction process:
This project, led by Dr. Mohamed Al-Hussein and funded by NSERC Alliance Grant, aims to explore how technology can improve the construction industry while reducing carbon emissions. It will run from January 2023 to January 2028. Building construction is an important industrial sector, yet it is lagging in innovation, employing conventional methods with high rates of waste, human error, rework, and occupational hazards.
To address the issues in the offsite building construction sector, the objectives include improving productivity through lean concepts, developing technologies for mechanization and automation, implementing data-driven planning and management, proposing a BIM-based framework for automation and assessment, applying AI tools for digitalization, improving occupational safety through ergonomics, and developing a framework for onsite installation using mobile cranes. These efforts aim to achieve environmental benefits by reducing CO2 emissions and material waste, while also promoting occupational health and generating economic benefits such as job creation, improved productivity, skilled workforce training, affordability, and exportable building products.
→ Funder/Program: NSERC/Alliance
→ Applicant: Dr. Mohamed Al-Hussein
→ Co-applicants*: Dr. Ahmed Bouferguene, Dr. Mustafa Gül, Dr. SangHyeok Han (Concordia University), Dr. Ivanka Iordanova (École de technologie supérieure), Dr. Zhen Lei (University of New Brunswick), Dr. Xinming Li, Dr. Osama Moselhi (Concordia University)
→ Tenure: Jan 2023 to Jan 2028
Project 3 – Constriction-oriented digital twins for multi-dimensional production planning and control
The project, led by Dr. Yasser Mohamed and funded by an NSERC Alliance Grant, aims to achieve significant progress in mass customization within the manufacturing sector. This progress will be achieved through the development and implementation of advanced production planning and control strategies, including digital twinning and Industry 4.0. These advancements have yielded improvements across multiple aspects of manufacturing operations, such as logistics, risk management, production process optimization, and team collaboration. While many academics and practitioners have advocated for the application of such advancements to the construction sector, several barriers have prevented these methods and techniques from being implemented as-is by the construction industry.
The construction industry is primarily driven by project-centric operations producing made-to-order (i.e., custom-built) facilities that are characterized by unique designs, distinct site conditions, production teams, stakeholder groups, and contractual agreements that differ considerably from one project to another. Achieving an integrated multi-dimensional approach is rendered exponentially more challenging in this context.
This research project will leverage the diverse expertise and the long-standing industrial partnerships of our research team to develop new approaches that enhance the collection of as-built project data—and, importantly, the synchronization between such data and project plans—to improve the forecasting and control of current builds and the planning of future projects. The envisioned approaches are expected to provide usable solutions to our industrial collaborators in the short term while enabling the research team to develop a more unified and generalizable framework for integrating such solutions.
The research project will target several management focus areas including (1) productivity monitoring and control, (2) risk assessment and forecasting, and (3) sustainability and waste reduction. These research themes were selected based on the availability of real-time data at our partner organizations, the current needs of our industrial partners, the expertise of the research team, and the anticipated impact of the proposed solutions on the performance of construction organizations across Alberta and Canada. Research discoveries will be deployed as demonstration projects with our industrial partners.
→ Funder/Program: NSERC/Alliance
→ Applicant: Dr. Yasser Mohamed
→ Co-applicants*: Dr. AbouRizk, Dr. A.Fayek, Dr. M. Lu, Dr. F. Hamzeh, Dr. A. Hammad
→ Tenure: May 2023 to May 2028
PUBLICATIONS