School of Engineering Goes to Egypt

Faculty from the UAB School of Engineering are visiting Egypt July 12 – Aug. 7 to teach international construction management courses in the newest technology and materials, including an emphasis on green materials and construction. Their students will come from the biggest construction firms in the Middle East. The program is a partnership with Misr University for Science and Technology (MUST) in Cairo.

July 17, 2008

• UAB faculty teach construction management in Egypt

• Focus on green materials and construction

• School's first international academic partnership

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Faculty from the UAB School of Engineering are visiting Egypt July 12 - Aug. 7 to teach international construction management courses in the newest technology and materials, including an emphasis on green materials and construction. Their students will come from the biggest construction firms in the Middle East. The program is a partnership with Misr University for Science and Technology (MUST) in Cairo.

UAB School of Engineering Dean Linda C. Lucas, Ph.D., and Fouad H. Fouad, Ph.D., chair of the UAB Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, recently returned from a trip to Cairo to finalize details of the trip, which is the first international academic partnership for UAB's School of Engineering.

"I think teaching construction management at Misr University is a great place for us to begin teaching internationally," Lucas said.

In addition to the construction company's engineers and construction managers, students also will come from the university and from the Housing and Building Research Center, a governmental research agency, which is under the supervision of the Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development.

"It's very exciting for us to be teaching to these groups," Fouad said. "To teach the American methods, techniques and how we do things here is very important. It brings people closer to us and enables us to work with them more easily in the future."

The four courses that are part of the certificate program are Sustainable Construction, Construction Methods and Equipment, Construction Accounting and Finance and International Construction and Business Law.

Jason Kirby, Ph.D. and Talat Salama, Ph.D., faculty in the civil, construction and environmental engineering, as well as Birmingham attorney Wood Herren  and Sabra Barnett of Bradley, Arant Rose & White, will be teaching the courses.

Kirby will teach Sustainable Construction, which emphasizes the environmental or green side of construction, for energy efficiency, lighting, aesthetics and the use of water and waste water handling. This is a type of construction not as widely adopted or pursued in Egypt as it is in the United States, Kirby and Fouad say. In addition to helping conserve natural resources, sustainable construction saves construction companies money in the long run.

Students who complete the course will receive a certificate in construction management, a valuable asset in the international construction community. School leaders hope the partnership will bring UAB's name in construction engineering and construction management to the global forefront.

"I think this endeavor helps make our civil, construction and environmental engineering program well-known throughout the nation and world," Fouad said.