Dr. El Asmar is an Assistant Professor with the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University (ASU), and the Co-Director of the National Center of Excellence on SMART Innovations, housed at ASU’s School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. His research activities have focused on evaluating the performance of sustainable construction, cost engineering, and innovative project delivery methods.

Dr. El Asmar has developed courses for both the University of Wisconsin-Madison and ASU, where he currently teaches sustainable construction and alternate delivery methods. He also teaches yearly professional continuing education courses on cost estimating. Throughout the last five years, Dr. El Asmar has completed several studies for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT).  Most recently, he led a research team to develop a conceptual cost estimating tool now required for all high-profile WisDOT projects. He also developed quantitative methods and mathematical models to support decision making by removing biases from design-build team selection, and applied his models on the I-35W Minnesota Bridge.  Moreover, Dr. El Asmar performed the first quantitative performance assessment of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) from the contractor’s perspective.  

Dr. El Asmar has presented his research in several venues, most notably at the annual Transportation Research Board meetings, the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction, and the Construction Research Congress. His work is published in several ASCE journals and was recognized regionally by the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, nationally through the 2010 Best Paper Award of the ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, and internationally by the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering.

For more information, please visit http://faculty.engineering.asu.edu/asmar/.