Project Management Program

Dr. Miroslaw J. Skibniewski

A. James Clark Chair Professor
Project Management Program
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
A. James Clark School of Engineering
E-Construction GroupUniversity of Maryland, College Park

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Biography

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Dr. Miroslaw J. Skibniewski is the A. James Clark Endowed Chair Professor of Construction Engineering and Project Management in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland in College Park. Prior to his current appointment he served for 20 years as a faculty member at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he held a position of Professor of Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering and Management. He received his M.Eng. degree from Warsaw University of Technology, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University.  Prof. Skibniewski is also a graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education Management Development Program.  Prior to his academic career, he worked in the industry as an engineer with the Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory, a nationwide construction engineering consulting firm in Pennsylvania subsequently renamed to Professional Service Industries, Inc. - where he was in engaged in design quality reviews, construction related claims, value engineering, forensic engineering and industrial safety investigations.

As a researcher and educator, Professor Skibniewski currently specializes in e-commerce technology applications to engineering project management for construction and in construction automation.  He developed one of the first construction automation programs in the United States and collaborated with major industrial and government organizations both in the United States and overseas.  Dr. Skibniewski served as a Visiting Senior Research Scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Melbourne, Australia, as Visiting Research Professor with the Institute for Mechanized Construction and Rock Mining in Warsaw, Poland, as Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Honorary Visiting Professor at Loughborough University in England. He served as Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grantee at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, as Taiwan Science & Engineering Foundation Visiting Professor at Chung-Hua University and at National Taiwan University, and as Fulbright Senior Specialist at the Instituto de Altos Estudios Empresariales in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Dr. Skibniewski served on the National Academy of Engineering USA-Germany and USA-Japan Frontiers in Engineering committees, American Society of Civil Engineers' Robotics and Field Sensing Committee, Information Technology Committee, and  Intelligent Computing Committee, various technical committees of the Construction Industry Institute based at the University of Texas at Austin, and on the National Academy of Sciences  Assessment Panel for construction automation and computer integrated construction programs at the  National Institute of Standards and Technology.  He was a founding member of the Board of Directors and is Past President of the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction currently based in Munich, Germany.  Dr. Skibniewski is also Editor-in-Chief (Construction Technologies & Engineering) of Automation in Construction, an ISI-indexed international research journal published by Elsevier, as well as a member of editorial boards of ten other scientific journals.

Among Prof. Skibniewski¡¯s past honors are the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award from President Ronald Reagan (1986), American Society for Engineering Education Best Paper Award (1991), American Society of Civil Engineers' Walter L. Huber Research Prize (1998), Civil Engineering Faculty Medal from the Slovak University of Technology (2004), Honorary Professorship from Warsaw University of Technology (2005) and Moscow State Industrial University (2006), and many grants and awards from government and industry for support of his research.  In 2006 Dr. Skibniewski was elected as a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Engineering. He is listed in Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who: American Men and Women in Science, Who¡¯s Who in Engineering, Who's Who Online, and in other national and international biographical references.  Prof. Skibniewski is an author or co-author of over 150 technical publications and of more than 100 invited research presentations worldwide. 

As Assistant Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Associate Provost of Purdue University between 1997 and 2004, Dr. Skibniewski served as a member of the group of the University¡¯s chief academic officers. His work in this capacity included chairing and coordination of the University¡¯s Academic Reinvestment Program and the Faculty Program of Study in a Second Discipline.  As Interim Dean of International Programs and Director of International Research between 2002 and 2004, he served as Purdue University¡¯s chief international officer responsible for foreign relations, global cooperation in research and external engagement, study abroad programs, and international students and scholars. In this capacity he represented the University on the Board of Directors of the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA) and served as the institutional representative to the association of senior international officers of the Committee for Institutional Cooperation (CIC) - an administrative and academic organization of the senior officers of the ¡®Big Ten¡¯ universities. 


University Appointments

  • Academic 

2005-present, A. James Clark Endowed Chair Professor of Construction Engineering and Project Management, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland at College Park. Teaching and research in advanced project management systems, legal aspects of engineering, selection and management of construction equipment and information technology for civil engineering and construction.

1995-2006, Professor, Division of Construction Engineering and Management, School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University at West Lafayette, Indiana. Teaching and research in project engineering and management, construction equipment and management systems automation, computer-aided design-construction integration, administrative and legal aspects of engineering practice, enterprise resource planning applications in construction, and management of information technology.

1990-95 Associate Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University. Teaching and research as above.

1986-90 Assistant Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University. Teaching and research as above.

1982-86 Research and Teaching Assistant, Engineering Planning & Management Program, Department of Civil Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University. Teaching Assistant in engineering planning and management, and traffic analysis and management. Research related to project management, industrial safety, technology transfer and management, production automation, engineering economics, and construction robotics. 

  • Administrative

2004, Director of International Research, Purdue University. Coordinated planning and implementation of international research and professional training initiatives for the University. Led training program proposal preparation efforts for the acquisition of resources from the U.S. Dept. of State and from private donors worldwide.

2002-2004, Interim Dean of International Programs, Purdue University. Led formulation of the strategic plan in the area of Purdue's international relations, as well as planning and implementation of all institutional activities related to international education, research, and service. Responsible for planning, implementation and management of approx. $4 million annual budget and for the supervision of the Associate Dean, Director of the Office of Study Abroad Programs, Director of the Office of International Students and Scholars, and approx. 40 professional staff in three offices under the responsibility of the Dean. As senior international officer of the University, represented Purdue on the Board of Directors of Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA), on the Committee for Inter-institutional Cooperation (CIC), and in other multi-lateral organizations. Executed planning effort leading to the hiring of a development officer for the Office of International Programs. Designed and oversaw institutional effort to increase study abroad participation by Purdue students by over 70% in two years.

2001-2004, Associate Provost, Purdue University. Member of the group of chief academic officers responsible for all aspects of academic planning and management of the University.

1997-2001, Asst. Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Purdue University. Co-responsible for matters of University resource policy, university-wide research initiatives, program development, evaluation and administration, and academic budget and planning. Provided academic oversight for campus-wide computer resource acquisition programs, including a $6 million equipment grant from Intel Corporation. Coordinated university-wide Academic Reinvestment Program and Faculty Program of Study in a Second Discipline with annual budgets in the range of $2 million. 


Other Professional Positions

1993 Research Engineer (25% IPA), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) Robotics Center, Champaign, IL. Long-term strategic planning of Army construction robotics development program.

1993 Visiting Research Professor (sabbatical), Institute for Mechanized Construction and Rock Mining (IMBiGS), Warsaw, Poland. Planning of long-range research in construction equipment, automated construction technologies, and environmental protection for civil infrastructure and construction projects. Conducted seminars on construction automation technology and technology transfer.

1992 Visiting Senior Research Scientist (sabbatical), Division of Building, Construction and Engineering, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Research in decision support systems for construction process automation and robotics, automated construction process modeling, advanced construction simulation and optimization.

1981-82 Staff Engineer (full time), Engineering Dept., Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory (a nationwide construction engineering consulting firm, later renamed to Professional Services Industries, Inc.), Pittsburgh, PA. In charge of a nationwide engineering testing program for the U.S. Department of Transportation; conducted structural engineering investigations, failure analyses, design evaluations, value engineering studies, construction claims analyses, structural and construction safety assessments, and forensic engineering projects for various corporate clients.


Licenses

EIT (Pennsylvania; March 1983)

 

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