School of Planning, Design and Construction

This past year we lost a beloved staff person Cathy Morrison to cancer. Cathy worked at MSU for 27 years and touched the lives of students and faculty alike. Devoted to the Construction Management Program, she did anything that she could to improve it. She helped organize the annual golf outing and made sure that everything was in order before and after the event.

Her contributions to the program are too many to list. A number of faculty, students and alumni have donated to the Cathy Morrison Construction Management Student Scholarship fund. With more gifts we can make the fund an endowment that will be at MSU forever. Thank you for your support.

Our Students

Jonglim Yoo, CM Advisor, shares the following about our undergraduate student body:

• We have 115 declared majors in Construction Management and about 35 prospective students taking our 100 and 200 level courses not yet able to declare Construction Management since they are at junior status and have not completed all of our upper admission requirements. They will be reviewed at the end of this spring semester.

• Our last Construction Management Career Fair, October 2011, hosted 30 construction companies. We had almost 200 students in attendance, more than half of them in Construction Management.

• We have about 8 female students (or 6%) from freshmen to seniors. Including racial, ethnic diversity (excluding international) we have a little more than 12% of CM that classify as minorities (women and students of color).

• Of our current spring graduating class, roughly 60% are already placed with positions at the beginning of February. This is probably a low estimate since roughly 40% of the students have yet to report. Our placement data surveys are sent out after graduation. Spring semester will be unusual with a group of international students from Dubai which may throw off placement rates.

• As for last fall’s 2011 graduating class, we had almost 90% job placement.

• The CM Competition Team won sixth place in the nationals this year.

Valerie Geyer, Graduate Secretary, shares the following information about our graduate student body:

• We have 16 CM master’s students and 8 doctoral students in the program.

• Seventeen master’s degree students will have graduated during the past year and our first two doctoral students will be awarded their degrees in May, 2012.

Faculty News Highlights

Dr. Sinem Korkmaz, Assistant Professor, in addition to teaching two graduate courses, has also published two journal articles, two proceedings articles, and one report in the last reporting period. She also served as PI or Co –PI on $149,819 in grants.

Dr. Mohamed A. El-Gafy, Assistant Professor, taught one undergraduate and two graduate courses; he also published three journal articles, one proceedings article and presented 11 professional presentations in the last reporting period. He serves as major professor to one of our first two doctoral students to graduate from our program in May of 2012.

Dr. Tariq Abdelhamid, Associate Professor, taught two graduate courses; he also published two journal articles and made nine professional presentations. He was PI and Co-PI on $158,000 grants and contracts in the last reporting period. Tariq also served as the lead facilitator of MSU Way-ECOS project helping to get all the partner groups on the same page and time line for new construction projects and a planned maintenance.

Professor Tim Mrozowski taught three undergraduate and one graduate course; he led and was PI on an energy code workshop series that trained 1500 building code officials, home builders, architects and contractors across Michigan. He served as PI and Co-PI on $577,307 in contracts and grants.

Dr. Matt Syal, Professor, taught one undergraduate course twice and one graduate course; he published four journal articles, six conference proceeding articles/abstracts and was PI or Co-PI on $476,000 in grants and contracts during the last reporting period. He was named Visiting Chair at Lady Irwin College at the University of Delhi and was invited by the United Nations to contribute a module on Construction Management in their Encyclopedia on Sustainable Development.

Dr. Armagan Korkmaz, Assistant Professor, taught two undergraduate courses and two more as a part of the first CM study abroad course in Turkey. He receives very good evaluations from the students in his classes. He published three journal articles, three web journal articles and was Co-PI on $115,000 of ongoing contracts and grants.

Dr. Dennis Welch, Specialist, taught six undergraduate courses during the last appointment period and received excellent student evaluations for his work. Dennis also teaches a summer Construction Safety course off campus.

Marcus Metoyer, Jr., MA, taught five courses during the last reporting period. Marcus receives very high reviews from his students. He is the Advisor of the Student Builders and Contractors organization. He participates in the CM career fair, AGC Michigan Chapter, arranging for the SCAN and attends the educator’s forum. He also worked with Professor Mrozowski to present three of Energy Code workshops.

Paul Streng, Specialist, taught five undergraduate courses during the last reporting period. The students enjoy his classes and his teaching style. He has developed a new summer course that will be offered off campus to allow more flexibility for our students and to generate revenue for the program. Paul also represents the CM program on the Academy for Design and Construction Advisory Council.

I am very proud of our faculty’s work during this last year. It was accomplished during a year when two of our CM faculty lost brothers and four lost parents. Our program, faculty and students will continue to do great things.

Please remember to sign up for the annual golf outing!