International Visiting Scholars

In late July the School hosted two distinguished International academics Professors Ghassan Aouad and Chimay Anumba. They are both Centre for Integrated Project Solutions Academic Advisory Committee members along with Professor Swee Mak, Design Research Institute Director, Professor Ron Wakefield (Chair) and Professor Kerry London (Centre Director). The inaugural meeting was the key purpose of their visits and excellent advice was imparted to Kerry on the way forward for the Centre which she will share with the members over the coming months as they shape the future directions. The Advisory Committee were very impressed with CIPS’ progress and trajectory. They were excited by members’ quality research outcomes and highly encouraging for the future growth. This meeting further cemented existing strong international connections with Penn State University and the University of Applied Science Bahrain.

Professor Aouad is President of the University of applied Science Bahrain and has had a long and distinguished career – most notably his extensive work at Salford University and the Chartered Institute of Building. The Centre for Integrated Project Solutions hosted a talk by Ghassan on the Art and Science of Research which was well attended by staff in the School. As usual Ghassan peppered his talk with entertaining anecdotes whilst also imparting some serious advice and wisdom. Ghassan is also the immediate Past President of the Chartered Institute of Building and it was an excellent opportunity for the School executive to meet with CIOB and discuss future engagement particularly around student experience, networking and mentoring opportunities.
It was also our delight to host a very informative talk from Chimay on Building Information Modelling on a very early Monday morning to a packed crowd of Rebecca Yang’s final year undergraduate students – as well as some staff who also braved the chilly weather. Chimay has held a long interest and a very active research career in this area. As current Department Head of Architectural Engineering at PSU he leads a staff who have engaged with the US industry BIM community and in particular introduced a suite of superb guides that are well used and highly regarded. Chimay is also well known to the School through his innovative work at Loughborough on the Doctoral Engineering program.
CIPS looks forward to future exciting collaborations with these institutions through many touch points.