Ashuri's most significant research and scholarly accomplishments are one book, one book chapter, 20 journal articles, seven research reports, 44 refereed conference proceedings, 23 invited research presentations, and ten poster presentations. He has been principal investigator of 14 external research projects, total worth of $1,981,606, sponsored by several public and private organizations, such as National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), Construction Industry Institute (CII), Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), and American Utility Management (AUM). He has been principal investigator of 12 internal research projects, total worth of $133,641, sponsored by several Georgia Tech units, such as Digital Building Lab (DBL), Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Georgia Tech Foundation (GTF), and Georgia Intern Fellowships for Teachers (GIFT).
Ashuri is the recipient of several research awards for his scholarly accomplishments. He was recently selected to Engineering News-Record (ENR) Southeast’s “Top 20 Under 40” list for 2014. His research project “Recommended Guide for Next Generation of Transportation Design Build Procurement and Contracting in the State of Georgia” received 2013 High Value Research “Sweet Sixteen” Award from the Value of Research Task Force of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). “A Real Options Model to Evaluate Toll Highway Project under Two-Phase Development Plan” published in the Built Environment Project and Asset Management Journal was the 2012 Highly Commended Award Winner at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence. “An Investment Analysis Framework for Energy Retrofit in Existing Buildings” received the Best Paper Award from the 47th Annual International Conference of the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC). In 2014, Ashuri was elected as the secretary of the ASCE Construction Research Congress (CRC) and was appointed as the vice chair of the ASCE T&DI Committee of Sustainability. Ashuri holds a Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering, an M.S. in operations research, and an M.S. in Building Construction and Facility Management, all from Georgia Tech, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Sharif University of Technology.
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Summary of Sponsored Research Projects
Title: Valuation of Investments in Building Energy Improvements under Uncertainties
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $250,000
Source: Civil Infrastructure Systems Program, Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation, National Science Foundation
Title: Streamlining Project Delivery through Risk Analysis
Role: Principal Investigator (Co-Principal Investigators: Dr. Gordon Kingsley and Dr. Juan Rogers (School of Public Policy, Georgia Tech))
Funding: $499,994
Source: Georgia Department of Transportation
Title: Managing a Portfolio of Projects – Metrics for Improvement
Role: Co-Principal Investigator (Principal Investigator: Ali Touran (Northeastern University) and Co-Principal Investigator: Ed Minchin (University of Florida))
Funding: $250,000 – Funded ($60,273 is Georgia Tech’s budget)
Source: Construction Industry Institute (CII)
Title: Innovative Project Delivery Using Alternative Financing Mechanisms: Assessment of Benefits, Costs, and Risks
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $206,164
Source: Georgia Department of Transportation
Title: Solar, Installation, Mounting, Production, Labor, and Equipment Balance of System (SIMPLE BoS)
Role: Subcontractor to the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in year 2 for conducting productivity and time and motion study (The project is led by the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.) in collaboration with Suniva (Norcross, Georgia, U.S.) and Radiance Solar (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.).
Funding: $41,006
Source: Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) SunShot Initiative (The GTRI project is $2.87 Million Federal, $5.87Million Total Project Value)
Title: A Systematic Approach for the Assessment of Green Opportunities for Electrical Contractors
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $7,000
Source: ELECTRI International – The Foundation for Electrical Construction
Title: Best Practices for Determining Value of Research Results
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $30,000
Source: The Southeast Transportation Consortium (STC) and the Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC)
Title: Development of Risk Management Strategies for State DOTs to Effectively Deal with Volatile Prices of Transportation Construction Materials
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $169,045 – Funded ($76,552 from NCTSPM; $92,493 from GDOT)
Source: Georgia Tech National Center for Transportation Systems Productivity and Management (NCTSPM) (The US Department of Transportation/Research & Innovative Technology Administration), with the matching fund provided by the Georgia Department of Transportation.
Title: How Can Innovative Project Delivery Systems Improve GDOT’s Overall Efficiency in Transportation Project Delivery?
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $199,976
Source: Georgia Department of Transportation
Title: Timing of Investments in Building Solar Energy Intervention: A Real Options Framework to Evaluate Investments in Solar Energy for Buildings
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $10,337
Source: The Education Trust of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), London, UK
Title: Recommended Guide for Next Generation of Transportation Design Build Procurement and Contracting in the State of Georgia
Recipient of 2013 High Value Research “Sweet Sixteen” Award by the Value of Research Task Force, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $172,242
Source: Georgia Department of Transportation
Title: AUMScore®, Multifamily Property Utility Benchmarking Program
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $37,977
Source: American Utility Management (AUM), Inc.
Title: A Time Series Model for Forecasting Construction Cost Index
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $7,600
Source: The Education Trust of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, London, UK
Title: DBL Community of Practice for Productivity Analysis of Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) Coordination
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $32,000
Source: Digital Building Laboratory (DBL)
Title: Determine the Impact and Effectiveness of BIM
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $32,000
Source: Digital Building Laboratory (DBL)
Title: Pricing Flexibility in Solar-Ready Homes
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $10,041
Source: Georgia Tech Foundation (GTF)
Title: Uncertainty Analysis Games for Teaching Construction Risk Management
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $1,000
Source: Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow
Selected Publications
1) Castro-Lacouture, D., Irizarry, J., and Ashuri, B. (2014). Construction Research Congress: Construction in a Global Network, ASCE, 2405 pp.
2) Shahandashti, S.M., and Ashuri, B. (2013). “Forecasting ENR Construction Cost Index using Multivariate Time Series Models.” ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 139(9), 1237–1243.
3) Kim, D. Y., Han, S. H., and Ashuri, B. (2013). “Financial Valuation of Investments in International Construction Markets: A Real Options Approach for Market Entry Decision Making.” ASEC Journal of Management in Engineering, 29(4), 355–368.
4) Ashuri, B., Kashani, H., Lu, J., and Shahandashti, S.M. (2013). “Investment in solar energy: An alternative approach.” Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Land Journal, September/October 2013, 20.
5) Ashuri, B., Shahandashti, S.M., and Lu, J. (2012). “Empirical Tests for Identifying Leading Indicators of ENR Construction Cost Index.” Construction Management and Economics, 30(11), 917-927.
6) Ashuri, B. and Tavakolan, M. (2012). “A Fuzzy Enabled Hybrid Genetic Algorithm‐Particle Swarm Optimization Approach to Solve Time‐Cost‐Resource Optimization (TCRO) Problems in Construction Project Planning.” ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 138(9), 1065–1074.
7) Ashuri, B., Kashani, H, Molenaar, K.R., Lee, S. and Lu, J. (2012). “A Risk-neutral Pricing Approach for Evaluating BOT Highway Projects with Government Minimum Revenue Guarantee Options.” ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 138(4), 545-557.
8) Ashuri, B., Lu, J., and Kashani, H. (2011). “A Real Options Framework to Evaluate Investments in Toll Road Projects Delivered under the Two-Phase Development Strategy.” Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 1(1), 14-31 (Highly Commended Award Winner at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012).
9) Ashuri, B. and Lu, J. (2010). “Time Series Analysis of ENR Construction Cost Index.” ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 136(11), 1227-1237.
10) Fard, J., Kangari, R., and Ashuri, B. (2010). “The Effects of Organizational Variables on Hospital Costs in Georgia.” International Journal of Facility Management, 1(2), 1-21.
11) Ashuri, B. (2010). “Valuation of Flexible Leases for Corporate Tenants Facing Uncertainty in Their Required Workspace.” International Journal of Strategic Property Management, 14(1), 49-72.
12) Durmus-pedini, A., and Ashuri, B. (2010). “An Overview of the Benefits and Risk Factors of Going Green in Existing Buildings.” International Journal of Facility Management, 1(1), 1-15.
13) Ashuri, B., Rouse W.B., and Augenbroe G. (2007). “Different Models of Work in the Modern Services Enterprise.” Work, workflow, and information systems, IOS Press, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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