From the pyramids via modern CE to automation & robotics: progress or regress?

Construction management courses are currently mostly based on frontal lectures, homework and exams – where the exams comprise of questions similar to the ones that the professor showed in the lectures & later the student is asked to solve at home. In practice, construction engineers are required to be able to quickly resolve unstructured complex problems, under conditions of uncertainty, by finding, collecting and integrating information from different sources and providing creative solutions. We propose that a learning-centered approach to the education of the construction management student, in which s/he is confronted with the need to find solutions for such complex problems, and to identify the relevant data, will better prepare the future engineer for the profession. Moreover, the students have to be exposed to the fact that there is more than one correct solution and none of the solutions is perfect. Ethical dilemmas in particular may require construction managers to resolve problems for which they cannot rely on simple formulas. An elective course in construction management, which has been developed over the past four years, in which these principles have been incorporated, will be described.