Construction Project Management Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Overview

This Construction Project Management program from Worcester Polytechnic Institute is designed to meet the growing needs of professionals with practical knowledge and expertise in design/construction engineering processes, legal relations, and the organization and use of resources, including materials, labor, equipment and capital.

Curriculum combines courses in civil engineering, management science, business and economics, and system dynamics.

Highly customizable plans of study enable students to explore a wide range of topics including sustainable construction practices, fire protection, supply chain management, building information modeling, and systems thinking.

Students learn from and work closely with expert WPI faculty members who have practical experience in construction project management and continue to be serve as consultants to leading corporations.

Program Learning Outcomes

Depending on the student’s chosen plan of study, the MS in construction project management will prepare her/him to achieve the following learning outcomes:

• Obtain a rich toolset of skills to effectively manage human and capital resources through all phases of the construction process, including preconstruction interface with the customer, project costing, organization, time scheduling, contracting risk mitigation and contract administration.

• Learn the challenges of working with customers and company staff, including delivery systems, legal issues, contracts liability, dispute resolution, loss prevention, proposal development, professionalism and ethics.

• Perform in-depth cost and schedule analyses that include unit estimates, costing databases, values engineering, productivity, cost control, etc, that provide guidance for price bidding, negotiations and claims management.

• Develop a robust understanding of the importance and intricacy of local ordinances, laws and customs that impact a major project. This includes building codes, bylaws, zoning ordinances and labor laws. Learn the legal responsibilities along with prudent communication tones and protocols with owners, abutters and city/town officials.

• Understand how the use of Building Information Modeling, as the latest construction management tool, improves efficiency, communication and fosters real time collaboration between owners, investors, architects, engineers, contractors and any other stakeholder involved in the project. The Building Information Model serves as the central repository and dashboard for graphic information, specifications, delivery data, responsible supplier, etc. on each element of the project. Issues or errors can be caught early with this visualization tool.

• Identify and mitigate project risk through robust analytical methodology. A broad set of applications are covered including supply chain quality assurance, fire protection, environmental impacts and information security.

• Apply Systems Thinking tools to better understand how the project is impacted by the larger physical, social and commercial ecosystem that surrounds it. Concepts include causal loops and feedback, system leverage points, delays and oscillations, assumptions, unintended consequences, emergent properties, patterns, self-organization and more.

• Develop awareness and understanding on how the modern constructed facilities are designed, built and operated under sustainable practices and lean processes.