​Research Areas

Heat Stress

• Lyu, P., Song, S.*, Watts, P. “Risk Analysis of Occupational Heat-Related Illness.” Associated Schools of Construction International Conference (ASC 2022). 

Heat-related illness (HRI) has become a particular concern in recent years. Many industry workers are affected by HRI due to prolonged exposure to heat and humidity. HRI is a well-known health threat that can lead to serious morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to recognize HRIs characteristics and risk factors by reviewing the HRI incident report between 1984 and 2020. 

• Lyu, P., Marchiori, R., Song, S.*, Zhang, F. “Analysis of A Heat-related Illness Training Program for Industry Workers” Associated Schools of Construction International Conference (ASC 2022). 

• Song, S., Zhang, F. “A Study on Assessing the Awareness of Heat-Related Illnesses in the Construction Industry.” ASCE Construction Research Congress (CRC 2022).

This study aims to assess people’s knowledge of heat-related illnesses. The findings of this study address what areas heat-related trainings should emphasize. The participants’ knowledge of heat related illness prevention is related to their age and whether they had previously participated in heat related trainings. The results of this research can help with future development in heat-related trainings and help companies on their safety practices.

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​​Workplace Safety and Health

• Kim, S.*, Song, S., Lee, D., Kim, D., Lee, S., and Irizarry, J. (2021). “A Conceptual Model of Multi-Spectra Perceptions for Enhancing the Safety Climate in Construction Workplaces.” Buildings, 11(8), 347.

​Construction safety climates can reflect organizational safety behavior and commitment, employees’ safety perceptions and attitudes, and the supervisory and support environments. Maintaining a healthy safety climate can help prevent workers from fatal accidents and illnesses. To enhance the safety climate and, consequently, improve safety performance at a construction site, it is very important to analyze the elements that affect the safety climate and are significant for different types of construction work organizations. Therefore, the main goal of this study was to develop a multi-spectra perception model to investigate which factors were considered critical from four key perspectives: managers, superintendents, skilled laborers, and general helpers. 

• Song, S.* and Awolusi, I. (2020). “Industrial Safety Management Using Innovative and Proactive Strategies.” In Concepts, Applications and Emerging Opportunities in Industrial Engineering. IntechOpen.

Safety is considered a top priority due to its significance in safeguarding human lives and properties, especially in high-risk industrial sectors such as aviation, oil and gas, construction, transportation, steel manufacturing, and mining industries. These industries are plagued by workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities because of the dangerous work environments. As such, it is very vital to integrate safety into every work process in any industrial environment just like quality is built into products and services. It is important to establish and execute an effective safety management system to prevent the risks of irreversible accidents. 

• Song, S.*, Awolusi, I., and Jiang, Z. (2020, November). Work-Related Fatalities Analysis Through Energy Source Recognition. In Construction Research Congress 2020: Safety, Workforce, and Education (pp. 279-288). Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers.​

This study aims to analyze fatalities and catastrophe data inspected by federal or state OSHA within the past 5 years. Machine learning techniques such as text mining and multidimensional visualization can assistant personnel involved in dangerous activities by identifying and controlling the potential hazards associated with that job or activity. Using these two techniques, hazards could be effectively managed and eliminated.

• Song, S., Lyu, Q., Marks, E., and Hainen, A. (2018). “Steel manufacturing incident analysis and prediction.” Journal of Safety, Health and Environmental Research, 14(1), 331-336.

• Song, S., Awolusi, I., and Marks, E. (2017). “Impact of discretionary safety funding on construction safety. “Journal of Safety Health and Environmental Research, 13(2), 378-384.

• Awolusi, I., Song, S., and Marks, E. (2017). “Forklift safety: Sensing the dangers with technology.” Professional Safety, 62(10), 36-39.

• Song, S., Marks, E., and Pradhananga, N. (2017). “Impact variables of dump truck cycle time for heavy excavation construction projects.” Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management, 7(2), 11-18.

• Song, S. and Marks, E. “Proximity Detection and Warning Technology for Heavy Construction Equipment” Poster presented at the ASSP 2016 (First Place Poster Award)

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BIM Education and Adoption

• Song, S.*, Zhang, C., Marks, E. “Effectiveness and Practicability Analysis of BIM Adoption in the AEC Industry” ​ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering (i3CE2021)Applications of Building Information Modeling (BIM) have widely infiltrated various construction fields. BIM serves as a set of technologies to maximize productivity, increase collaboration, and improve work efficiency throughout the project life cycle. BIM also supports the best practices of other emerging technologies by creating a platform for integration and coordination. The process, approach, and strategy of implementing BIM can impact the entire project’s cost and schedule performance. A need exists to evaluate the effectiveness and practicability of the current BIM practices. 

• ​​Song, S.*, Alzarrad, M.A., and Kim, S. “Improving BIM Integration and Implementation in Construction Education.” ASCE Construction Research Congress (CRC 2022).​

This study aims to investigate and learn what the current curriculum for BIM looks like and how the industry can utilize BIM. The findings on this study addresses BIM skills and tries to reduce the gap between academic programs and industry. This study also provides suggestions and curriculum improvement on BIM education.

• ​Li. H., Zhang, C.*, Song, S., and Demirkesen, S. (2020) “A Framework for Automatic Tolerance Analysis of Removable Flood Wall Anchor Plates With 3D Laser Scanning and BIM” 6th International Project and Construction Management e-Conference (IPCMC)

• ​Li. H., Zhang, C.*, Song, S., and Demirkesen, S. and Chang, R. (2020). “Improving Tolerance Control on Modular Construction Project with 3D Laser Scanning and BIM: A Case Study of Removable Floodwall Project” Applied Sciences, 10(23), 8680.​

This study aims to detect the assembly quality of anchor plates for a removable floodwall through the integration of BIM and 3D laser scanning. This paper examines a semi-automated method integrating the use of BIM and 3D laser scanning technology for rapid analysis of the assembly quality of anchor plates. The results indicate that the proposed integration of BIM and 3D 

laser scanning could possibly produce a semi-automated and reliable method to control the assembly quality of anchor plates.

• Sherafat. B., Rashidi, A.*, and Song, S. (2020). “A Software-Based Approach for Acoustical Modeling of Construction Job Sites with Multiple Operational Machines.” ASCE Construction Research Congress: Computer Applications (CRC 2020)​

Currently, recognizing activities of multiple machines on a job site is hardware-oriented, on the basis of using several single
microphones installed on a board under specific geometric layout and beamforming principles for classifying sound directions for each machine. However the common hardware-approach has limitations and using microphone arrays is not always a feasible option at ordinary job sites. This paper aims at proposing a software-oriented approach using Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) and Time-Frequency Masks
(TFMs) to address this issue. This method would require using single microphones.

• Song, S.* and Marks, E. (2019). “Construction Site Path Planning Optimization through BIM.” ASCE Computing in Civil Engineering: Visualization, Information Modeling, and Simulation (i3CE 2019)

This study aims to design a BIM-based strategy and automated path planning method to compute and display an equipment travel path that is efficient in a BIM environment. By implementing BIM as a project communication platform, automated path planning for equipment within a construction environment can become possible. The framework for this research is tested with active construction sites data. The feedbacks from workforce and management is assessed and integrated into the research approach.

Sponsors

The function of the SAVE Lab is dependent on external funding. Members of our group would like to thank current and past sponsors for their contribution in advancing worker safety training and workforce development. The following sponsors have funded research programs completed by the Safety Automation and Visualization Environment (SAVE) Lab.