Introduction

Preface by professor Geert Dewulf

In 2009 universities in the Netherlands were confronted with decreasing budgets as a result of a combination of the economic crisis, political decisions and increasing costs of operation.

Despite the dark clouds the department of Construction Management and Engineering has been active in generating new funds from the industry and in gaining funds from scientific tenders. The total portfolio of research projects grew in 2009 up to a total of 19 PhD researchers and 3 post doc positions. Several exciting new projects have been launched, you can read about these projects on this website. The first projects of Pioneering started in 2009. Pioneering is a regional community of practice consisting of local governments, the construction industry and knowledge institutes. Pioneering has a 6 million euros turnover per year and our group plays a key role in this community. Besides, the department is expanding her activities on integrated project delivery, sustainable and green buildings, visualization and simulation projects, building information modeling, innovative procurement systems and asset management.

Last year, approximately 50 master students graduated from the Department and, despite the recession, the graduates still have great career opportunities. Moreover, a growing number of alumnae are working in key positions in the industry. The department further launched some new promising education initiatives. The group is involved in the development of the Master Construction Management and Engineering and the Techno MBA Master of the University of the Netherlands Antilles. Another major new initiative is the development of the ABCDE master together with the Industrial Design Engineering Group.

We further strengthened our cooperation with the military academy resulting in several joint PhD projects and exchange of staff and students. Also, we continued our cooperation with colleagues in the 3TU Center of Competence (Speerpunt Bouw) and with other universities leading to a wide variety of joint projects in education and research.

We are pleased to offer you this website. This website is aimed at informing but also challenging you to becoming engaged with the work of the department. The mission of the Department of CME encompasses all aspects of the construction process to do with the definition, appraisal, design, delivery of the projects, and life-time behavior of objects. It deals with the interests of all stakeholders involved, as well as the construction business in its broadest sense. For this reason the thrust of the research is an interdisciplinary program focusing on integration of technology and management for the purpose of producing innovative solutions. The design oriented approach, the close co-operation with practice and the emphasis on integration of disciplines are major distinctive features of this research program.

We develop new insights in the complex world of construction processes which enables the next generation of construction engineers to manage integrated projects.