William J. O'Brien
Dr. William J. O'Brien
Assistant Professor
Construction Engineering & Project Management Program
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Texas at Austin
C-1752
Austin, TX 78712-0273

Telephone: (512) 471 4638
Fax: (512) 471 3191
E-Mail: wjob "at" mail "dot" utexas "dot" edu

"We're Texas. What Starts Here Changes the World." Watch a Windows Media file.

Research and Professional Interests

I am interested in cost and information modeling of collaborative systems to aid construction industry efforts in design-build, supply-chain management, and e-commerce.

Current research project include:

1. Subcontractor cost and information modeling, as part of a larger initiative in supply-chain management.
2. Determining the value of collaborative information technology (such as project web-sites) on design and construction projects.
3. Design and implementation of next generation collaborative systems, including integration of heterogeneous information and connection of distributed processes.
   
   Much of this research is funded by the National Science Foundation through Information Technology Research (ITR), Partnership for Advanced Technology in Housing (PATH), and Scalable Enterprise Systems (SES) grants.

My broader interests include:

• supply-chain management & lean construction
• Internet and 4D CAD applications
• contracting for collaboration
• implementation issues associated with adoption of new systems
  

Education:

Ph.D.	Civil and Environmental Engineering	Stanford University	1998
M.S.	Engineering-Economic Systems	Stanford University	1994
M.S.	Civil Engineering	Stanford University	1992
B.S.	Civil Engineering	Columbia University	1991

Professional Experience (Selected):

Membership in Professional Societies:

Honors and Awards:

Research Students

Current

Ting-Kwei Wang, Ph.D..
Marcelo Azambuja, Ph.D. (web)
Anthony Gonzales, M.S.
Mohsin Siddiqui, Ph.D.
Thuy Nguyen, Ph.D. (web)
Youngcheol Kang, Ph.D.
Bin-Chao Liao, Ph.D.
Wenhan Hu, M.S.
Marc Distefano, M.S.
Keith Chow, M.S.
Jiangnan Yi, B.S.

Graduated

Ph.D. Students
Hong Long Chen (Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, I-Shou University, Kaohsing, Taiwan)
Mohammad EL-Mashaleh (Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Hashemite University, Jordan)
Otto Fetterhoff (URS Corporation)
Haiyan Xie (Assistant Professor, Department of Construction Management, College of Engineering, University of Arkansas - Little Rock)

Masters' Students
Dae Young Kim
Lauren McMillan
Michael Hurley
Chuan Song
Michael Maruri
David Tyus
Jaehyun Choi
Rodrigo Castro-Raventós
Umut Kocoman
Luis Silva
Deepa Rasalkar
Mera Faddoul
Ben Lun

Courses

Special Seminars
Spring 03 IT in Construction Reading List

Current
ARE323K - Project Management & Economics
CE395Q.1 - Project Controls I
CE395Q.2 - Project Contols II
CE397V.1 - Ph.D. Research Seminar

Past (University of Florida)
BCN 5779 - Facilities Management & Operations
BCN 5905- Collaborative Design Processes (taught in conjunction with faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; formerly CCE 6505)
BCN 5470- Production Systems in Construction (aka Construction Methods Improvement; formerly CGN 6905)
BCN 4709C/BCN 5705 - Construction Project Management
BCN 6933 - Human Factors
CGN 6905 - Research as a Modeling Process
EGN 4032 - Professional Issues
EGN 1002 - Introduction to Engineering

Publications

Dissertations

O'Brien, W. (1998). Capacity Costing Approaches for Construction Supply-Chain Management, Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University.

Publications in Archival Journals

El-Mashaleh, M., W. O'Brien, and R. E. Minchin. (2006). “Firm Performance and Information Technology Utilization in the Construction Industry.” ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 132(5), pp. 499-507.

Chen, H.-L., W. O’Brien, and Z. Herbsman. (2005). “Assessing the Accuracy of Cash Flow Models: The Significance of Payment Conditions.” ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(6), pp. 669-676.

Yang, B., J. Geunes, and W. O'Brien. (2004). “A Heuristic Approach for Minimizing Weighted Tardiness and Overtime Costs in Single Resource Scheduling.” Computers and Operations Research, 31(8), pp. 1273-1301.

O'Brien, W., K. London, and R. Vrijhoef. (2004). "Construction Supply Chain Modeling: A Research Review and Interdisciplinary Research Agenda." ICFAI Journal of Operations Management, 3(3), pp. 64-84. Reprint of 2002 IGLC-10 conference paper (link below).

O'Brien, W., L. Soibelman, G. Elvin. (2003). "Collaborative Design Processes: An Active- and Reflective Learning Course in Multidisciplinary Collaboration." Journal of Construction Education, 8(2), pp. 78-93. On-line: Paper / Journal

O’Brien, W., R. Issa, J. Hammer, M. Schmalz, J. Geunes, and S. Bai. (2002). “SEEK: Accomplishing Enterprise Information Integration Across Heterogeneous Sources,” ITCON-Electronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction, Special Edition on Knowledge Management, 7, 101-124. On-line: Paper / Journal

O'Brien, W., and M. Fischer. (2000). "Importance of Capacity Constraints to Construction Cost and Schedule," ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 126(5), 366-373.

O'Brien, W. (1996). "Lean Production, Lean Construction: New Paradigm Goes With the Flow," editorial for the ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering, 12(2), 3-4.

O'Brien, W., M. Fischer, and J. Jucker. (1995). "An Economic View of Project Coordination," Construction Management & Economics, 13(5), 393-400.

O'Brien, W. and K. Fergusson. (1994). Discussion of "ADR, TQM, and Other Management Fantasies," ASCE Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 120(2), 235-237.

Edited Books

Issa, R., Flood, I., and O’Brien, W. (Eds). (2003). 4D CAD and Visualization in Construction: Developments and Applications, A.A. Balkema, Lisse, The Netherlands, 287 pages.

Book Chapters

Hammer, J. and W. O’Brien. (2005). “Enabling Supply Chain Coordination: Leveraging Legacy Sources for Rich Decision Support.” In Geunes, J., E. Akçali, P. M. Pardalos, H. E. Romeijn, and Z. J. Shen. (Eds.). Applications of Supply Chain Management and E-Commerce Research in Industry, Kluwer Applied Optimization Series, Kluwer, pp. 253-298.

O’Brien, W., and Soibelman, L. (2004). “Technology and Engineering Dimensions: Collecting and Interpreting New Information for Civil and Environmental Management.” In Zimmerman, R. and T. Horman, (Eds.) Digital Infrastructures: Enabling Civil and Environmental Systems Through Information Technology, Routledge, pp. 19-36.

Laefer, D., W. O’Brien, and R. Steiner. (2004). “Integrated modeling agenda for sustainable communities via reconfigurability.” In Aydilek, A. and J. Wartman (eds.) ASCE Geotechnical Special Publication No. 127, Recycled Materials in Geotechnics, ASCE, pp 214-229.

O’Brien, W., R. Issa, Z. Shen, and H. Xie. (2004). “Configurable environments: a vision for future project information technologies.” In Kazi, S. (ed.) Knowledge Management in the Construction Industry: A Socio-technical Perspective, pp. 339-358.

O’Brien, W. (2003). "4D CAD and Dynamic Resource Planning for Specialist Contractors: Case Study and Issues." In Issa, R., Flood, I., and O’Brien, W. (Eds), 4D CAD and Visualization in Construction: Developments and Applications, A. A. Balkema, Lisse, The Netherlands, pp. 101-124.

O'Brien, W. (1997). "Construction Supply-Chains: Case Study and Integrated Cost and Performance Analysis." Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Reprinted in Luis Alarcón (Ed.). (1997). Lean Construction, The Netherlands, A.A. Balkema, pp 187-222.

Conference Proceedings

Xie, H., R. Issa, and W. O’Brien. (2005). “An Extensible User Model Driven Architecture for Construction Information Systems,” Proceedings of the 2005 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering, Cancun, Mexico, July 11-15, 12 pages.

Shen, Z., R. Issa, W. O’Brien, and I. Flood. (2005). “A trade construction knowledge module to enable use of design component data in project management,” Proceedings of the 2005 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering, Cancun, Mexico, July 11-15, 10 pages.

El-Mashaleh, M., E. Minchin, and W. O’Brien. (2005). “Benchmarking construction firm performance.” Proceedings of the 11th Joint CIB International Symposium: Combining Forces: Advancing Facilities Management and Construction through Innovation. June 13-15, 2005, Helsinki, Finland, 10 pages.

Fetterhoff, O. and W. O’Brien. (2005). “Planning to get work: An evaluation of market forecasting techniques by large design and construction firms.” Proceedings of the ASCE Construction Research Congress 2005, San Diego, CA, April 5-7, pp. 273-277.

El-Mashaleh, M., W. O’Brien, and E. Minchin. (2005). “Construction Firm Performance and IT Utilization.” Proceedings of the ASCE Construction Research Congress 2005, San Diego, CA, April 5-7, pp 642-646.

W. O’Brien and J. Hammer. (2004). “Future Force and First Responders: Building Ties for Collaboration and Leveraged Research and Development.” Invited full paper and presentation. Proceedings of the 24th Army Science Conference, Orlando, Florida, November 29-December 2, 2004, 7 pages.

O’Brien, W. and J. Hammer. (2004). “A case study of information integration problems in first responder coalitions.” Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Knowledge Systems for Coalition Operations (KSCO-2004), Pensacola, FL, October 26-28 (postponed), 2004, 145-149.

Danso-Amoako, M., W. O’Brien, and R. Issa. (2004). “A case study of IFC and CIS/2 support for steel supply chain processes.” Proceedings of the of the 10th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE-10), Weimar, Germany, June 2-4, 2004, 12 pages.

Xie, H., R. Issa, and W. O’Brien. (2004). “Structure of a formal user model for information retrieval.” Proceedings of the of the 10th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE-10), Weimar, Germany, June 2-4, 2004, 11 pages.

El-Mashaleh, M. and W. O’Brien. (2004). “An empirical study relating construction firm performance and IT utilization.” Proceedings of the of the 10th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE-10), Weimar, Germany, June 2-4, 2004, 12 pages.

Soibelman, L., W. O’Brien, and G. Elvin. (2004). “Collaborative design processes: a class on concurrent collaboration in multidisciplinary design.” Proceedings of the of the 10th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE-10), Weimar, Germany, June 2-4, 2004, 12 pages.

Jiang, A., R. Issa, and W. O’Brien. (2004). "Using an analytic hierarchy process to design and construction supply chain." Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop of the European Group for Intelligent Computing, Weimar, Germany, June 3, 2004, 12 pages.

O’Brien, W., R. Issa, and I. Flood. (2003). “Moving from Information Tunnels to Configurable, User-Model Driven Environments: A Vision for Future Project Information Technologies.” Proceedings of the Fourth Joint International Symposium on Information Technology in Civil Engineering, Nashville, TN, November 15-16, 2003, 10 pages. On-line: Paper

Flood, I., R. Issa, and W. O’Brien. (2003). “Barriers to the development, adoption, and implementation of information technologies: case studies from construction.” Proceedings of the Fourth Joint International Symposium on Information Technology in Civil Engineering, Nashville, TN, November 15-16, 2003, 4 pages.

Jiang, A., W. O’Brien, and R. Issa. (2003). “Construction supply chain performance measurement.” Proceedings of the Fourth Joint International Symposium on Information Technology in Civil Engineering, Nashville, TN, November 15-16, 2003, 17 pages.

Shen, Z., R. Issa, W. O’Brien, and I. Flood. (2003). “A proposed design component and schedule data integration model for construction.” Proceedings of the 10th European Group for Intelligent Computing in Engineering Workshop, Delft, The Netherlands, July 3-4 2003, SOON, pp 66-75.

Hammer, J., W. O’Brien, and M. Schmalz. (2003). “Scalable knowledge extraction from legacy sources with SEEK.” Proceedings of the NSF/NIJ Symposium on Intelligence and Security Informatics, Tuscon, Arizon, June 2-3, 2003. Reprinted in H. Chen, R. Miranda, D. Zeng., C. Demchak, J. Schroeder, T. Madhusdan (eds). (2003). Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2665: Intelligence and Security Informatics, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 346-349.

O’Brien, W., R. Issa, R. Castro-Raventós, J. Choi, and J. Hammer. (2003). “Inducting subcontractor process ontologies: Challenges, methods and illustrative results.” Proceedings of ASCE Construction Congress 7, Honolulu, Hawaii, March 19-21, 2003, 8 pages. On-line: Paper

O’Brien, W., K. London, and R. Vrijhoef. (2002). “Construction supply chain modeling: a research review and interdisciplinary research agenda.” Proceedings the Tenth Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, Gramado, Brazil, August 6-8, 2002, pp.129-148. On-line: Paper / Conference Proceedings

Soibelman, L., W. O’Brien, and G. Elvin. (2002). “Encouraging Concurrent Collaboration in Multidisciplinary Design Projects: A Classroom Based Study.” Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Concurrent Engineering in Construction - CEC02, University of California at Berkeley, July 1-3, 2002, 10 pages.

Hammer, J., M. Schmalz, W. O’Brien, S. Shekar and N. Haldevnekar. (2002). “SEEKing knowledge in legacy information systems to support interoperability.” Proceedings of the ECAI-02 Workshop on Ontologies and Semantic Interoperability, Lyon, France, July 21-26, 2002, 6 pages.On-line: Paper / Conference Proceedings

Soibelman, L., O’Brien, W., and Elvin, G. (2002). “CDP – Collaborative Design Processes: A Classroom Based Study Serving as a Laboratory for Studying A/E/C Distributed Design” Proceedings of the Workshop on the Role of Empirical Studies in Understanding and Supporting Engineering Design, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, April 4-5, 2002, 11 pages.

O’Brien, W. and J. Hammer. (2001). "Robust Mediation of Construction Supply Chain Information." Proceedings of the ASCE Special Conference on Fully Integrated and Automated Project Processes in Civil Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 26-28 September, 415-425.

El-Mashaleh, M., W. O’Brien, and K. London. (2001). "An Envelopment Methodology to Measure and Compare Subcontractor Productivity at the Firm Level," Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 6-8 August, 17 pages. On-line: Paper / Conference Proceedings

O'Brien, W. (2000). "Multi-Project Resource Allocation: Parametric Models and Managerial Implications." Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom. On-line: Paper / Conference Proceedings

O'Brien, W. (2000). "Towards 5D CAD - Dynamic Cost and Resource Planning for Specialist Contractors." Invited paper for the Special Program on 4D CAD and Visualization. In K. Walsh (Ed.), Proceedings of ASCE Construction Congress 6, Orlando, Florida., pp. 1023-1028.

O'Brien, W., M. Fischer, and B. Akinci. (1997). "Importance of Site Conditions and Capacity Allocation for Construction Cost and Performance: A Case Study." In Tucker, S.N. (Ed.), Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. On-line: Paper  / Conference Proceedings

O'Brien, W. (1995). "Construction Supply-Chains: Case Study and Integrated Cost and Performance Analysis." Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Reprinted in Luis Alarcon (Ed.). (1997). Lean Construction, The Netherlands, AA Balkema, pp 187-222.

O'Brien, W., and M. Fischer. (1993). "Construction Supply-Chain Management: A Research Framework." In B. H. V. Topping & A. I. Kahn (Eds.), CIVIL-COMP-'93, Information Technology for Civil and Structural Engineers. Edinburgh, Scotland: CIVIL-COMP Press, pp. 61-64.

Griffis, F., D. Rubinson, W. O'Brien, S. Retailleau, and R. Zabilsky. (1991). "Productivity Applications: 3D Models & Simulation." Proceedings of Construction Congress '91. New York: ASCE, pp. 247-252.

White Papers, Technical Reports & Working Papers

*Shin, J., J Hammer, and W. O’Brien. (2005). “Process Integration for the Building Construction Domain: Experiences and Opportunities for Future Research.” Technical Report TR05-003, Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, University of Florida, 15 pages.

Ellis, R, J. Degner, W. O’Brien, and G. Peasley. (2003). “Review, Analyze, and Develop Benefit/Cost Return on Investment Equations, Guidelines, and Variables.” Research Report BD03, Florida Department of Transportation, March 2003, 84 pages.

O'Brien, W. (2002). "A Call for Cost and Reference Models for Construction Supply Chains." IGLC-11 CFP White Paper Series: Supply Chain Thrust Area, 3 pages. Paper

Hammer, J., M. Schmalz, W. O’Brien, S. Shekar, and N. Haldavnekar. (2002). “Enterprise Knowledge Extraction in the SEEK Project Part I: Data Reverse Engineering,” Technical Report TR02-008, Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, University of Florida, 30 pages.

O’Brien, W. (2001). “Enabling Technologies for Project Supply Chain Collaboration,” Invited White Paper for the NSF/ICIS Infrastructure and Information Technology Workshop, June 25-27, 2001, Arlington, VA, 4 pages. Paper

Yang, B., J. Geunes, and W.J. O’Brien. (2001). "Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling: Past Work and New Directions," Working Paper 2001-06, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Florida, 28 pages

O'Brien, W. (1999). "Construction Supply-Chain Management: A Vision for Advanced Coordination, Costing, and Control." NSF Berkeley-Stanford Construction Research Workshop, Stanford, California, August, 1999.  On-line: Paper / Conference Notes

O'Brien, W. (1995). "Beyond Partnering: Rethinking Project Management," Working Paper No. 42, Center for Integrated Facility Engineering, Stanford University, 18 pages.

O'Brien, W. (1994). "Positive and Prescriptive Conceptions of Construction Network Organization," Working Paper No. 28, Center for Integrated Facility Engineering, Stanford University, 20 pages.

Professional Publications

O’Brien, W. (2003). “Where IT is Having an Impact On the AEC Industries in the Post-Internet Boom,” invited guest editorial, ASCE Journal of Leadership and Management in Engineering, April 2003, 3(2), pp. 66. On-line: Paper

O'Brien, W. (2000). "Implementation Issues in Project Web-Sites: A Practitioner's View," ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering, feature article, May 2000, 16(3), pp. 34-39.

Griffis, F., W. O'Brien and P. Bronner. (1990). "Columbia Construction Research: The Applications of Three-Dimensional Computer Models in Construction," Architectural & Engineering Systems, pp. 18-23.

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