Dr. Khalafallah is an Assistant Professor and the Coordinator of the Construction Management degree program at Western Kentucky University. Prior to joining WKU, he worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering at the University of Central Florida. He holds a PhD degree in Civil Engineering with Computational Science and Engineering Option from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; an MS degree in Civil Engineering from Cairo University of Egypt and a BSc degree in Civil Engineering from the same university. He accumulated more than 12 years of industrial, research and teaching experience at a number of leading institutes, including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Central Florida, Cairo University, and Queen's University of Belfast.

EDUCATION

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, Illinois

Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering with Computational Science and Engineering Option, October 2006.

• Research Topic: Optimal Construction Site Layout Planning for Airport Expansion Projects.
• GPA: 3.967 / 4.0.

Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

• Master of Science in Civil Engineering, October 2002.
• Research Topic: Estimating Cost Contingencies of Residential Projects Using Belief Networks.
• GPA: 4.0 / 4.0; ranked 1st among 20 graduate students in Master courses..

Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

• Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, Distinction with 1st Class Honors, July 2000.
• Senior Graduation Project: Concrete Buildings Design.
• GPA: 3.89 / 4.0; ranked 1st among 405 students.

EXPERIENCE

• Assistant Professor & Coordinator of the Construction Management Program (2011 to Date)
• Department of Architectural & Manufacturing Sciences, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY
• Assistant Professor (2006 to 2011)
• Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
• Center Affiliate (2007 - 2011)
• Center for Advanced Transportation Systems Simulation (CATSS), University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
• Teaching and Research Assistant (2003 – 2006)
• Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL
• Assistant Lecturer (2002)
• Structural Engineering Department, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
• Teaching and Research Assistant (2000 – 2002)
• Structural Engineering Department, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
• Project Manager (2000 – 2002)
• Supervision of construction operations of 2 residential buildings, Cairo, Egypt.

Dr. Khalafallah's research interests are in bridging the gaps between the areas of computational intelligence, construction engineering, and sustainable infrastructure development. He conducted sponsored research on planning airport construction sites, maintenance of infrastructure projects, construction quality control, risk and uncertainty management, and cost analysis of construction operations. Khalafallah has several publications in these areas, including a recent book entitled “Construction Site Layouts: An Optimization Approach to Planning and Managing Airport Expansion Projects.”

Research Projects

1.  Electimize - A New Optimization Algorithm Inspired by Electric Current Flow in Circuits This project is supported by the University of Central Florida. The main objective of this project is to overcome the limitation of current non-linear optimization algorithms in evaluating the effect of changing the values of decision variables on the potential of reaching the optimal solution(s). Specifically, this fundamental research project aims at developing a novel optimization algorithm, named Electimize, which mimics the behavior of electrons flow through electric circuit branches with the least electric resistance. In the developed algorithm, solutions are represented by electric wires and are evaluated on two levels: a global level using the objective function, and a local level by evaluating the potential of each generated value for every decision variable.

2.   Cost and Quality Effectiveness of Material and Non-Material Models in Contractor Quality Control System: This $79,970 project is supported by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). The objectives of this research are to: (1) analyze the quality performance of Material Model projects against Non-Material Model projects of comparable size, nature of the work performed, and types of materials used; (2) perform a risk analysis study on the non-detection of failing materials during the construction process in both the Material and Non-Material Models; (3) conduct a cost analysis study to analyze and compare the overall costs of effort, time and human relations involved in both models; and (4) investigate if Construction Engineering Inspection staff are losing testing expertise due to the implementation of the new model.

3.   Florida Department of Transportation Maintenance Rating Program (MRP) - Assessment and Enhancement: This $80,000 project is supported by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). The objectives of this research are to: (1) assess, expand, and document the method used for assigning weights to the maintenance elements and characteristics; (2) validate the statistical process and the sampling mechanism currently used by FDOT to assess maintenance needs; and (3) evaluate the use of MRP as a measure for Florida highways and roads maintenance needs.

4.   Optimizing Airport Construction Site Layouts to Maximize Aviation Safety and Security: This $280,000 project is supported by NSF. The main research objectives of this project are to (1) develop novel multi-objective optimization models for airport construction site layouts that are capable of maximizing the control of construction debris hazards near critical airport areas, minimizing the hazards of attracting wildlife to airport construction sites, minimizing and eliminating all potential security breaches that may originate from construction sites, and minimizing overall site layout costs; and (2) develop robust information technology frameworks that are capable of supporting dynamic optimization and the continuous updating of optimal construction site layout plans, and providing enhanced visualization of the generated optimal solutions. The project integrates advanced methodologies from several disciplines, including construction and airport engineering, evolutionary computations, information technology, and object-oriented modeling in order to address a fundamental and critical gap in the existing knowledge and understanding of multi-objective and dynamic site layout optimization.

5.   Optimal Construction Site Layout Planning for Airport Expansion Projects: This $100,000 project is supported by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The objectives of this research are to: (1) formulate efficient methodologies to measure and quantify the impact of various site layout plans on safety of construction operations, safety of aviation operations and security of airports; (2) develop multi-objective optimization models that are capable of generating optimal tradeoffs among cost, safety and security; and (3) develop framework for generating portable site layout solutions that can be readily imported to various drafting software.

6.  Evaluation of Lighting and Operations for Nighttime Highway Construction: This $300,000 project was supported by the Illinois Department of Transportation, and aimed to evaluate the impact of nighttime construction operations on construction cost, quality, safety and productivity. The project also evaluated and recommended design criteria for lighting arrangements for nighttime construction operations.

7.   Estimating Cost Contingencies of Residential Building Projects Using Belief Networks: This Project is supported by Cairo University. The objectives of this research are to: (1) formulate efficient methodologies to assess the risk factors which influence the estimation of cost contingencies in residential building projects; (2) develop risk-contingency models to correlate the relationship between the degree of risk factors and the cost contingency estimation; and (3) develop advanced belief network models that are capable of providing cost contingencies estimates based on risk factors assessment.

8.   Investigating the Performance of Surface Treatment on Concrete Durability: This project is supported by Queen's University of Belfast. The objectives o

Books Authored

1. Khalafallah, A., 2008. “Construction Site Layouts: An Optimization Approach to Planning and Managing Airport Expansion Projects, VDM – Verlag, Germany, ISBN 978-3-639-04723-3.

Selected Journal Papers

2. Khalafallah, A., and El-Rayes, K. (2011). "Automated Multi-objective Optimization System for Airport Site Layouts," Journal of Automation in Construction, Elsevier, 20(4), 313-320.

3. Khalafallah, A., and Abdel-Raheem, M. (2011). “ELECTIMIZE: A New Optimization Algorithm with Application in Construction Engineering,” Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE, 25(3), 192-201.

4. Khalafallah, A. (2008) "Neural Network Based Model for Predicting Housing Market Performance,” Tsinghua Science and Technology Journal, ELSEVIER, Volume 13, No. S1, October 2008, 325-328.

5. Khalafallah, A., and El-Rayes, K. (2008) "Maximizing Security of Operating Airports during Expansion Projects,"Journal of Construction Engineering and Management in Engineering, ASCE, 134(1), 40-48.

6. Khalafallah, A., and El-Rayes, K. (2006) "Optimizing Airport Construction Site Layouts to Minimize Wildlife Hazards," Journal of Management in Engineering, ASCE, 22(4), 176-185.

7. Khalafallah, A., and El-Rayes, K. (2006) "Minimizing Construction-Related Hazards in Airport Expansion Projects," Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE, 132(6), 562-572.

8. El-Rayes, K., and Khalafallah, A. (2005). “Tradeoff between Safety and Cost in Planning Construction Site Layouts,” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE, 131(11), 1186-1195.

9. Khalafallah, A., and El-Rayes, K. (2004). “Safety and Cost Considerations in Site Layout Planning,” Housing and Building Research Center Journal, 1(1), HBRC, 141-150.

Selected Refereed Conference Papers

10. Jardaneh, M., Khalafallah, A., El-Nashar, A., and El-Mitiny, N. (2011). “A Framework for Optimizing Detour Planning and Development around Construction Zones,” the 2011 ASCE Workshop on Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE, Miami, Florida, USA,  June 19-22.

11. Abdel-Raheem, M., and Khalafallah, A. (2011). “Using Electimize to Solve the Time‐Cost‐Tradeoff Problem in Construction Engineering,” the 2011 ASCE Workshop on Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE, Miami, Florida, USA, June 19-22.

12. Abdel-Raheem, M., and Khalafallah, A. (2011). “Introduction of a New Optimization Mechanism for Electimize,” Computer Modelling and Simulation (UKSim), 2011 UkSim 13th International Conference on, IEEE, Cambridge University (Emmanuel College), Cambridge, UK, March 30 – April 1, 8-13.

13. Khalafallah, A., Yousef, N., Elshennawy, A., Abdel-Raheem, M. (2010) “Cost Effectiveness and Risks of Outsourcing Quality Control Verification for Highway Projects,” the 2010 Engineering Project Organizations Conference (EPOC), South Lake Tahoe, California, USA, November 4 - 6, 2010.

14. Khalafallah, A., Elshennawy, A., Yousef, N., Abdel-Raheem, M. (2010) “Evaluating Contractor Quality Control under Material and Non-Material Models,” Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Innovation in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) from June 9-11, State College, PA, June 9-11, 2010, 876-885.

15. Khalafallah, A., Elshennawy, A., Yousef, N., Abdel-Raheem, M. (2009) “Verification of Contractor Quality Control (CQC) Program: An Analytical Study to Assess New Trends in Verification Procedures,” Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Industry, Engineering and Management Systems (IEMS), Cocoa Beach, Florida, March 9-11.

16. Abdel-Raheem, M., and Khalafallah, A. (2009). “Framework For A Multi-Level Evolutionary Algorithm For Construction Optimization.” Proceedings of the 23^rd European Conference on Modeling and Simulation (ECMS 2009), June 9 – 12, Madrid, Spain.

17. Hosni, Y., Khalafallah, A., and Abdel-Raheem, M. (2009). ”Maintenance Rating Systems: Analysis and Enhancement of Elements and Features,” The 6th International Conference on Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Pavements and Technological Control, in review, July 8 -10, Torino, Italy.

18. Khalafallah, A., (2008). “Neural Network Based Model for Predicting Housing Market Performance,” Proceedings of the 12^th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering, Beijing, China, October 16-18, 2008.

19. Khalafallah, A., and El-Rayes, K. (2006). “Decision Support System for Optimizing Construction Site Layouts.” Joint International Conference on Computing and Decision Making in Civil and Building Engineering, ASCE, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, June 14-16, 2006.

20. Khalafallah, A., Taha, M., and El-Said, M. (2005) “Estimating Residential Projects Cost Contingencies Using a Belief Network.” Proceedings of Project Management: Vision for Better Future Conference, Cairo, Egypt, November 21-22, 2005.

21. Khalafallah, A., and El-Rayes, K. (2004). “Safety and Cost Considerations in Site Layout Planning.” Proceedings of the International Conference on Future Vision and Challenges for Urban Development, Cairo, Egypt, December 20-22, 2004.

Technical Reports & Dissertations

21. Hosni, Y., and Khalafallah, A. (2008). “Florida Maintenance Rating Program (MRP): Assessment and Enhancement,” Florida Department of Transportation, July 2008.

22. Khalafallah, A., Elshennawy, A., and Youssef, N. (2009). “Cost, Quality and Effectiveness of Material and Non-Material Models in Contractor Quality Control System,” Florida Department of Transportation, January 2009.

23. Khalafallah, A. (2006). “Optimal Construction Site Layout Planning for Airport Expansion Projects,” PhD. Dissertation, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, October 2006.

24. Khalafallah, A. (2002). “Estimating Cost Contingencies of Residential Buildings Projects Using Belief Networks,” M.Sc. Thesis, Structural Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt, June 2002.

Other Published Abstracts and Presentations at Scholarly Meetings

25. Khalafallah, A., Elshennawy, A., Yousef, N., and Abdel-Raheem, M. (2009). “Verification of Contractor Quality Control Program: An Analytical Study to Assess New Trends in Verification Procedures,” The 15th International Conference

Professional Activities & Service

• Reviewer, Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE, 2008 to present.
• Reviewer, Journal of Automation in Construction, Elsevier, 2008 to Present.
• Reviewer, Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, Wiley, 2009 to present.
• Reviewer, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE, 2005 to present.
• Reviewer, Journal of Construction Innovation: Information, Process, Management, EMERALD, 2007 to present.
• Reviewer, Accident Analysis & Prevention, Elsevier, 2008 to Present.
• Reviewer, Wiley Higher Education, 2009 to Present.
• Reviewer, Pearson Higher Education, 2009 to Present.
• Reviewer, McGraw Hill, 2010 to Present.

Leadership Role in Local, National, and International Conferences

• Judge for ASCE’s Annual South East Student Conference, Plan Reading and Estimating, Orlando, 2008.
• Member of the Scientific Committee of the International Conference on Sustainable Design and Construction, ASCE, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, March 23 - 25, 2011.
• Member of the Technical Committee of the 2010 Engineering Project Organizations Conference, South Lake Tahoe, California, USA, November 4 - 6, 2010.
• Member of the Technical Committee of the 19th International Conference on Management of Technology, Cairo, Egypt, March 8 - 11, 2010.
• Member of the Technical Committee of the 18th International Conference on Management of Technology, Orlando, Florida, USA, April 5 - 9, 2009.
• Member of the Technical Committee, ASCE Construction Research Congress, Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas, 2007.
• Member of the Technical Committee, ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering, Cancun, Mexico, 2005.
• Member of the Organizing Committee of the 8th Arab Structural Engineering Conference, Cairo, Egypt, October 21- 23, 2000.

Member of Graduate Student Committees

MS Students

• Diana Rey, “A Gasoline Demand Model for the United States Light Vehicle Fleet,” March 2009.
• Seema Jagtap, “Impact of Construction on Freeway Traffic Operations,“ May 2008.

 Undergraduate Students

Ryan O’Kelley, “Hybrid Algorithm for Predicting Fatigue,” Undergraduate Honors in the Major Thesis, July 20