The U.S. Department of State has awarded $2 million in grants to a team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Building Construction, the Georgia Institute of Technology School of City and Regional Planning Center for Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and the Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU) Construction Management and Architecture Departments. 

The research will take place in the Karachi area of Pakistan and the Islamabad area of Afghanistan.  The multi-disciplinary team will study the educational needs of the population in the fields of design and GIS. The team will collaborate with the Indus Valley Institute of Art and Architecture and Kabul Polytechnic University in the creation of curriculum in these critical areas for development of the two countries.

Javier Irizarry, Ph.D, assistant professor in the School of Building Construction and a lead researcher of the project said “This multidisciplinary team will introduce the latest technology for design education and practice as well as for application of GIS to the population of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which will allow us to contribute to their continued development as well as to Georgia Tech’s strategic goal of expanding our global footprint and influence”

The Georgia Tech team lead by Irizarry, includes Subhro Guhathakurta, Ph.D, director of the Center for GIS, and research engineer Ramachandra Sivakumar.  The Georgia Tech team will concentrate their efforts on the development of curriculum and assessment methods while the SPSU team will assess faculty development needs and coordinate the deployment of the information technology required for the delivery of the educational content.  This project builds on previous collaborative work between Georgia Tech and SPSU in technology applications for construction education and research.

Irizarry is the director of the CONECTech Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology. He specializes in mobile computing in construction, human factors, construction safety, and IT applications in AEC Education and practice. He teaches graduate-level courses in virtual construction operations analysis and sustainable construction technologies and serves as the graduate coordinator for the Residential Construction Development track in the master’s program in the School of Building Construction at Georgia Tech.