Biography:

Professor Baabak Ashuri is Executive Director of the Professional Master’s in Occupational Safety and Health (PMOSH), Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Professor of Building Construction, and Fellow of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) at Georgia Tech. Dr. Ashuri’s research has advanced theoretical foundations and applications of data analytics, economic decision analysis, and quantitative methods for infrastructure systems and construction engineering and management, allowing other researchers to use his findings for enhancing the performance of infrastructure operations on several subdomains directly related to pre-construction decisions, e.g., artificial intelligence (AI) and design automation, alternative contracting methods (ACMs), infrastructure finance and public-private partnership (P3), and energy technology investments. Dr. Ashuri has 242 publications in these fields, including 86 refereed journal articles, 103 peer-reviewed conference papers, 50 research reports and guidebooks, 1 co-edited book, and 2 referred book chapters. Dr. Ashuri secured a funding amount of over $17M from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Department of Energy (DOE), Build America Bureau (BAB), Georgia Department of Transportation (Georgia DOT), South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), Construction Industry Institute (CII), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Southeast Transportation Consortium (STC), Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC), Turner Construction, and Perkins + Will, to name a few. Dr. Ashuri received many awards including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (Thomas Fitch Rowland paper award), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) High Value Research “Sweet Sixteen” Award, and the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) (Distinguished Leadership – Faculty). Dr. Ashuri has chaired the ASCE Construction Research Council (CRC) and served on the ASCE Construction Institute (CI) Board of Governors. Dr. Ashuri serves as the Southern Region Director of the USDOT Build America Center (BAC), which leads cutting-edge research on the use of innovative financing, funding, and project delivery solutions. 

Teaching Interest:

Quantitative Methods for Construction Research
Value Management for Integrated Facility Design and Construction
Construction Management & Megaprojects
Economic Analysis, Risk Management, Risk Financing, & Insurance for Safety Professionals
Occupational Safety and Health Capstone

Research Interest:

Data Analytics and AI for Construction Project Management
Quantitative Methods for Construction Engineering and Project Management

Digital Delivery – BIM for Infrastructure
BIM Log Mining: Data Mining of BIM ProjectsConstruction and Infrastructure Economics

Construction Cost Analysis and Forecasting
Risk Management
Construction Claims Analysis

Innovative Project Delivery Systems and Alternative Contracting Methods (ACMs)
Project Finance and Public-Private Partnership (P3)

Real Options Analysis for Infrastructure Asset Valuation
Investment Evaluation Methods
Energy Investment Evaluation

Transportation Asset Management
Resilient Infrastructure Systems  

List of Recent Scholarly Work:

Paik, Y., Chung, F., and Ashuri, B. (2025). “Preliminary Cost Estimation of Pavement Maintenance Projects Through Machine Learning: Emphasis on Trees Algorithms.” ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering. Accepted.  
Oh, J., Touran, A., D’Angelo, D., Clark, T., Fisher, C., Gaskins, C., and Ashuri, B. (2025). “Machine Learning–Enhanced Recurrent Event Modeling for Change Order Recurrence in Highway Construction.” ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering, 41 (5), 04025032.
Singh, P., Amekudzi-Kennedy, A., Ashuri, B., Parrillo, T., Rizzi, D., Clark, R., Woodall, B., Chang, h. (2025). “Case Study of Flood Risk and Vulnerability in The City of Atlanta – A Social, Economic, Technical, and Institutional Perspective.” Resilient Cities and Structures, 4(2), 1-13.  
Lee, J.H., Seok, C., Hamilton, P., Kingsley, G., and Ashuri, B. (2025). “Strategies for Effective Scope Validation During Pre-and Post-Award Phases in Design-Build Infrastructure Projects.” ASCE Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction. Accepted.
Oh, H.J., and Ashuri, B. (2025). “Wage Variances and Disparities: Unraveling the Impact of Spanish-required and Locational Variables in Construction Job Market.” ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering. 41 (1), 04024061.
Hamilton, P., Kingsley, G., and Ashuri, B. (2024). “Common Challenges and Comprehensive Strategies for Utility Risk Management in Alternative Delivery Infrastructure Contexts.” ASCE Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction. 16(4), 04524020.
Oh, J., Chung, F., Koo, C., Castro-Lacouture, D., and Ashuri, B. (2024). “Empirical Adaption of Work/Rest Schedules to Physiological Variability in Heat Response.” Safety Science. 177, 106574.  
Li, M., Zeng, Q., and Ashuri, B. (2024). “Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Design Automation: A Two-stage Framework for Structure Configuration and Design.” ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering & Management. 150 (8), 04024083.
Thu, M.K., Hamilton, P., Lee, J.H., Kingsley, G., and Ashuri, B. (2024). “A Critical Assessment of Material Price Adjustment Clauses for Transportation Design-Build Projects.” ASCE Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction. 16(3), 04524008.  
Chung, F., Doyle, A., Robinson, E., Paik, Y., Li, M., Baek, M., Moore, B., and Ashuri, B. (2024). “Ensemble Machine Learning Classification Models for Predicting Pavement Condition.” Transportation Research Record (TRR), Journal of the Transportation Research Board. 03611981241240766. 
Oh, H.J., Mistur, E., and Ashuri, B. (2024). “Critical Review of Public-private Partnership (P3) Business Models for Enhancing Broadband Initiatives in the United States.” ASCE Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction. 16(1), 04523047.
Wang, J., Li, X., Memari, A., Skitmore, M., Zhong, Y., Ashuri, B., Chen, J., and Cao, J. (2024). “Assessing the Implementation and Effectiveness of China’s Social Credit System of the Construction Industry: A Case Study of Nanjing.” International Journal of Construction Management. 1-10. 
Zeng, S., Chung, F., and Ashuri, B. (2024). “Forecasting Right-of-Way (ROW) acquisition timeline of transportation projects.” Built Environment Project and Asset Management. 14 (2), 129-146.
Cuadra, M., Garrett, A., Tennakoon, M., Amekudzi-Kennedy, A., Woodall, B., and Ashuri, B. (2024). “Effective Practices in Flood Adaptation by Recognizing System, Organization, and Project Interdependencies.” Transportation Research Record (TRR), Journal of the Transportation Research Board. 03611981241231960.
Oh, H.J., and Ashuri, B. (2023). “Enriching GPS Data for Expanding Interpretation of Emergency Vehicles using a Pathfinding Algorithm and Spatial Data Harvesting Methods.” Sustainable Cities and Society. ELSEVIER. 95, 104600.

Degrees with Year of Award:

Ph.D.        2008        Georgia Institute of Technology        Industrial and Systems Engineering

M.S.        2006        Georgia Institute of Technology        Operations Research

M.S.        2004        Georgia Institute of Technology        Building Construction & Integrated Facility Management

B.S.        2002        Sharif University of Technology        Civil Engineering