Dr. M. Askar is an Associate Professor and program director at Southern Utah University and was previously the Chair of the Construction Engineering Department at the University of Egypt. Askar received his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering (Construction Engineering) from the College of Civil Engineering & Architecture, Brandenburg University of Cottbus, Germany. Askar has more than 30 years of experience in teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, participating and modeling interdisciplinary funded research programs, and advising M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. He has more than 25 years of experience on construction contracting projects in different project types: residential buildings (high-, medium- and low-rise buildings), institutional and commercial, international airports, hotels, environmental theme parks, industrial, military, medical facilities, utilities and infrastructures, highways, bridges, tunnels, and specialized heavy construction. Askar has about 22 years of experience as a Founder and CEO of a group of construction contracting, real estate investment, engineering design, engineering and development consultations, and project management companies located in different countries in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the USA. He has more than 18 years of experience as a professional training expert in various public and private organizations for construction industry engineers and staff in engineering, management, and strategic topics. Askar has a variety of peer-reviewed publications in international journals, refereed conferences, and some books. He is a member of several Associations and project management codes and general specifications for building construction affiliations in different countries. He has been teaching Statics and Strength of Materials since 1998.
Dr. M. Rashad Islam is an Associate Professor and undergraduate program coordinator at the Colorado State University Pueblo. He is also a registered Professional Engineer (PE), and an ABET Program Evaluator for Civil Engineering, Civil Engineering Technology, and Construction Engineering Technology undergraduate programs. Dr. Islam received a Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering (with the grade of ’distinction’ in the research, and a GPA of 4.0 out of 4.0 in the coursework) from the University of New Mexico, USA. He has a Masters degree jointly from the University of Minho (Portugal) and the Technical University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain). Dr. Islam is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and is associated with the American General Contractors (AGC). Dr. Islam has more than 100 publications including several reference books, several textbooks, over 60 scholarly journal articles, several technical reports and conference papers.