PhD Students
Yasmin Jiang
!>http://builtenvironment.research.glam.ac.uk/media/files/photos/yasmin.png!Yasmin Yue Jiang BSc MRICS is a Chinese citizen working as a research assistant for the University of Glamorgan. Her research was designed to critically evaluate the interrelationship between population migration and housing markets in the UK. Based on the hypothesis that population migration exerts an influence upon house prices and vice versa, the research aims to test the existence of the interaction between population migration and housing markets and to devise a measure of the strength of this effect.
DOS: Liang
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Mike Murphy “Engaging Female Employees at Technician Status in the South Wales Construction Sector”
The construction industry in south Wales mirrors the remainder of the UK relative to the numbers of female workers employed as technicians and managers in the built environment. Nationally, the gender imbalance equates to 11.6% of those working in design and management occupations. Sector Skills Councils have admirably attempted to address the imbalance in built environment disciplines utilising awareness raising initiatives including the 'Positive Image’ campaign. Factors such as industry image, male domination, the possible lack of peers and the influences of families are arguably detractors from female school leavers and women considering a change of employment by adopting roles in the sector; but ultimately the influence of potential employers on the intake of female recruits cannot be ignored.
Through the use of discursive interviews, the research aims to explore the opinions of current female construction technicians and managers, potential employees and the employers. This research will suggest actions necessary by the Welsh Assembly Government through a radical change in policy, a coming together of leaders in the gender question field to implement an all-round strategy and the setting up of an industry-led focus group of both sexes to gain a more thorough view of all the issues, including the currently known problems of work-life balance, family commitments and discrimination. It will also generate an amalgamation of the raft of websites pertaining to the topic to enable a clearer view of the possibilities that are there for females in place of the somewhat dissipated web-based information available at present.
Supervision team: Ren and Andrew
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Deborah Hughes “How should incentivisation be structured to increase the likelihood of a successful partnered project in South Wales?”
This research is initiated by the observation that many of the partnered projects fail to achieve their expected outcome though the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has promoted collaborative working in Wales for 10 years. Many key issues and problems have been generated but not studied. The aim of the research is to develop a model for incentivisation that will increase the likelihood of a successful partnered project in South Wales. The studies include:
• To find from literature how to approach incentivisation in order to increase the likelihood of a successful partnered project.
• To identify the factors important in setting up an effective incentivisation model as perceived by a variety of personnel involved in partnering projects in South Wales.
• To identify the perceived level of incentivisation within defined situations that is found acceptable to both the client and the contractor involved in partnering projects in South Wales.
• To use the information collected to produce a model for incentivisation that will increase the likelihood of a successful partnered project.
• To validate the developed model with industry cases.
The outcomes of this research will benefit the local industry, especially SMEs, in terms of the actual impacts of partnership, how to form a successful partnership and what factors are involved.
Supervision team: Ren and Trefor
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Ratnam Jayakumar “Performance of Value Engineering in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)”
This research aims to explore Value Engineering (VE) performance in construction projects in the UAE, which is attracting significant attention in the UAE and becoming an increasingly important tool for achieving value for money in construction projects, especially with regard to the current financial crisis. In recent years, VE in the UAE has been mistakenly viewed by some clients as a cost-cutting process, resulting in considerable confusion in the industry. This has resulted in wrong conduct in the VE process.
This research aims to investigate the current performance of VE in the UAE, including the perceived VE principles in the UAE, the application of the principles, the client’s requirements from VE, VE process, activities performed in each stage, factors considered, etc. A practical guideline will be developed based on the theoretical study investigation results. To achieve these aims, the researcher carried out research based on a review of the literature, a questionnaire, personal interviews and case studies of projects. The findings of this research evaluated how VE currently benefits construction projects in the UAE and also suggests potential improvements in its application.
Supervision team: Ren and Jeff
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Dave Farthing Using public participation to develop digital maps of developing countries; supervision team Ware and Jenkins.
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Manley, P. Developing energy performance benchmarks for the Higher Education Sector in Wales. Supervision Team Geens and Lloyd.
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Francis, T. ‘Investigating sustainable conservation management practices in the UK’. Geens as Director of Studies.
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Devany, L. An evaluation of beehive design to identify improvements in thermal and environmental performance, handling utility and production.’ Geens as Director of Studies.
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Taylor, T. Monitoring the Environmental Performance of Low-Carbon Apartment Buildings in Wales, Geens as Second supervisor.
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Jones, S. What part did the engineer and other professional groups play in the development of the railways of South Wales between 1830 and 1860? Geens as supervisor.
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Justin Thomas “Critical Analysis of Lighting controls and their potential for energy Efficiency in modern buildings.” Graham and Lloyd an industrially based part time PhD.
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Weale, G. “Carbon Management in Commercial Buildings” Lloyd and Graham. A joint industrially sponsored PhD project with Arup and Rumm Ltd.
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Akinwale, A “ Detecting Irregular Consumption Through Advanced Techniques – Using Hierarchal Process Analysis to evaluate Energy consumption trends in Buildings and Processes”, Al-Madfai, Lloyd and Thomas. A full time EPSRC PhD case award examining energy consumption profiles in both Buildings and industrial facilities to detect and advise of non-standard consumption patterns and/or evaluate energy consumption change following an energy intervention.
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Bolton, T “ Low Carbon Behaviour”, Lloyd, Handley and Thomas. A full time PhD KESS award examining the Psychology aspects of behaviour in the industrial and commercial sectors in relation to energy/carbon consumption.
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Davies, R. Establishing a Standard Protocol for Performance Measurement within Facilities Management.
