Ahmed Elhakeem

Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Blockchain Technology (BT) is deemed the fourth generation of BT applications (Blockchain 4.0). This generation has gained considerable attention from the research community. Such attention has led to a vast amount of scientific literature. However, a comprehensive quantitative analysis of this literature is still missing. The present study conducts a scientometric analysis to explore and characterize the development track and trends of BT-AI research. Using the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database, a total of 2615 peer-reviewed journal articles were identified between 2017-2023 and extracted for analysis, while employing VOSviewer and Biblioshiny as software tools. First, the publication trend was analyzed, and the pivotal articles were identified. Second, the scientific collaboration networks were analyzed and mapped to identify the key researchers, countries, and organizations. Third, the sources’ productivity and citation were analyzed and mapped to identify the dependable sources of information and the best-fit sources for publishing the BT-AI studies. Fourth, the conceptual structure for the BT-AI literature was analyzed and visualized using keywords co-occurrence and keywords thematic evolution to explore and identify the research hotspots and emerging themes. The findings of this study can help in further familiarizing new researchers with BT-AI literature and assist practitioners, policy-makers, and editors to focus on the promising and arising BT-AI trends for further development.

Construction projects’ performance is not self-regulating. Therefore, a continuous progress tracking and monitoring process is highly demanded to avoid potential deviations or misalignments. The current practice for the progress tracking and monitoring process suffers from heavily intermediated workflows, human errors, transfer latencies, inaccuracies, and/or information holes. Such issues could gradually lead to severe delays or even complete project failure. This research introduces a novel Peer-to-Peer (P2P) system that relies on Blockchain Technology (BT) and Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS) for managing progress information and as-built digital assets or files. The system is developed based on a three-step approach. First, two chaincodes are formulated for mapping and governing the data operations. Second, a private blockchain network is configured based on Hyperledger Fabric as a hosting platform, including the relevant stakeholders. Third, a private IPFS network is configured and coupled with a cluster service to manage and distribute the off-chain visuals and as-built digital assets. A case study for a non-residential construction project is utilized to test and verify the system’s practicability and assess its performance. The research significance is anticipated in diverse practical areas, including but not limited to; boosting coordination and trust among stakeholders, tracing progressive elaboration of As-built digital assets, accelerating incremental payments processing, assessing overall project performance and on-site productivity, supporting delay analysis and claim/dispute management, and streamlining data flow between the construction phase and the operation and maintenance phase. Further, the system’s future is mapped by evolving it as a sub-unit in a more advanced data model.

The economy of large-scale real estate projects (REPs) in Egypt is currently at risk. The increasing demand on residential, office buildings, retail, hotels and recreation as well as public services buildings has been encouraging investors from both private and public sectors to develop new compounds to meet this demand. These projects are huge in size and include several diversified functions and are usually implemented over many years. Real estate developers normally initiate their projects' master schedule at the early stage of their projects then, refine it every year. The construction of civil infrastructure utilities and networks usually takes place at the beginning of project implementation. This applies to all services such as water, electrical power supply, sewerage, telecom, natural gas and district cooling and heating. The infrastructure investment and construction decision is usually taken based on the ultimate capacity and feasibility studies that are based on the master schedule. Any changes during long-term implementation (which may be expected) might adversely affect infrastructure feasibility. This article aims at developing a model that would consider changes during project implementation and provide decision-makers with recommendations that would minimize the impact on their investment. The model functions through: (1) a central database containing data about real estate components such as function, gross built up area, construction cost and expenditure profile, cash-in profile and type (selling or renting), payment instalments by end users, etc.; (2) a scheduling module, which creates possible implementation scenarios based on certain constraints given to the model such as minimum and maximum allowable construction durations, as well as the construction time frame for the REPs; (3) a financial module, which calculates both cash-in, cash-out and projects' cash flow for the different scheduling scenarios; and (4) an optimization engine consisting of a genetic algorithm and a simulation module that compares all possible scheduling scenarios and defines which scenario best fits the objective function and maximizes the lifecycle net revenue. The model was implemented on a case study—a major real estate investment in New Cairo, where it proved to be an effective tool in providing decision-makers with different scenarios then recommending the one that minimizes the impact of changes realized on their investment.

I.A.A.R.C. - International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction Civil Engineering

Formwork systems have a considerable share in building construction costs. Accordingly, selecting an appropriate formwork system that respects project individualities plays an important yet challenging role in achieving significant cost savings. In Egypt, current practice in formwork selection primarily uses the subjective decisions of site engineers. This paper presents a fuzzy logic-based model that supports decision makers in selecting the appropriate vertical formwork system for projects. Ten commercial vertical formwork systems commonly used in Egypt are identified with the most important factors affecting their selection. The data were tabulated to serve as a knowledge-based system (KBS) to guide site engineers in selection. On the basis of the KBS, a fuzzy logic model with five input variables, representing the governing factors, is then developed to automate the selection process. The model is tested by applying it on a real-life case study. Results are acceptable and show a promising role...

This paper presents an innovative model for scheduling, resource planning, and cost optimization of large construction and/or maintenance programs that involve multiple distributed sites. The proposed distributed scheduling model (DSM) employs an information system to store data related to various work sites, activities’ optional construction methods, and available resources. The DSM also incorporates a scheduling algorithm that is resource focused, and maintains crew work continuity under any sequence of distributed sites. To minimize cost and meet project time and resource constraints, the DSM uses genetic algorithms to determine the optimum set of construction methods and the optimum routing order among sites. Details of the DSM formulation are presented in this paper and the benefits to municipalities and contractors are outlined.