Collaborative Research: Research Initiation: Understanding Competencies and Professional Identities for Digitally-Enabled Sustainable Demolition Construction Practices

About This Grant

Technologically advanced and sustainable deconstruction is crucial for meeting the nation’s growing demand for demolition services and a skilled workforce to mitigate the impact of extreme weather events, including wildfires, floods, and hurricanes, which can pose safety and time barriers that prevent deconstruction professionals from engaging in efficient and sustainable demolition practices. This need is also combined with the urgent imperative to renew the aging urban infrastructure, ensuring resilient, resource-efficient rebuilding that minimizes environmental impact and maximizes community safety. To address this need, this project aims to serve the national interest in several ways: (1) advance the knowledge and innovation in transforming demolition practices toward more technologically advanced and sustainable ones to mitigate the impact of natural hazards, reduce safety risks, minimize material disposal costs, alleviate supply chain disruptions, and minimize demolition environmental impact; (2) collaborate with professionals in the sustainable demolition construction practice to understand their role-specific competencies and how they perceive being part of an innovative profession focusing on environmental impact and efficiency and adding value to the general engineering profession, and (3) support the development of skilled deconstruction engineers fluent in digital literacy and able to implement technologies for construction and demolition waste management, and conducting safe, efficient, sustainable, and economic demolition operations. This aligns with research on the professional formation of engineers, which seeks to better understand how engineering education programs develop future engineers. This proposed study aims to understand the competencies required of the future workforce to engage in technology and data-driven sustainable demolition practices and how this could shape the professional identities of professionals in demolition-related fields. A mixed-method research study will be conducted to answer research questions that address (1) competencies required for the future workforce to engage in technology and data-driven sustainable demolition practices in construction and (2) the impact of acquiring these competencies on shaping the professional identities among sustainable demolition professionals and what specific identities are most likely to emerge. A nationwide survey of demolition contractors who actively implement or are transitioning to sustainable practices will be conducted to identify the skills required for technologically advanced and sustainable demolition practices, and to determine the value and demand for these skills in the construction industry. In the second phase of the project, the influence of acquiring the identified competencies on the formation and evolution of professional identities among practitioners in construction-related fields will be examined. Industry practitioners with expertise in sustainable demolition and construction practices that utilize technology will be interviewed to understand the types of identities they have developed through acquiring these competencies, how they developed their professional identities, and how those identities have evolved. Results will be cross-validated through focus group discussions with both practitioners and researchers who specialize in studying professional identity development and its formation in technical fields such as the construction industry. Currently, there is limited research exploring the specific competencies required for implementing advanced technologies and data-driven analytics in sustainable demolition practices. Additionally, no existing study has explored how acquiring these competencies can alter the perception of being part of an innovative profession that focuses on enhancing safety, productivity, and environmental performance in the demolition industry. We aim to leverage our research to bridge the knowledge gap, where developed competency models and pedagogical guidelines will be adaptable across construction-related engineering programs, thereby broadening participation in STEM, accommodating diverse learning needs, and leaving a lasting impact on both education and practice. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.