Dr Moe (Mohammad) Mojtahedi

My Expertise

I am a construction engineer specialising in quantitative risk analysis applied to resilient and sustainable buildings and infrastructure, environmental protection, large-scale construction projects, and infrastructure planning.

Keywords

disaster risk reduction

urban resilience

humanitarian engineering

evacuation

lean

construction management

artificial intelligence

Fields of Research (FoR)

Building, Building construction management and project planning, Automation and technology in building and construction, Building organisational studies, Transport planning

SEO tags

Expanding Knowledge in Built Environment and Design

Civil Construction Planning

Natural Hazards in Urban and Industrial Environments

Biography

Dr Moe Mojtahedi holds the position of Senior Lecturer at UNSW Built Environment. He accomplished his PhD at the School of Civil Engineering, University of Sydney in 2014. As an emerging researcher, he actively contributes to Construction Management, Urban and Regional Planning, and Operations Research disciplines, focusing on the emerging area of Resilient and Sustainable Buildings, Infrastructure, and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Dr Mojtahedi...view more

Dr Mojtahedi stands as one of the trailblazers in Australia, pioneering the integration of city planning, operations research, climate change adaptation, and engineering to bolster the resilience of urban and rural buildings and infrastructure through disaster risk management. His comprehensive expertise extends to professional industry experience in project planning and management, encompassing large-scale and complex infrastructure projects.

Certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and holding the designation of a certified Professional Engineer accredited by Engineers Australia, Dr Mojtahedi's credentials signify his dedication to professional excellence. Notably, he has been recognised with two esteemed research excellence awards from Engineers Australia in 2012 and 2013 for his commendable research on flood risk management, wherein he analysed the vulnerability of rural and urban buildings and infrastructure across NSW.

My Grants

Category 1: Inquiry into overcoming construction constraints for the supply of new detached and high-rise housing funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), 2024-2025 - $430,000 (with RMIT, UniSA, Monash and UniTAS)
Arts, Design and Architecture (ADA) Faculty Research Support Scheme, 2023 - $10,000
Arts, Design and Architecture (ADA) Faculty Research Support Scheme, 2021 - $10,000
Built Environment’s Book and Special Issue Grant (BSIG), 2021 - $6,000
Built Environment’s ECR Philanthropic Support Grant, 2021 - $5,000
Scientia Scholarship Grant to support a PhD student, UNSW, 2020-2024 - $200,000
UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering travel grant to attend the Frontiers of Development Symposium 2020 - $5,000
International Research Collaboration with Universitas Indonesia: Industry 4.0: A New Approach for Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) Management 2019 - $20,000 (with A/Prof. Riza Sunindijo)
Scientia Scholarship Grant to support a PhD student, UNSW, 2018-2022 - $200,000
Australian Academy of Science ECR Travel grant, 2018 - $5,000
Early Career Research (ECR) grant, University of New South Wales 2018 - $13,000
Travel grant supported by Volkswagen Foundation and the University of Hanover 2017 - $5,000
Travel grant supported by PVC Research to attend U21 ECR Workshop 2017 - $3,000
Travel grant supported by Universitas Indonesia to present in symposium 2017 - $3,000
Early Career Research (ECR) grant, University of New South Wales 2017 - $11,000
Teaching and Learning grant, University of New South Wales 2017 - $10,000
Faculty Research Grant, University of New South Wales 2017 - $8,000
Inspired Learning Initiative (ILI) grant for BLDG2011_Building Services course, $20,000
Early Career Research (ECR) grant, University of New South Wales 2016 - $8,000
Scholarship for Learning and Teaching grant, University of New South Wales 2016 - $3,000
Course Design Competition grant, University of New South Wales 2016 - $8,000

My Qualifications

PhD (USyd), MEngSc., B.E. (Industrial), PEng, PMP

My Awards

Learning and Teaching Excellence Award, Faculty of Built Environment, 2017
The ICES award for research in the field of infrastructure, Salford, UK, 2017
Elsevier Award in recognition of the outstanding contribution made to the quality of the International Journal of Project Management, 2017
Nominated by PVC Education to represent Faculty of Built Environment at Inspired Learning Summit 2017
UNSW ECR Delegate, U21 Early Career Researcher Workshop, Santiago, Chile, 2017
Appreciation for the higher contributor of CMP Discipline, UNSW, 2017
Best conference paper award, ICES award for research in the field of infrastructure, Salford, U.k., 2017
High Achiever of Course and Teaching Evaluation and Improvement (CATEI), UNSW, 2016
Appreciation for the higher contributor of CMP Discipline, UNSW, 2016
Professional Project Management (PMP) awarded by Project Management Institute (PMI), 2016
Research Excellence Award, Engineers Australia, 2012, 2013
Research Excellence Award, School of Civil Engineering, University of Sydney, 2013
Research Excellence Award, Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Sydney, 2012
International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS), 2011-2014
Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) Scholarship, 2014-2015
Civil Engineering School Top-Up Scholarship, 2013-2015
The Best Lecturer award from Tehran Institute of Technology (MFT) in 2008
Professional Engineer assessed and recognised by Engineers Australia (Ref: Contact ID 3979154)

My Research Activities

Topic 1: Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilient Built Environment

Living in a changing environment is one of the most important challenges facing Australia. Mohammad has focused on climate change adaptation, disaster risk management and construction management research topics to identify strategies to develop sustainable and resilient built environments that can all thrive in a changing environment. His research interest covers the following topics:

Managing post-disaster recovery and reconstruction projects
Reducing risks in the built environment
Assessment of critical infrastructure
Disaster risk management frameworks and National Construction Code (NCC)
Evacuation planning

Topic 2: Construction Management and Housing Accessibility

Construction project management is a multidisciplinary area, and his research has focused on the following topics:

Construction productivity
Housing accessibility
Mathematical modelling and optimisation
Artificial intelligence in construction
Decision-making methods and techniques
Lean construction
Strategic construction management
Construction circularity, sustainability and net-zero emissions

My Research Supervision

Supervision keywords

artificial intelligence

operations research & management science

disaster management

Areas of supervision

Construction project management
Construction waste management and circularity
Disaster risk management in the Built Environment
Resilient buildings and infrastructure
Risk and decision-making tools
Operations research

Currently supervising

I am currently supervising seven PhD students:

Resilient humanitarian relief chain networks in post‐disaster resettlement and emergency services (Mohammad Khalili – Scientia PhD candidate)
Understanding the impact of building regulations and planning policies on achieving sustainable and resilient cities (Uttama Barua – PhD candidate)
Improving logistics planning in prefabricated construction using multi-objective mathematical modelling (Lily Liu - PhD candidate)
Adopting predictive maintenance management in public hospital buildings: A case study in Nigeria (Oluseyi Akinola Olagoke - PhD candidate)
A Cross-cultural study on the risky behaviours of e-bike food delivery riders in China and Australia (Wanlin Liu - PhD candidate)
Measuring and improving individual preparedness in response to flood and bushfire emergencies (Sara Fazeli - PhD candidate)
An enhanced comparative LCA for evaluating carbon emissions of prefabricated construction methods (Hadi Saleh, MPhil candidate - submitted)
Developing an evacuation support system for healthcare infrastructures in response to a flood event: (Maziar Yazdani - PhD candidate - submitted)

Four PhD students successfully completed:

Impact of lean construction techniques on post-disaster reconstruction performance and resilience of infrastructure: (Mahyar Rad – PhD candidate)
Effective construction and demolition waste management assessment; An Australian case: (Kamyar Kabirifar – PhD candidate)
Australian telework places: A socio-behavioural exploration of home-based teleworkers (Abbas Shieh)
Analysing and modelling the critical success factors of project management offices in the construction industry (Mahmoud Ershadi - PhD candidate)

My Engagement

In the Media

@UNSW construction management and property expert Dr Mohammad Mojtahedi discusses the recent floods and the need for better investment in flood mitigation activity.

https://2ser.com/flood-crisis-management/

Investing in disaster preparedness means going with science (themandarin.com.au)

Our hospitals are at greater risk of flooding as the climate changes. We need better evacuation plans. (theconversation.com)

Memberships

Professional Engineer 3979154
Member of Project Management Institute (PMI), 4096382
Member of The Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM-UK)
Member of Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee