Need of strong university-industry partnerships: a case study in Sri Lanka

University-Industry Partnerships (UIPs) in the field of DRR have produced several innovative tools, services, and advancements in industrial applications globally. However, from the Sri Lankan perspective, the level of UIPs appear to be significantly lower compared to the global context. In Sri Lanka, a country that has suffered a lot from natural disasters such as landslides and floods especially over the past few years, DRR activities are undertaken by the governmental and private sector organizations and volunteers, mostly as separate entities. This could lead to inefficiencies, overlapping of efforts, and also to the reinvention of the wheel. The Universities as Higher Education Institutions have a key role to play in bringing the aforementioned stakeholders together not only to strengthen the work they do by effective partnerships but also to come up with innovative solutions through research and development. The purpose of this paper is to explore how effective UIPs can be created in Sri Lanka to achieve the above by exploring; 1) current status of UIPs in Sri Lanka; 2) barriers to creating UIPs; 3) needs and opportunities for creating UIPs; 4) identifying best practices in creating strong and sustainable UIPs. The purpose will be fulfilled with the use of a literature review and by gathering stakeholder opinions. The research findings revealed that there is a need to develop a policy that addresses the aspects of knowledge diffusion, production, engagement, increasing the exposure of the academia for the industry and capacity building in universities. This is in order to tackle key barriers to creating UIPs. There is also a need for strong and effective leadership initiatives from universities to ensure sustainability of UIPs in Sri Lanka

An Integrated Framework for Worker Planning and Supervision in Construction

Construction is a highly labour-intensive industry; therefore, the planning of worker crews is vital to achieving quality, cost, schedule and productivity targets. However, current construction practices do not initiate worker planning during the early stages of construction, nor do they pay attention to the full life cycle of the project. These pitfalls lead to worker demotivation and performance and productivity losses. Comprehensive worker performance measurement evaluation criteria the Construction Worker Performance Index (CWPI) was developed. A pilot study was carried out to test the applicability and validity of the conceptual framework. After conducting an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis, relative weights for the technical skills assessment framework of Borcherding et al. (2001) were refined; and, the technical skills assessment framework was expanded by adding more sub-attributes to make it suitable for assessing construction workers of Alberta, Canada. The CWPI worker performance measurement formula was finalized using two rounds of surveys based on Delphi survey principles. A worker grading scheme was developed that classifies workers beyond current conventional worker planning, which is based only on skill levels. A cohesion measurement framework was developed based the guidelines provided Carron et al. (1985) and Widmeyer et al. (1985). By integrating different aspects related to worker planning, an overall worker planning framework was created to cover the full life cycle of a construction project. The applicability of the developed framework was field-tested on a construction site in Alberta, Canada. The CWPI and cohesion values of 114 construction workers were measured and documented. Nine construction worker crews (further divided in to twenty sub-groups) were observed, and the structures of the worker crews were studied. Characteristics of high and low performing worker crews were identified, and relationships between factors were investigated. Management level perspective about the developed framework was obtained through a survey conducted among 28 building industry practitioners. Relationships among the factors of the framework were investigated using a correlation analysis. A regression analysis was conducted to determine the causality between input factors and the cohesion level of worker crews. Finally, the limitations of the research were identified, and recommendations for future research were provided