Associate Professor Moe (Mohammad) Mojtahedi
PhD (USyd), MEngSc., B.E. (Industrial), PEng, PMP
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 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.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
- 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
- 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)
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
In the Media
https://2ser.com/flood-crisis-management/
Investing in disaster preparedness means going with science (themandarin.com.au)
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
My Research Supervision
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 Teaching
Dr. Mojtahedi is teaching or has taught the following courses:
Undergraduate teaching:
- BLDG2023 Construction Planning
- BLDG3022 Construction Project Management Practice Capstone
- BLDG2011 Building Services
Postgraduate teaching:
- CONS0009 Construction Planning and Control
- CONS0013 Practice of Construction Project Management