Dr Ala Suliman

Dr. Ala Suliman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at Northumbria University (NU).  He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Civil Engineering Department of the University of New Brunswick (UNB).

Prior to joining Northumbria University, he worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) and as an industry postdoctoral fellow at the UNB Off-site Construction Research Centre (OCRC). In 2020, he became a licensed professional engineer (P.Eng.) in Canada.

Dr. Suliman has a diverse engineering background. He earned his Ph.D. in Geomatics Engineering and his M.Sc.E in Construction Engineering and Management from the UNB in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Before that, he obtained his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering and his M.Sc. in Construction Surveying and Photogrammetry from the University of Benghazi (UoB) in Libya. Throughout his academic journey at UNB, Dr. Suliman received several awards, including the Award of the Canadian Construction Research Board for two consecutive years (2018 & 2019), the best research prize in different local conferences at UNB for two consecutive years (2015 & 2016), and the funding award of the MITACS industrial research (2020). In 2008, he was awarded the National Development Foundation Scholarship of Libya in recognition of his outstanding academic performance.

Dr. Suliman's professional experience spans academia and consulting. In academia, he has a proven track record of teaching and research at different universities. He has taught a wide range of Civil, Construction, Surveying, and Geomatics engineering courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He is also the leading author of over 20 refereed research papers and a book chapter published in prestigious journals and book series. In the consulting field, Dr. Suliman has delivered numerous training programs to local consultancy firms and provided engineering consultancy and surveying services to leading construction companies in his home country for several years.

Passionate about applying his diverse backgrounds to real-world problems, Dr. Suliman thrives in collaborative and partnership environments. He is dedicated to enhancing workflows in the industry domain and aiding the academic community in modelling complex qualitative concepts. During his time at OCRC, he played a significant role in multiple research projects with public and industry partners, focusing on productivity simulation and lean-based improvement of steel fabrication, mapping technological innovation in off-site construction, maturity modelling and assessment of urban systems in terms of sustainability and smartness, and applications’ mapping of IoT sensors in smart building management.

Furthermore, Dr. Suliman had the honour of initiating and chairing the Transforming Construction with Reality Capture Technologies (TCRC 2022) event at UNB in 2022. This international construction specialty conference highlighted the innovative applications of remote data capturing technologies (such as Laser and LiDAR scanners, Camera sensors, GPR, Drones and Surveying equipment, IoT devices, etc.) in the field of construction project management.

Building on this success, in 2024, Dr. Suliman also had the privilege of chairing the international conference on Transforming Construction with Off-site Methods and Technologies (TCOT 2024), which focused on integrating advanced technologies and off-site construction methods to address productivity challenges in the industry. This event was in partnership between Northumbria University and the University of New Brunswick in Canada. Dr. Suliman had the honour of initiating and leading this collaborative partnership between the two research institutes for TCOT 2024.

Recently,  Dr. Suliman played a pivotal role in expanding the partnership's scope at NU. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NU and the University of New Brunswick (UNB) was signed in October 2024, effectively bridging these institutions to foster a wider collaborative opportunity. This MoU marks a new chapter in cross-continental academic partnership, enhancing research and innovation in advanced construction methods and technologies.

Dr. Suliman remains active in two disciplines: remote sensing and construction management. He serves as a guest editor and an active reviewer for several academic journals and is a member of various research societies in both Canada and the US.

Dr. Suliman's research interests encompass two distinct areas: industry-oriented research focusing on improved work and workflows of construction planning and control through innovative applications of digital and imaging technologies (BIM, AR/MR, AI, Reality capturing and sensing), and academic-oriented research aiming for better decisions and strategic planning through measuring, benchmarking, abstract mapping, and maturity modelling of construction-related concepts.

Dr. Suliman is eager to collaborate with prominent leaders in both public and industry sectors to discover effective and groundbreaking solutions to challenges in construction engineering and management. If you are interested in research collaboration with Dr. Suliman, please feel free to contact him at Ala.Suliman@northumbria.ac.uk.