The spotlight is on Dr. Alireza Shojaei, Assistant Professor, United States

The School of Construction at a U.S.-based higher education institution focuses on the process of developing buildings and the performance of buildings, including operations, finance, energy, and sustainability. Its courses in Building Construction and Construction Engineering & Management aim to prepare students for successful careers in the building industry and equip them with the tools they need to assure excellence across all phases of the built environment.

Dr. Alireza Shojaei serves as an Assistant Professor in Building Construction. He teaches project management, planning, scheduling, and resource management. For his principal course, Process Planning and Production Design for Construction, he uses Oracle Primavera Cloud.

Dr. Shojaei holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran; a master’s degree in Construction Management from the University of Reading, UK; a PhD in Design, Construction & Planning from the University of Florida; and a master’s degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

In addition, he is CTO and Managing Partner at a tech startup offering digital solutions in the field of transportation and mobility.

Oracle Academy: When did you begin using Oracle Primavera Cloud at your current institution, and what motivated that choice?

Alireza Shojaei: Primavera has been the gold standard project management software in the construction industry for a long time. I first encountered it during my civil engineering studies and later, at Mississippi State University, I taught Primavera P6, which is the on-premises version.

When I joined my current institution in 2021, I found that P6 had been deployed for teaching in the past but that the Oracle Academy membership had expired. I reinstated membership and became the single point of contact for Primavera. We moved toward Oracle Primavera Cloud because it gives students access to a current, collaborative project controls environment.

A core objective of our institution is to educate students in the skills that industry demands. We are very proud in the School of Construction to have excellent graduate placement outcomes, and many students receive job offers before their final semester. This reflects the quality of the program, the strength of our industry relationships, the demand for construction talent, and the capabilities of our students.

As I mentioned, Primavera is the gold standard in construction, and teaching the software helps make our students highly attractive to employers. When they graduate, they know how to do things that industry wants them to do. The Oracle Academy content covers the core of what we need as educators and what students need to get started in project management.

Oracle Academy: How many students are currently exposed to Primavera Cloud in your project management teaching?

Alireza Shojaei: In Building Construction, we have about 500 students, of whom more than 100 take Process Planning and Production Design every year, where I use Primavera Cloud. The course topics include production systems, behavior of construction systems and workers, the relationships between subsystems in the construction process, queuing systems, process modeling, and simulation.

Oracle Academy: Are other faculty members using Primavera?

Alireza Shojaei: Currently I am the only one using Primavera Cloud, but four others across the school will be using it as of next semester. Primavera P6, the stand-alone version, is being taught elsewhere within our construction engineering programs, and colleagues are also considering switching to the cloud product.

Another driver for further uptake is that some students who graduate from my class go on to the Capstone Project course, where teams of three or four students spend the semester tackling an open-ended, client-driven project. They are not required to use any specific software, but often a Capstone student will enquire whether they still have access to OPC because that is what they intend to use.

With the increasing Oracle Academy footprint, the number of students using Primavera Cloud is expected to rise from around 100 currently to approximately 300 in 2027.

Oracle Academy: How do you use Primavera resources?

Alireza Shojaei: In the first half of the semester, I talk about some of the key components of project management — planning and scheduling, productivity measurement, productivity improvement, and related topics. Then, in the second half, we start the Oracle Primavera Cloud module and go through all of the content, from zero to 100.

To prepare the students, I talk about the concepts behind each lesson and show how the software reflects and handles those concepts. This is followed by lab sessions, where students go through the step-by-step Oracle Academy workshops. A teaching assistant and I are present during these sessions to help with any questions or issues.

Oracle Academy: And do you use the Oracle Academy projects?

Alireza Shojaei: One of the things I like about Oracle Academy content is that there are lots of projects and case studies built into it, and yes, we look at some of these. Feedback from my students during the first two semesters was very encouraging. They found the assignments and content from Oracle Academy to be valuable and well designed.

At the same time, many students expressed that they were ready for more independence and wanted opportunities to build solutions with less step-by-step guidance so they could further develop their confidence.

Based on this feedback, I created my own course project, which runs alongside what they have learned from Oracle Academy and requires them to apply that learning to the real world.

My project has them design and manage a multi-purpose facility. It is a building containing both an office section and a vehicle maintenance area with special doors, foundations, and other requirements. It is complex, yet small enough for them to finish in half a semester. They need to think about what goes into the schedule — the duration, the connections between activities, and so on.

There are two parts. For the team-based activity, I give them the plans, specifications, drawings, and all the content for the project, with which they create a Work Breakdown Structure. They come up with a list of activities, duration, precedence, and all the planning that needs to go into the schedule before using the software.

In the second part, I share my own WBS for the multi-use building so they can see whether they have missed anything, and then I ask them to create the schedule in Primavera Cloud independently. To date, it has been a success, and it replicates what they will be doing once they enter the construction industry.

Oracle Academy: Brilliant! Please tell us the overall benefits of Primavera Cloud for educators and students.

Alireza Shojaei: Well, there are quite a few benefits. As already mentioned, there is a reason why Primavera is the gold standard for scheduling and project management in construction. It is widely used in the industry, and students with that experience are already competitive upon graduation.

It is what the industry wants, and one of our key objectives is to prepare graduates with the appropriate skills. On the teaching side, I appreciate what Oracle Academy provides to educators — the software, content, and proactive support. It saves time on syllabus creation and gives us what we need for teaching project management.

I like the structure, the lesson plans, the well-structured flow with activity layers building one on top of the other, the workshops, and the case studies. It is an excellent project management teaching resource. And, as mentioned, you can add your own flavor, like my course project.

Another advantage of Primavera Cloud is having a single source of truth for budgeting, estimating, planning, scheduling, and so forth. Primavera Cloud is the future, and I want students to be hands-on with the latest software. Even if their initial employers use standalone P6, sooner or later many will be moving toward the cloud.

Cloud technology allows a lot of teamwork, which is intrinsic to construction, and it also allows us as educators and teaching assistants to have control over workspaces. The Oracle Academy Member Hub is extremely useful, too. Every student has their own account, and we can see their exact work, grade them, give feedback, and resolve problems.

Oracle Academy: Recently you gave a talk called Future of Construction in the Age of AI. Please tell us what that future looks like.

Alireza Shojaei: There are several elements, starting with the fact that construction is very people-oriented: the workforce is human, not automated as in manufacturing. The management and business side is human — you have to work with clients and with subcontractors on the ground. But changes are coming.

I’m a techno-optimist: I see AI as a force for good. There will be more automation in the future. AI will help design better buildings, prototype them faster, create better estimates and schedules, and carry out project management in a more efficient way. Oracle’s AI technology can play a role in this transformation. That’s the digital side of AI.

Physically, there has been relatively little use of robotics in construction because of the uncertainties and changing circumstances. In construction, everything is unique: the project location is unique, and the site layout changes as the project moves forward. We have not historically been able to apply robots to that environment at scale.

Now, with AI’s great strides, we can envisage robotics on construction sites that will be smart enough to adapt to changing circumstances, integrating with AI on the digital side. For example, robots may take on masonry work.

What is key here is that productivity in construction has been stagnant for decades. AI and automation have the potential to improve productivity and efficiency, contributing to more affordable construction, with some types of jobs disappearing but new ones being created.

Oracle Academy: Fascinating, thank you. Lastly, what do you do outside of teaching and research?

Alireza Shojaei: Well, it’s all connected. Everything I do in teaching and research is about construction. I like building things; it’s my driving force. I build models, do pottery, and put my hands to creative use.

I like to turn off the computer and do physical work, something I can touch — whether that is large-scale Lego constructions or a pot of clay that I can transform into something. I have a passion for Land Rover and have built a model one. I have just finished the NASA Artemis Space Launch System, a very big and complex project. I have also reproduced the Milky Way in a palette of vividly colored bricks.

Other than crafts, I read a lot and listen to audiobooks, and I try to get to the cinema at least once a week. I can talk at length about why being in a cinema is an experience people need; it enriches your life!

Thank you, Dr. Alireza Shojaei, for your passion for Oracle Academy and for preparing your students to make a positive impact.