Gabriel Dadi’s primary research area is construction safety. He began teaching in UK’s Department of Civil Engineering in 2012—about the time the university began its campus transformation.
“Having construction sites right here on campus is very convenient. I’ve been able to able to take my classes to residence halls, the new baseball stadium, the nearly-finished student center, the Jacobs Academic Science Buildings and more,” Dadi recounts. “It has also been great for our students because many of them have been hired for co-ops or full-time jobs.”
In 2017, Dadi completed a four-year research effort that involved industrial contractors and owners, construction and utility owners and government agencies. His team’s task was to apply the idea of operational excellence to construction safety. He has also worked with the safety personnel at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet with their safety personnel to improve their safety performance by reducing their number of injuries.
Dadi says, “Everybody’s research helps on some level, but I like to believe that what we’re doing will help people go home safely every day from their job.”
My research group has one main objective achieved through two thrusts. Primarily, we seek to make a measurable improvements to the vertical and horizontal construction sectors. The two thrusts towards that improvement are by keeping people safe and healthy and by gaining efficiencies through effective use of technologies in construction. By collaborating closely with industry, we are able to identify issues, design research protocols to understand those issues, execute, and then deliver implementable tools and guidance to improve how we build safely.
Construction Safety Management
Application of Emerging Construction Technologies
Safety Culture
Ph.D., Department of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky
M.B.A., Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky
B.S., Department of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky
W.L. Raymond and R.E. Chair Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky
Program Manager, Kentucky Transportation Center, University of Kentucky
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky
Research Assistant, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky
Research Assistant, Breakthrough Strategy Committee, Construction Industry Institute
Project Engineer, NDS & Messer Construction
