Hannah Wood

Hannah Wood is a principal lecturer in the Built Environment subject area, focusing specifically on Construction and Project Management. Hannah’s experience in the construction industry began in topographical surveying, moving into construction engineering and management.

Hannah’s main interest include construction project complexity in the architecture, engineering and construction industry, with a focus on better understanding the impact and management of complexity for successful project delivery. Other interests include the use of specialist technology in the construction industry such as 3D laser scanning and virtual and augmented reality. She also has a keen interest in research around built environment education and has presented at both construction and education specific conferences on this. Hannah reviews papers for a number of international journals and conferences relating to construction and project management.

Hannah works closely with the regional Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) committee, especially with their young professional and student group (NOVUS) to foster collaboration between the University and Industry by arranging continuing professional development sessions, workshops and site visits. Hannah is an Incorporate member of the CIOB and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

My research interests focus around Construction and Project Management related topic, with my PhD research investigating what causes complexity within construction and how this can be modelled and managed at the pre-construction stage.More recently I have also become interested in the quality issues surrounding new build property and the way this is impacted by occupant behaviour.

In addition I am interested in education focusing on higher education specifically for the built environment and civil engineering subjects. This has included investigating ways of better managing group work and instilling project/team management skills in students and the use of industry specific technology as a learning aid.

My teaching encompasses a range of subjects across the built environment and civil engineering disciplines, modules taught include Introduction to the Built Environment (focusing on regulations and legislation within the construction industry and practical construction skills), Surveying practice, Construction surveying, Construction Management and Project Management for Construction.

My teaching is underpinned by real life projects and examples incorporating site visits, field courses and practical workshops where possible.

I am keen to use engaging and interactive teaching methods and blended learning to appeal to a wide range of learning styles. In one of my module sin particular I use the flipped teaching model where lectures are prerecorded and watched by the students at their own pace before attending a tutorial based face to face session – this has proved very effective at appealing to students with a wide range of abilities and interest.

I am interested in supervising a wide range of built environment related research.  My main research focus is in the areas of project complexity, technology in construction applications (i.e. VR/AR, AI, robotics, drones etc.) and Built Environment education.