CIEN E4133: Capital Facility Planning and Financing

Course Overview

This course equips you with the foundational skills to critically evaluate complex infrastructure projects and effectively procure capital facility services. While emphasizing the perspective of owner organizations, the concepts and methods explored are also highly relevant to design and construction firms. 

You will learn how to assess project feasibility from economic, technical, environmental, and political standpoints. This knowledge will help you to develop delivery strategies that are aligned with project characteristics and owner objectives. You will also learn how to apply different design procurement approaches to safeguard owner interests while encouraging private participation. Case studies of major infrastructure projects employing alternative delivery methods, such as design-build-operate and build-operate-transfer, are used extensively to provide real-world context. By the end of the course, you will be prepared to navigate the strategic and practical challenges of delivering large-scale capital facilities.

Course Instructor

Julius Chang

Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Construction Engineering and Management

A practicing academic and licensed professional engineer, , Dr Chang is currently a senior lecturer in civil engineering at Columbia University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in construction engineering and management. He is also the NY/NJ Project Controls Lead for HDR, where he oversees a staff of project controls professionals providing services in the areas of cost estimating, scheduling, document control, risk management and data analytics. Recognized for his commitment to teaching and higher education, he is the recipient of the 2017 Columbia Engineering Alumni Association (CEAA) Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award.