StevenAyer

  • Associate Professor
  • Faculty Director for Civil Engineering
  • CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
Address

Office: ECOT 518

Steven Ayer is an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineeringat the鶹Ѱ. He runs the , where his team explores new and emerging electronic technologies, including augmented reality, virtual realityand other emerging tools. Ayer’s group aims to study how these tools may improve the way that building projects are delivered, but all studies revolve around the single motivation that technology should empower human users. Therefore, most of the studies conducted by Ayer’s team aim to focus on human performance rather than technological innovation. His team has explored the utilization of technology in various areas: students gaining “cyberlearning” experiences related to construction management and engineering,architects aiming to improve the quality of their design concepts;, construction managers interested in improving field communication of BIM content and facility managers looking tobetter leveragemodel information for delivering more maintainable built spaces. Ayer’s work has received fundingfrom federal, stateand industrial sources, enablinghis team to gather data that providesboth scientific and practical contributions.

Education

PhDin architectural engineering from The Pennsylvania State University

BAE/MAE in architectural engineering from The Pennsylvania State University

Latest Publications

  • Lopez, J., Bhandari, S., Perry, L., Ayer, S., Hallowell, M., and Jones, M. (2025). “Analyzing the Impact of Virtual Reality and Haptic Feedback on the Safety Skills of Construction Workers.” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 151(8).
  • Ghorbani, Z., Ayer, S., and Messner, J. (2025). “A Taxonomy for Augmented Reality Use Cases in the AECO Industry.” Construction Innovation: Information, Process, Management.
  • McCord, K., Ayer, S.K., Gheisari M., Turkan, Y., Mutis, I., Katz, G., and Fruchter, R. (2024). “Computing in AEC Education: Hindsight, Insight, Foresight.” Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering.
  • Patil, K., Bhandari, S., Agrawal, A., Ayer, S., Perry, L., and Hallowell, M. (2023). “An Analysis of YouTube Comments to Inform the Design of Virtual Reality Training Simulations to Target Emotional Arousal.” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 149(9).
  • McCord, K.,Ayer, S., Wu, W., Perry, L., London, J., and Kopitske, J. (2023). “Using Augmented Reality to Simulate Authentic Learning Building Assessment and Construction Experiences.” Journal of Architectural Engineering. 29(3).

Awards

  • Civil Engineering Faculty Appreciation Award, 2025
  • Outstanding Reviewer Award from ASCE’s Journal of Civil Engineering Education, 2024