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The long history of experiential learning in construction engineering shows the significant potential of cognitive development through direct experience. Recent advancements in gamification, especially digital serious games, can help educators develop novel pedagogical strategies to promote active and experiential learning in controlled settings. Despite considerable attention to this field during the last two decades, game-based educational solutions for construction engineering are far from achieving their full potential, and still little is known about systematic ways to direct research and development works in this domain. The first step toward developing systematic plans to advance research in this area is to analytically understand the extent, range, and nature of the existing research to identify research gaps and potential directions for future studies. This study addresses this need through a scoping review based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR). Throughout the research process, we identified 103 relevant studies. We extracted two sets of information from each document during the review process. The first set incorporates basic attributes of the publications, including the type of the document, publication year, and author affiliation. The second set of information concentrates on the contents of the documents to analyze their contextual characteristics and contributions to the field. Using the extracted information, we discuss the limitations in the state-of-the-art research in this rapidly growing field and propose a set of potential directions and considerations for future studies.

Evaluating arterial operational performance plays a pivotal role in arterial system management and enhancement. As a fundamental reference guide for traffic engineers, the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) provides a series of analysis methodologies for evaluating multimodal operations on urban streets, highways, freeways, and off-street pathways. However, the efficient use of the performance evaluation methodology of urban street facilities for motorized vehicles in the HCM can be restricted by a large amount of traffic volume collections at signalized and access point intersections, roadway segment geometric data inputs, and complicated calculation procedures on urban street segments. Further, the use of alternative tools, such as vehicle trajectory data, remains to be explored to supplement the urban street facility calculation framework in the HCM. To bridge the gap, this research utilizes vehicle trajectory data as an alternative tool and proposes a combined vehicle trajectory data and HCM calculation framework to implement and assess the existing performance evaluation methodology of urban street facilities for motorized vehicles in the HCM 7th Edition. A case study was carried out on three major signalized arterials in Sparks, Nevada, for HCM methodology implementation and performance evaluation. Based on evaluation results, it was found that vehicle trajectory data can be utilized as an alternative tool to implement the performance evaluation methodology of urban street facilities for motorized vehicles in the HCM 7th Edition. It is recommended to combine arterial through-vehicle trajectories, the time-space diagram, arterial level of service (LOS), and the poorest segment LOS for arterial operational performance evaluation and further enhancement. The proposed automobile traveler perception score (ATPS) in the HCM was found to be insensitive to reflecting traveler’s perception of service quality. Additional traveler perception-based factors are recommended to be included for further ATPS development and enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most time‐sensitive and critical tasks for first responders in the aftermath of a disaster is to locate people for effective and successful rescue operations. The existing solutions for large‐scale location detection of citizens depend on expensive equipment that may not be readily available in many urban areas and also cannot cover a vast area quickly. To address this challenge, the present study proposes a novel location estimation method by creating a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) using citizens' mobile phones. The proposed solution can accurately estimate the location of mobile devices in a MANET based on their Received Signal Strength (RSS) and communicate the estimated location coordinates to first responders without any dependencies on telecommunication infrastructures. This system will help first responders locate and map mobile devices in the affected area in a matter of seconds to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of postdisaster rescue operations. The envisioned solution offers unique capabilities that differentiate it from previously existing methods. The proposed method directly estimates device locations using their basic cellular signal strength without any dependency on GPS and relies only on basic cellphone signals. Therefore, nonsmartphones can also join and function in the envisioned MANET system. It also does not impose any computational operations or requirements for installing an app on citizens' phones. The performance of the proposed system was empirically evaluated using a simulation analysis. The results indicated that the method could efficiently and accurately discover more than 93% of mobile devices and estimate their locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]