Our faculty conduct cutting-edge research with real-world applications, which provide countless opportunities for student involvement.
In architectural engineering, faculty and students conduct research in building science, energy efficiency in buildings, indoor air quality, and thermal comfort.
Faculty in the civil, architectural, and environmental engineering department's Built Environment Research Cluster include:
Brent Stephens
Expertise: Fate and transport of indoor pollutants, building energy, and environmental measurements; HVAC filtration; human exposures to airborne pollutants; energy efficient buildings; building simulation
Mohammad Heidarinejad
Expertise: Building science, multi-scale modeling of the built environment, building energy and environmental measurements, energy efficient buildings, building energy simulations, computational fluid dynamics, building control, sustainable and smart cities.
Construction engineering and management research involves construction productivity, scheduling and progress control, dispute resolution, construction company organization, sectorial studies, and project management.
David Arditi
Expertise: All aspects of construction management, engineering and support including planning and scheduling, economic analysis, systems optimization, equipment management, contract administration, construction contracting.
Ivan Mutis
Expertise: Information technologies for collaboration and communication in construction, Building Information Modeling (BIM), Virtual Design Construction, knowledge management, interoperability and semantics (ontologies, product, and process modeling), construction management education, technologies for sustainable construction, construction informatics
In environmental engineering, faculty and students conduct research in indoor and outdoor air quality, human exposure to pollutants, energy efficiency, water and wastewater systems and processes, and life cycle assessment.
Expertise: Fate and transport of indoor pollutants, building energy, and environmental measurements; HVAC filtration; human exposures to airborne pollutants; energy efficient buildings; building simulation
Expertise: Ambient air quality, characterization of atmospheric carbon emissions, physical and chemical characterization of atmospheric particles, modeling transport and fate of contaminants in the atmosphere, design of control systems for the removal of particles and gases from the atmosphere
Expertise: Building science, multi-scale modeling of the built environment, building energy and environmental measurements, energy efficient buildings, building energy simulations, computational fluid dynamics, building control, sustainable and smart cities
Expertise: Life cycle assessments of food, energy, and water provision; wastewater treatment and reuse; assessment and remediation of contaminated sites; water quality modeling and monitoring; computing technology applications for water systems
Geotechnical research emphasizes soil mechanics, rock mechanics, engineering geology, earthquake engineering, soil structure, and soil-water interactions.
Jeff Budiman
Expertise: Model testing; soil-structure interaction; soil dynamics and earthquake engineering; geoenvironmental engineering
Research in the public works specialty area includes public policy evaluation; management of engineering operations, maintenance, and rehabilitation; and construction of civil infrastructures such as roads, bridges, and traffic safety hardware.
Zongzhi Li
Expertise: Transportation systems analysis, evaluation, and asset management; statistical and econometric methods for transportation demand modeling, pavement performance modeling, and safety and security analyses; simulation modeling for intelligent transportation systems applications; risk and uncertainty modeling, and optimization of dynamic traffic networks, infrastructure systems, and logistics problems
Structural engineering research concentrates on structural dynamics and earthquake-resistant design, inelastic behavior, and non-linear analysis of steel structures and bridge engineering.
Gongkang Fu
Expertise: Bridge engineering, structural engineering, engineering mechanics, stochastic modeling, destructive and non-destructive testing for materials and structures, engineering management, infrastructure management
Matthew Gombeda
Expertise: Innovative precast/prestressed concrete components, innovative cementitious materials, experimental methods, blast design and analysis methodologies, balanced structural and energy efficient design
Expertise: Reliability of infrastructures; computational mechanics; structural dynamics; structural uncertainty analysis
Jamshid Mohammadi
Expertise: Structural engineering with emphasis on structural safety and reliability, fatigue, and bridge engineering
Transportation engineering research areas include multimodal transportation infrastructure and dynamic traffic network mobility, safety, security, and emergency evacuation, as well as energy consumption and vehicle emission performance modeling; transportation asset management, addressing system integration, risk, uncertainty, and sustainability; and network economics.
Zongzhi Li
Expertise: Transportation systems analysis, evaluation, and asset management; statistical and econometric methods for transportation demand modeling, pavement performance modeling, and safety and security analyses; simulation modeling for intelligent transportation systems applications; risk and uncertainty modeling; and optimization of dynamic traffic networks, infrastructure systems, and logistics problems
Mohammad Miralinaghi
Expertise: Transportation infrastructure design and management, sustainable transportation systems, connected and automated vehicles, electric vehicles, tradable credit scheme and congestion pricing, transportation infrastructure resiliency
