WSECAEE2024 | Civil Engineering | Architectural Engineering | Environmental Science | Top Conference in Civil Engineering

Prof. Jianlei Niu

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Title: Planning and design for thermal comfort in open and semi-open urban spaces – sustainability relevance, historical timing, and technological feasibility

Professor Niu is currently Chair Professor of Building, Environment and Energy, at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In the period from Feb 12, 2017 to Feb. 9, 2019, he held a position of Professor of Building, Environment and Energy, a conjoint appointment of School of Architecture, Design and Planning and School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney. He received his BEng and MSc degrees from Tsinghua University and PhD from Delft University of Technology. He also had an experience of an R&D engineer with a utility manufacturer in UK during his tenure with Tsinghua University, researching on clean coal-combustion technologies. During his tenure with HKPolyU, he secured 16 RGC CERG/GRF grants, along with two ITF grants, two RFCID/HMRF grants and one RGC/NSFC joint grant, and one RGC CRF grant as a Co-PI. He is currently leading a Theme-based-research-scheme(TRS) project "Healthy and Resilient Cities with Pervasive LoCHs', aiming to developed a simulation-based-optimisation(SBO) method to create localised outdoor thermal-comfort hubs(LoCHs) by design in the urban and estate planning stage.

His technology contributions are in a broad area linking thermal and fluid sciences with building environment. He is an editor -in- chief of the Elsevier journal Energy and Buildings, and sits in the editorial board of the Elsevier journal Building and Environment and Journal of Building Performance Simulation, IBPSA's official journal published by Taylor & Francis Journal. He was awarded the fellowship by three leading societies, ASHRAE(American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers), ISIAQ(International Society of Indoor Air Quality) Academy of Fellows, and IBPSA (International Building Performance Simulation Association) Academy of Fellows.

Prof. Jian-Guo Dai

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Title: Multiple-Functional Coating for Improving Sustainability of Concrete Infrastructure

Ir Prof Jian-Guo Dai graduated with his PhD degree in social infrastructure engineering from Hokkaido University, Japan. His research theme is “Emerging materials and structural systems for sustainable concrete infrastructures”. He has received many awards for his research work, including the “Best Basic Research Paper Award” from American Society of Civil Engineers, Journal of Composites for Construction, “Distinguished Young Scholar of FRP Application Committee of Chinese Society of Civil Engineers”, “International Outstanding Collaboration Award” from Japan Society of Civil Engineers, and “Structural Excellence Award-Grand Award” from Hong Kong Institution of Engineers. Prof Dai is a Fellow of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, International Institute of FRP in Construction (IIFC), Hong Kong Concrete Institute (HKCI), and International Association of Advanced Materials. Prof Dai’s research on eco-friendly sub-ambient cooling coating was highlighted by “Editor’s Choice” of “Science” and widely reported by public media like “Ta Kung Pao”, “Hong Kong Economic Journal” and TVB News. Prof Dai has been continuously in the “World’s Top 2% Scientist-Stanford University Releases List” in “Civil Engineering” and “Materials Science and Engineering” disciplines. Prof. Dai has published more than 350 technical papers (including some 210 SCI journal papers) which have been cited in over 11,000 scholarly publications (with h-index=55).

Prof. Vistasp M. Karbhari

The University of Texas at Arlington, USA

Title: Will update soon

Vistasp M. Karbhari is a Professor in the Departments of Civil Engineering, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he served as the 8th president from 2013 to 2020. An internationally reputed researcher, who has authored/co-authored over 500 publications and edited 6 books, Prof. Karbhari is an expert in the processing and mechanics of composites, durability of materials, infrastructure rehabilitation, and multi-threat mitigation. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); the National Academy of Inventors (NAI); the American Society of Civil Engineers; ASM International; the International Institute for Fiber-reinforced Polymers in Construction; the International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure; ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute, is an elected member of the European Academy of Science and Arts, and in 2021 was named a Fellow of Complete College America for his work on ensuring access and student success. Prior to joining UTA, Professor Karbhari served at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (2008-2013), the University of California San Diego (1995-2008), and the University of Delaware (1991-1995).

Prof. Taha B. M. J. Ouarda

Statistical Hydro-Climatology ,National Institute for Scientific Research, Canada

Title: Approaches for the integration of climate change and climate variability signals in environmental and civil engineering decision making

Taha Ouarda is professor at the National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS-ETE) in the field of hydro-climatology and risk analysis. Dr. Ouarda is also Chairman of the Canada Research Chair in statistical Hydro-climatology, and has acted in the past as Chairman of the Hydro-Québec Industrial Chair in Statistical Hydrology. He has also served as President of the National Canadian Committee on Statistical Hydrology. Dr. Ouarda holds a Principal Engineer degree in Hydrology from the National Engineering School of Tunis, and a PhD in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University. His research activities focus on the modeling of hydro-meteorological variables, the study of the impacts of climate change, environmental modeling, and renewable energy assessment. He has developed several computer softwares that deal with a range of problems in the fields of hydrometeorology and environmental engineering. He has also led several international projects dealing with hydro-meteorological modeling, environmental analysis and the links between climate evolution, the environment, and public health. Dr. Ouarda is the author of over 350 articles in international refereed journals in his field of specialization.

Prof. Riadh Al-Mahaidi

Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Title: Will update soon

Professor Riadh Al-Mahaidi is the Director of the Smart Structures Laboratory and a Professor of Structural Engineering at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. He previously held the position of Vice President (International Engagement) at Swinburne from 2017 to 2022. Before joining Swinburne in 2010, he was the Head of the Structures Group at Monash University. He earned a BSc (Hon 1) in civil engineering from the University of Baghdad and MSc and PhD degrees in structural engineering from Cornell University in the United States.

Over the past 25 years, he has focused his research and practice on the lifetime integrity of structures, with a particular interest in structural strength assessment and retrofitting using advanced composite materials. His current research projects involve strengthening bridges using fiber reinforced polymers combined with cement-based bonding agents, improving the fatigue life of metallic structures using advanced composite systems and shape memory alloys, and assessing structure collapse through multi-axis hybrid testing.

Professor Al-Mahaidi is a prolific researcher, with over 250 journal and 270 conference papers published to date, as well as 18 authored/edited books and conference proceedings. He has received several awards, the most recent one was the 2023 IIFC Medal for distinguished contributions to the field of FRP composites for construction through research or practical applications, or both. He was also the recipient of the 2021 IABMAS Special Service Award from the International Association for Bridge Maintenance and Safety. In 2019, he received the Magazine of Concrete Research Prize, from the Institution of Civil Engineers, UK. In 2016, his research group won the Engineers Australia Excellence Award for Innovation, Research, and Development (High Commendation) for the Multi-Axis Substructure Testing (MAST) System. In 2017 he was awarded the WH Warren Medal by Engineers Australia and in 2018 the ARRB Research Impact Award. Other awards included the Vice Chancellor's Internationalization Award in 2012, the RW Chapman Medals in 2005 and 2010 for best journal publication in Engineers Australia Structural Journal, and best paper awards at ACUN-4 (2002) and ACUN-6 (2012) Composites conferences.

Professor Al-Mahaidi is a Fellow of various institutions, including Institution of Engineers Australia, American Concrete Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers, The International Institute for FRP in Construction (IIFC), Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), and the Bridge Engineering Institute.

Prof. Danny D. Reible

USA

Title: Assessing and Managing Legacy and Emerging Contaminants in the Environment

Danny Reible is the Donovan Maddox Distinguished Engineering Chair and Paul Whitfield Horn Professor at Texas Tech University serves as Interim Director of the Water Resources Center and Interim Chair of Chemical Engineering. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Caltech, is a Professional Engineer (LA), a Board Certified Environmental Engineer and in 2005 was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for “the development of widely used means of managing contaminated sediments”. In 2022 he was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors for his work developing and applying environmental technologies. His research is focused on the assessment and management of contaminated sediments and the development of beneficial uses of poor quality waters in arid areas. He has more than 200 publications and has attracted more than $40 million in research funding.

Prof. Arvin Farid

USA

Title: Electromagnetic Waves for Geotechnical/Geoenvironmental Applications

Dr. Arvin Farid is a Professor of the Civil Engineering Department and the Director of the SEnS-GPS Program, sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation, at Boise State University. He is also the chair of the Geoenvironmental Engineering Technical Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Geo-Institute (GI) and an editor of the Environmental Geotechnics Journal of the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE). He also serves on several national and international committees. He received his Ph.D. from Northeastern University, Boston, MA, and his M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees from Shiraz (formerly Pahlavi) University, Shiraz, Iran. He has pioneered the leading edge of research on the use of electromagnetic (EM) fields for geoenvironmental/geotechnical applications. His research includes EM-induced remediation, EM waves’ effect on soil properties, energy geo-storage, wildfire research, recycling and reuse of industrial byproducts, material characterization, power infrastructure vulnerability, and liquefaction mitigation, among others. His most recent research focuses on wildfires’ impacts, resilience against them, restoration and remediation post-fire, and recycling waste. Dr. Farid was awarded several research grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) among others. He has published in several prestigious civil and electrical engineering journals and presented at numerous international civil engineering, electrical engineering, and geophysics conferences.

Prof. Jian-Hua YIN

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Title: Will update soon

Professor Yin received a PhD from The University of Manitoba, Canada in 1990. He joined Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1995 starting from an Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, Professor, then promoted to Chair Professor in 2012. He is now Chair Professor of Soil Mechanics of the University and Leader of Geotechnical Unit of the department. Professor Yin has a good track record in research and has played a leading role in development of advanced soil testing equipment, innovative fiber optical sensors, establishing a large-scale multi-purpose physical modeling facility for studying geo-hazards, organization of regional and international conferences. Professor Yin serves as a Vice-President of International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG) (founded in USA) since 2005, a founding Co-Editor of International Journal of Geomechanics (ASCE). He has received the honours of the prestigious “John Booker Medal” in 2008, “Chandra S. Desai Excellence Award” in 2011, and “Outstanding Contributions Medal” in 2017 from all IACMAG. He received “Mao Yi-Sheng Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering Youth Award” for 2000. An Elastic Viscoplastic (EVP) model and its application in consolidation analysis of soils by Yin and Graham (1996 published in Géotechnique) was considered a milestone contribution in Geotechnique (Top 1 journal in geotechnical engineering) in last 60 years (Zdravkovic L. & Carter, J., 2008. Contributions to Geotechnique 1948–2008: Constitutive and numerical modelling. Geotechnique 58, No. 5, 405–412). He delivered the high-status 2011 “Huang Wenxi Lecture” in Chinese Mainland. He was ranked in Top 88 among 58101 scientists in “Geological & Geomatics Engineering” in World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford-University in 2022.

Prof. Hai GUO

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Title: Unraveling the puzzle of severe ozone pollution in China

Professor Hai Guo completed his PhD study in Australia. He is currently a Professor in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Air Lab in charge. He is the Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor and the Fellow of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers. Prof. Guo’s research interests include atmospheric chemistry, organic aerosols and their precursors, ozone pollution, bioaerosol transmission and indoor chemistry. He is among the first to have developed a photochemical trajectory model and a photochemical box model to understand atmospheric ozone formation in Asia. He is also the first person in Hong Kong to establish a world-class laboratory instrument system to analyse trace volatile organic compounds (VOCs). He has developed offline and semi-online samplers for measuring ambient acidic ultrafine particles. Prof. Guo is an investigator of more than 70 research projects. He has published more than 180 papers, with an h-index of 59 on Google scholar with total citation of ~12,300, and 54 on Scopus.

He has been ranked the World’s Top 2% Highly Cited Scientist in Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences in 2020-2022. Prof. Guo is the VOC expert group member of the World Meteorological Organization – Global Atmosphere Watch. He is the Chairman of the International Expert Workshop on VOCs 2023. Furthermore, Prof. Guo is Associate Editor of Science of the Total Environment, and Editor of Aerosol and Air Quality Research. Prof. Guo has won many prizes including a second prize of natural science issued by China’s Ministry of Education, first prize of science and technology in Guangdong province, golden medal and a special merit award at the 71st International Trade Fair for Ideas, Inventions & New Products in Germany, Winner of the Australia China Alumni Awards for Research and Science, and eight-time Dean awards for outstanding research and publication at PolyU. Prof. Guo has given plenary, keynotes, and invited speeches in a number of international conferences and been a member of Scientific Advisor Committee in many conferences.

Dr. Djordje Romanic

McGill University, Canada

Title: Thunderstorm and tornado wind damage to structures

Djordje Romanic is an Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at McGill University in Canada. He has a PhD in Meteorology from the University of Belgrade in Serbia and another PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Western University in Canada (formerly the University of Western Ontario). Prof. Romanic’s research interests are across the fields of thunderstorm winds, such as downbursts and tornados, boundary layer meteorology, natural hazard modelling and applications of atmospheric sciences to wind engineering and sustainability & resilience. As an example of his recent research, he developed the first analytical model of the nonlinear interaction between large-scale atmospheric boundary layer winds and downburst outflow. Furthermore, he spearheaded the work on wind tunnel modeling of the interaction between downburst-like impinging jets and atmospheric boundary layer winds. He has worked on a number of other research projects in Canada, Italy, Serbia, Denmark, Barbados, and the United States. He also serves as an Adjunct Research Professor at Western University and a Visiting Professor (2024) at the University of Genoa in Italy. He published over 40 journal articles with a cumulative h-index of 16. He has a well-established research group with several PhD, MSc and undergraduate students, and he is managing a state-of-the-art research infrastructure such as a long-range Doppler lidar, ultrasonic anemometers, aerosol number concentration and size spectrometers, etc. Professor Romanic is also a science communicator on his YouTube channel, and he is frequently interviewed in Canadian media to provide his expertise on severe weather, climate as well as their influence on the society.

Prof. Lili Du

University of Florida , USA

Title: Strategies for Building Resilient Transportation Systems: Pre-disaster planning and Post-disaster Restoration in Response to Extreme Weather Events

Dr. Lili Du is currently an NRC renowned Research Associate at the Federal Highway Administration-Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, and she is also a Professor in the Civil and Coastal Engineering Department, University of Florida. She received her Ph.D. degree in Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems with a minor in Operations Research and Statistics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2008. Dr. Du's research is characterized by integrating operations research, network modeling, game theory, control theory, AI, and statistical methods into traffic flow analysis, transportation system analysis, urban planning, and network modeling. Her current research mainly focuses on the impacts of connected and/or autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles, mobility on demand, smart curb, network resilience, and traffic flow analysis. Dr. Du's research has been published in Transportation Research Part B, Part C, and Part D, IEEE Transactions on ITS, Networks, and Spatial Economics. Her research has been funded by NSF, State DOTs, STRIDE UTC, FMRI UTC, and Toyota InfoTechnology Center. Dr. Du was a recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 2016. Her project, "Driverless City" won the First Nayar Prize at IIT. She is the founding and active chair of both TRB AEP40-4 subcommittee on Emerging Technologies in Network Modeling and ASCE-T&DI Artificial Intelligence in Transportation Committee. She serves as an editor for Transportation Research Part B: Methodological and an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems.

Plenary Speakers