Sustainable Civil Infrastructure Systems (SCIS)

History:

The Sustainable Civil Infrastructure systems research group (SCIS RG) was established in 2015 where research lines in the area of environmental engineering, GIS and remote sensing, transportation & pavement engineering, and geotechnical & construction were adopted. The SCIS-RG played also a role in serving the community by organizing educational seminars and conferences in addition to conducting research. These research studies are aimed to serve the need of the local and regional community. For instance, the faculty members succeeded in launching several external research with vital agencies in the UAE, such as Sharjah Electricity, Water, and Gas Authority, Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure Development, and Mohammed Bin Rashed Space Center. Overall, the SCIS-RG has published many research in high-quality international journals and conferences in different domains. 

Goals & Objectives:

The mission of SCIS RG is to serve the needs of the community through developing and disseminating scientific knowledge related to sustainable civil infrastructure systems and providing innovative and practical solutions needed for understanding, planning, designing, managing and sustaining such systems. 

Vision:

The vision of the group is to lead research on developing smart, sustainable, and resilient systems, technologies, and infrastructure to promote sustainable development, protect the environment, and combat climate change in service to the community. The research group will also 1) develop strategic partnerships and exchange programs with leading government, business, industry, and academic organizations locally and internationally. 2) Engaging in research and development activities aligned with the strategic plans of Sharjah, UAE, and the Region. 3) Training graduate & undergraduate students, research assistants, and post-doctoral fellows.

• Workshop on the Scholarly Use of ChatGPT- Dr. Emran Alotaibi
• Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for traffic and safety analysis- by Prof. Karim Ismail
• Advancing Asphalt Pavements Through Mechanistic and Microstructure Analysis for Sustainable and Resilient Road Infrastructure
• the innovative use of geosynthetics towards sustainability and resilience of our infrastructures
• SSI of Soil-Metal Arch Bridges

Prof. Rami Al-Ruzouq

The new Master of Science in GIS & Remote sensing (RS) 

Prof. Rami Al-Ruzouq was hosted at the night show of Amasi broadcasted by Sharjah TV to speak about the new Master of Science in GIS & Remote sensing (RS) that is recently opened. Prof. Rami is the coordinator of the program where it received respectful attention about the community. This was observed by the number of incoming students in the program. One of the anticipated outcomes of the program is raise the bar in the application and research of GIS & RS in Sharjah and UAE in general. The full interview could be watched at this link: Click Here

Dr. Khaled Hamad

Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board

Dr. Khaled Hamad presented a paper at the 99th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board. The TRB conference, which was held in January 12th-16th 2020 in Washington, DC in the USA. The Conference, which is considered the largest and oldest conference in the area of transportation in the world, included over 5,000 presentations in nearly 800 sessions and workshops this year. Co-authored by Dr. Khaled's former master student Eng. Abdul Kareem M. Ismail, the paper evaluated the safety of the directional interchange with semi-direct ramp connections and loops (DI-SDRL). Their results showed that DI-SDRL ramp segments witnessed higher number of crashes than the conventional directional interchange.

Dr. Rami Al-Ruzouq

"Multi-scale correlation-based feature selection and random forest classification for LULC mapping from the integration of SAR and optical Sentinel images"

Dr. Rami Al-Ruzouq presented a research article at the "SPIE. Remote Sensing" conference in Strasbourg, France in September, 2019. The research article was entitled "Multi-scale correlation-based feature selection and random forest classification for LULC mapping from the integration of SAR and optical Sentinel images". In this article, the authors investigated the potential of using freely available satellite images to extract land use and land cover (LULC) maps in semi-arid environments through. They developed a multi-scale classification framework and utilized feature selection as well as machine learning to extract LULC from the satellite images products. Overall, the authors illustrated that utilizing freely available satellite images along with their developed framework has the potential to improve LULC extraction. Moreover, it can be effectively used to update GIS layers for various applications.

Dr. Waleed Zeiada

"Healing Based Approach for Perpetual Asphalt Pavement Design"

Dr. Waleed Zeiada was interviewed by the International Road Federation (IRF) - Middle East & North Africa Chapter - as part of his participation at their congress which took place in Dubai during the period October 29-30, 2017. Dr. Zeiada presented research about "Healing Based Approach for Perpetual Asphalt Pavement Design". The full interview can be checked here. 

First place winner in the 1st Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) GIS Day

First place winner in the 1st Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) GIS Day. The winning project presented the infrastructure growth of the City of Sharjah during the last few decades utilizing image processing and remotely sensed images. A TV report was prepared by Sharjah TV where it can be viewed here. 

Dr. Saleh Ahmed Abu Dabous

Sharjah TV local news "Akhbar Al-Dar" interviewed Dr. Saleh Ahmed Abu Dabous to discuss research findings on developing a novel bridge condition assessment index in collaboration with the UAE ministry of infrastructure development. The interview was aired on August 22, 2017. The full interview can be found here.

Dr. Salah Al-Toubat and Dr. Rami Al-Ruzouq

Organized two joint international conferences

"Amasi"-social program broadcasted daily on Sharjah TV, hosted Dr. Salah Al-Toubat and Dr. Rami Al-Ruzouq to spot the light on the International Conference on Advances in Sustainable Construction Materials & Civil Engineering Systems (ASCMCES-17). The full encounter can be viewed here.

Organized two joint international conferences: International Conference on Advances in Sustainable Construction Materials & Civil Engineering Systems (ASCMCES-17) and the International Forum on Engineering Education.

The 2nd Sciences and Engineering Research Groups Forum

SCIS-RG participated in the 2nd Sciences and Engineering Research Groups Forum held at the University of Sharjah.

 Dr. Waleed Zeiada

The Superpave workshop

Dr. Waleed Zeiada received an appreciation award for his contribution in the Superpave workshop organized by the UAE Ministry of Infrastructure Development during the period 24-25 January 2017

Eng. Iyad Sahnoon, Dr. Khaled Hamad, and Prof. Abdallah Shanableh

Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport in the Best Academic Research category

Eng. Iyad Sahnoon, Dr. Khaled Hamad, and Prof. Abdallah Shanableh received the Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport in the Best Academic Research category in February 2016. Further information can be found here.

Copy Right: Government of Dubai
Seminar on Combined High-Energy Synchrotron X-ray diffraction and Computed Tomography to Characterize Constitutive Behavior of Geo-materials.
Title: "Combined High-Energy Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction and Computed Tomography to Characterize Constitutive Behavior of Geo-materials"
Speaker: Prof. Khalid Alshibli. Professor and Associate Department Head for Graduate Programs, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996

Date and Time: 23/12/2015 @ 1230PM
Seminar on Traffic noise and vibration
Title: Transportation Noise and Vibration
Speaker: Dr. Ahmed El-Aassar, P.E., INCE, ASADate and Time: 7/10/2015 @ 1230PM
Location: W8-007(Ibn-Nafis)

Dr. Saleh Abu Dabous joined SCIS during the Fall 2015/16

Saleh Abu Dabous is an Assistant Professor of Construction Engineering and Management in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. He is a licensed professional engineer from Ontario, worked with the construction industry in Canada. Also, taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Concordia University.  Dr. Abu Dabous primary research and professional interests are in the areas of infrastructure management, bridge management systems, and decision support systems, bridge condition assessment and deterioration modeling, and construction budget and schedule control. His work has been published in a number of peer-reviewed technical journals and conference proceedings. He won a number of awards including an honorable mention in the competition for the 2011 Stephen G. Revay Award, from the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering. Dr. Abu Dabous was a member of the organizing committee for the International Conference on Sustainable Systems and the Environment (ISSE 2011), which was organized in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Cambridge. He holds a Ph. D. and a Master's from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, and a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology.

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