Dr. Hany El Naggar

Dr. Hany El Naggar, Ph.D., P.Eng., is an Associate Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Dalhousie University with more than 20 years of experience in civil construction, geotechnical and structural engineering and research in Canada and overseas. He has participated in several structural and geotechnical investigations, and is experienced in analysis and design of foundations and soil-structure interaction of buried infrastructure. Dr. El Naggar and his research team has investigated the soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects around buried infrastructure; explored innovative use of tire derived aggregate (TDA) as a buffer zone to create stress arching and reduce demand on rigid culverts, proposed an earth pressure reduction system using geogrid reinforced platform bridging system to reduce stresses on buried utilities, and developed innovative “cellular” precast concrete pipe system. Also, He has developed a simplified technique to account for the group Effect in pile dynamics; and closed form solutions for the moments and thrusts in jointed and un-jointed composite lining systems, designed several foundation systems ranging from machine foundations subjected to dynamic loads to raft foundations for underground structure, as well as several tunnels and underground structures in the United States, Europe and Canada. The findings from Dr. El Naggar’s research have been reported in more than 65 technical publications covering both experimental and numerical work in the fields of soil-structure interaction, buried infrastructure and concrete pipes. He is the recipient of the 2005-2006 Outstanding Teaching Award from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Western. Prof. El Naggar won the 2006 L. G. Soderman Award, the 2005 R.M. Quigley Award, and the 2004 Milos Novak Memorial Award. Dr. El Naggar is the current chair of the Buried Structures Committee, CSCE, also he is member of the technical committee on buried structures of the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC). In addition, he is the current editor in chief of the International Journal of Civil Infrastructure.

Topic of Keynote: Soil-Structure Interaction of Integral Abutment Bridges

Keynote Abstract

Dr. Mohamed Shahin

Dr Mohamed Shahin is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Curtin University, Australia. He holds BSc in Civil Engineering and MSc in Geotechnical Engineering, both from Cairo University, Egypt, and PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Adelaide, Australia. He has over 25 years of academic and industrial experience. He published two books, two book chapters and over 110 peer-reviewed research conference and journal papers. His present academic roles include: Associate Editor of the Australian Journal of Civil Engineering; Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Geosynthetics and Ground Engineering; Board Member of Australian Geomechanics Society; Fellow Member of Engineers Australia, Member of TC103 (Numerical Methods in Geomechanics) and TC202 (Transportation Geotechnics) of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE); Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); Member of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education; and reviewer for more than 20 international journals. Dr Shahin received several awards including Pro Vice-Chancellor’s 2010 & 2015 Awards for Teaching Excellence; Vice-Chancellor 2011’s Award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching; and Aspire 2014’s Professional Development Award, all from Curtin University. He is also the recipient of the Prix R.M. Quigley Award (honourable mention) of the Canadian Geotechnical Society for the best paper published by the Canadian Geotechnical Journal in 2013.

Topic of Keynote: Innovative Solutions for Construction on Problematic Soils in Civil Infrastructure Developments

Keynote Paper

Dr. Hong Hao

Fellow IE Australia, Fellow ASCE, Fellow ISEAM. Hong Hao received his BEng from Tianjin University, China, MSc and PhD degree from the University of California at Berkeley, USA. Currently he works in Curtin University Australia as a John Curtin Distinguished Professor, Director of Curtin Research Centre of Infrastructure Monitoring and Protection, and Director of Tianjin University-Curtin University Joint Research Centre for Structure Protection. He has published more than 350 journal papers in earthquake engineering, blast engineering and structural condition monitoring, and received more than 8000 citations with H-Index 46 in Google Scholar and 37 in Scopus. He has won many research awards and his research results are included in textbooks, adopted in design codes, and used in many construction projects around world. He has chaired 14 international conferences, served in numerous international conference committees, and delivered around 50 keynote and numerous invited presentations in international conferences in many countries. He is the chief editor of International Journal of Protective Structures, and serves in the editorial board of another 10 journals. He has served in many national and international committees, including Engineers Australia Engineering Practice Advisory Committee, Australian Research Council College Experts Panel, and was the President of Australian Earthquake Engineering Society. He is currently the Deputy President of the International Association of Protective Structures, Australian Rep in the International Association of Earthquake Engineering, and serves in the Advisory Board of Australian Network on Structural Health Monitoring, and the Structural Panel of Engineers Australia WA Division. He is an adjunct professor in Tianjin University and the University of Western Australia, an advisory professor of Qingdao University of Science and Technology, and the guest professor of a dozen universities.

Topic of Keynote: Performance of RC Beams with or without FRP Strengthening Subjected to Impact Loading

Keynote Abstract

Dr. K. van Breugel

Prof.dr.ir. K. van Breugel is full professor at the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences of Delft University of Technology. He became employed at the university in the division of Concrete Structures in 1979. In the period 1980 – 1990 he was involved in research projects related to bulk storage of hazardous materials, like LNG, LPG and concrete protective structures. He got his PhD in Delft in 1991 with his research on numerical simulation of the microstructure of cement-based materials.

In 1999 dr. van Breugel became full professor on Concrete Modelling and Materials Behaviour in the division of Concrete Structures. In 2002 he was appointed director of the Micromechanical Laboratory of the faculty Civil Engineering and Geosciences. From 2003 until 2007 he was Director of Study of the faculty Civil Engineering and Geosciences. In 2008 he was appointed head of the division of Materials and Environment.

Professor van Breugel is member of several international organisations ACI, RILEM, IABSE, IALCCE and fib. He is (co-)author of about 600 conference and journal papers and editor of several books, reports and conference proceedings. In 2013 the Ageing Centre for Materials and Structures was launched under his supervision.

Topic of Keynote: Ageing Infrastructure and Circular Economy: Challenges and Risks

Keynote Paper

Dr. Joan García

Joan García (1966) is Professor of “environmental engineering” in the Civil Engineering School of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTech, Spain. He is director of the “Research Group on Environmental Engineering and Microbiology” (www.gemma.upc). He obtained a degree in biology in 1990 and presented a doctoral dissertation on wastewater treatment engineering in 1996. Joan carries out interdisciplinary research on the development and improvement of environmental biotechnologies that mimicking nature and maximizing eco-efficiency allow treatment of wastewaters and other kinds of wastes. In particular research is currently conducted on systems for wastewater treatment and at the same time materials and energy recovery, like constructed wetlands and microalgae photobioreactors. These biotechnologies are becoming popular in the environmental sector to manage a wide range of polluted waters and wastes like urban and industrial wastewaters, landfill leachate, animal wastes, and sludges of organic origin.

Topic of Keynote: Selection of cyanobacteria grown in wastewater treatment systems for metabolites production

Keynote Abstract

Dr. Simona Schwarz

Dr. Simona SCHWARZ studied photochemistry at the Technische Hochschule Leuna-Merseburg, Germany and sustained the PhD in 1995 at the Institut für Polymerforschung in Dresden, Germany. She is group leader of polyelectrolytes in suspensions at the Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V., Department of Polyelectrolytes and Dispersion.

Scientific fields of interest: colloid stability, flocculation, solid-liquid separation: polyelectrolytes, biopolymers like starch, chitosan, pectin; adsorption processes and surface modification; multilayers of polyelectrolytes and surfactants; electrokinetic investigations and characterization of solid/liquid interfaces; latices, oxide and pigment dispersions. Current research interest: flocculation and stabilisation of dispersions using polyelectrolytes. Number of papers in refereed journals: about 100, Number of patents: 15.

Topic of Keynote: Chitosan- A New Natural Adsorber Material

Keynote Abstract

Dr. Manfred Boltze

Manfred Boltze (59) studied Civil Engineering received his doctor degree in 1988 for his work in the area of computerized simulation and optimization of road traffic signal control. After 10 years of working as a consultant, he was appointed as Professor for Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany.

He contributed to various working groups to establish German guidelines in the area of transport planning and traffic engineering, e.g. from 1999 to 2007 he chaired the working group “Urban Traffic Control”. He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the German Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (2009-2015). With international projects, memberships in internatio-nal organisations and manifold contacts with foreign universities, Manfred Boltze is an active member of the international traffic and transport science community. From 2009 until 2014 he was the Director of the Vietnamese-German Transport Research Centre at the Vietnamese-German University (VGU) in Hochiminh City, and at the same university he also coordinated the interdisciplinary study program “M.Sc. Traffic and Transport”. He was also the chairman of the Scientific Committee preparing for the World Conference on Transport Research held 2016 in Shanghai.

His research work focuses on the manifold aspects of traffic management, covering conceptual, technical as well as institutional aspects. Highlights of his research in the recent years have been in the areas of ITS application, traffic signal control, and quality management for traffic and transport systems. Latest research areas also cover environment-responsive traffic control and the impacts of transport on human health.

Topic of Keynote: Principles of a Sustainable Traffic Management

Keynote Abstract