Program

Plenary Lecture

November 22 | 9:15 AM - 10:15 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Charles Lee, The University of Newcastle, Singapore

Practical Implementation of Green Infrastructure Strategies
Dr. John Gulliver, University of Minnesota, USA

John Gulliver is a Professor of Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering at the University of Minnesota, performing his research at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. His major research interests are mass transport in environmental systems and stormwater pollution prevention. Current research involves the development of technology to treat stormwater runoff, an assessment of stormwater infiltration practices, the prediction of runoff from small, urban watersheds and remediation of internal phosphorus loading in stormwater ponds.

Much of Dr. Gulliver’s research, in conjunction with other faculty, involves the development of new technology for the treatment of road runoff and assessment of field performance of stormwater treatment practices, including the SAFL Baffle, the Iron-Enhanced Sand Filter, and the MPD Infiltrometer. He is a co-author of the book, Optimizing Stormwater Treatment Practices: A Handbook of Assessment and Maintenance, published by Springer.

Keynote Lecture

November 22 | 10:15 AM - 11:00 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Charles Lee, The University of Newcastle, Singapore

Development of Virtual Modelling Techniques in Civil Engineering
Dr. Dee Wu , University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Dr Di Wu completed his PhD training at University of New South Wales Sydney in 2015. Since 2019, he has appointed as a lecturer at School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS). He has published 70 SCI journal papers. He works in research areas that bring together computational stochastic/nonstochastic mechanics, machine learning, and engineering design with implementation of new composite materials. Di has also developed frameworks for machine-learningaided engineering safety assessment, nondeterministic methods for isogeometric analysis with polymorphic uncertainties, as well as approaches for designing composite material via AI techniques.

Session

November 22 | 11:10 AM - 12:40 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Charles Lee, The University of Newcastle, Singapore & Dr. Nicholas V Scott, Riverside Research, USA

Environmental Sustainability and Development

Plenary Lecture

November 22 | 01:10 PM - 02:10 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Zhi Chen, Concordia University, Canada

Harnessing the Novel Feammox Bacterium, Acidimicrobium sp. Strain A6, for PFAS Defluorination: The Path from Discovery to Applications
Dr. Peter Jaffé, Princeton University, USA

Prof. Peter Jaffé joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University in 1985, and has three concurrent appointments with the Princeton Environmental Institute, the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials. He served as chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 1999 to 2005 and was director of graduate studies in the same department from 2009 to 2012.

His research interests relate to the physical, chemical, and biological processes that govern the transport and transformation of pollutants in the environment and their application toward the remediation of contaminated systems. Areas of current emphasis include: laboratory and field experiments, as well as mathematical simulations of biogeochemical processes in porous media, such as: (1) understanding the mechanism as well as environmental distribution of the Feammox process (ammonium oxidation under iron reducing conditions); (2) Applications of the Feammox process for ammonium removal in engineered systems and for the cometabolical degradation of recalcitrant organics such as PFAS; (2) biogeochemically mediated dynamics of trace metals, metalloids, and radioisotopes in sediments, wetland soils, and groundwater; (4) nitrogen processing in urban settings coupled to urban hydrology; and (5) design of novel biological waste treatment processes.

Professor Jaffé holds a bachelor’s of science in chemical engineering from Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela, and a master’s and doctorate in environmental and water resources engineering from Vanderbilt University.

Session

November 22 | 02:10 PM - 03:40 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Zunaira Asif, Concordia University, Canada

Traffic Engineering

Session

November 22 | 03:50 PM - 04:50 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Zunaira Asif, Concordia University, Canada

Civil Engineering I

Keynote Lecture

November 23 | 9:00 AM - 9:45 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Charles Lee, The University of Newcastle, Singapore

Functionalization of Renewable Materials for Energy, Environment, and Healthcare
Dr. Rajan Jose, University Malaysia Pahang , Malaysia

Professor Rajan Jose supervises the Nanostructured Renewable Energy Materials Laboratory in the Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) and is the Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Springer Nature journal “Materials Circular Economy” (https://www.springer.com/journal/42824?IFA). He has served as the Dean of Research of UMP during Feb 2016 – Aug 2019 and a member of various committees of UMP and Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia.

He has investigated nanostructured perovskite ceramics for microwave and superconducting electronics during doctoral research at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Trivandrum, India and has received PhD degree in the year 2002. He has contributed to the science and engineering of diverse range of materials including metals and alloys, luminescent quantum dots for biological and energy applications, glass and glass ceramics for quantum electronics, and electrochemical materials for energy conversion and storage. He was employed as a scientist at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (India), AIST (Japan), Toyota Technological Institute (Japan), and the National University of Singapore (Singapore) before joining UMP. He has published over 220 papers in Web of Science (Thomson Reuters) indexed journals which are cited nearly 11600 times with an h-index of 56 according to Google Scholar database (https://scholar.google.com.my/citations?user=LgSpTSAAAAAJ&hl=en). He holds 25 patents. He has supervised 6 Postdoctoral, 23 Doctoral, and 10 Master’s researchers.

His current research interests include sustainable materials, circular economy, data science, renewable energy devices; most of his research is on the structure – property relationship in materials for a desired device functionality.

Keynote Lecture

November 23 | 9:45 AM - 10:30 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Charles Lee, The University of Newcastle, Singapore

Degradation of Micropollutants Using Advanced Oxidation Processes - From Process Fundamentals to Municipal and Industrial Wastewater Applications
Dr. Mohamed Gamal El-Din, University of Alberta, Canada

Dr. Mohamed Gamal El-Din is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta. His research focuses on the fundamentals of advanced and innovative treatment approaches for water and wastewater (municipal and industrial such as oil and gas). Since 2011, he holds an NSERC Senior Industrial Research Chair (IRC) in Oil Sands Tailings Water Treatment. He is also one of the Theme Leads of the Future Energy Systems (FES) theme on Resilient Reclaimed Land and Water Systems, a 75-million multidisciplinary research from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. Because of his contributions in the area of oil sands process water treatment/reclamation, in 2017, Dr. Gamal El-Din received the Alberta Science and Technology Leadership (ASTech) Foundation Award for Innovation in Oil Sands Research. In 2019, he was appointed Jinshan Distinguished Professor at Jiangsu University and in 2020 he was awarded Research Chair in Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental Science and Engineering at Tongji University (China). His research work has resulted in important advancements in the area of advanced oxidation and ozone treatment, membrane separation and biological processes. Another part of his research program has centered on the development of new materials and their applications in water and wastewater treatment. Dr. Gamal El-Din’s research program also focuses on the development of cost-effective and simple, yet highly efficient treatment systems for rural communities in both industrialized and developing countries. Dr. Gamal El-Din’s research has resulted in 255 refereed journal papers, 94 refereed conference papers, 369 conference and workshop presentations, 52 technical reports, and 7 book chapters and a number of other articles. Currently, Dr. Gamal El-Din’s h-index is 55 (10044 citations) as per Google Scholar.

Session

November 23 | 10:40 AM - 11:40 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Charles Lee, The University of Newcastle, Singapore

Civil Engineering II

Session

November 23 | 11:50 AM - 12:25 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Zhi Chen, Concordia University, Canada

Greenhouse Effect, Global Warming, and Climate Change

Keynote Lecture

November 23 | 12:55 PM - 01:40 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Zhi Chen, Concordia University, Canada

Infrastructure Asset Management – A Systems Engineering Perspective
Dr. Fuzhan Nasiri, Concordia University, Canada

Dr. Fuzhan Nasiri is an associate professor at the Department of Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering (BCEE) at Concordia University. He is a systems engineer with deep interest in investigating the emerging challenges in the design and operation of complex (physical) systems (such as facilities, infrastructure, and buildings) and their interactions with and impact on the environment and society from risk, resilience, and reliability (3Rs) perspectives. Dr. Nasiri is directing the Infrastructure Systems Modeling & Simulation (SEISE) lab. Dr. Nasiri is also affiliated with Institut Nordique du Québec (INQ). His research has been funded by Natural Science & Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, MITACS, and several partnership projects with industry partners. He is currently collaborating with the International Energy Agency under Annex 37 (Smart Energy Storage Systems). Dr. Nasiri is serving as associate editor and member of editorial board for several scientific journals including Sustainable Cities and Society, Environmental Systems Research, Energy and Built Environment, and Pipeline Science & Engineering. Dr. Nasiri has been involved in organizing several conference streams with CSCE, INFORMS and CORS. Before joining Concordia, he worked at University College London (UCL) as a faculty member (2011-2014), at Yale University as a research scientist (2009-2011), and at GERAD research group as a postdoctoral fellow (2007-2009). Dr. Nasiri holds a PhD in Environmental Systems Engineering from the University of Regina, and MSc and BSc from Sharif University of Technology.

Session

November 23 | 01:40 PM - 03:00 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Nicholas V Scott, Riverside Research, United States

Environmental Pollution and Treatment