Program

Keynote Lecture

September 7 | 9:10 AM - 10:00 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Zhi Chen, Concordia University, Canada

Release of nanomaterials during construction activities that could potentially pollute the surrounding air
Dr. Kavitha Palaniappan, University of Newcastle, Australia

Dr. Kavitha Palaniappan is the Academic Director at UON Singapore, a wholly-owned entity of The University of Newcastle, Australia. In her capacity as Academic Director, she oversees the Business, Communication, Information Technology and Engineering degree programs that are offered in Singapore. She also teaches into the program of Bachelor of Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (BEnvOHS). Apart from teaching into the program, she is also actively involved in multi-disciplinary research, that include prevalence of psychosocial illnesses and their impacts on the society, economy and country, alternative therapies to enhance sleep, yoga and its health benefits, toxicity of nanomaterials, exposure measurements and hygiene requirements for nano titanium dioxide, exposure to nano silver in mattresses and beddings and their health effects, associations between seasonal patterns, climate variables and dengue risks in Singapore. She is also a graduate member of IOSH and a member of the Singapore NanOsing consortium.

Keynote Lecture

September 7 | 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Zhi Chen, Concordia University, Canada

Development of an Environmental Sustainability Ranking Tool (ESRT) for Industries
Dr. Charles Lee, The University of Newcastle, Singapore

Dr Charles Lee is a Program Convenor and Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle (Australia) Singapore. He has more than 25 years’ experience in environmental research, education and consulting in North America, and Asia-Pacific countries. His experience encompasses consulting at one of the top environmental consulting firms in the San Francisco Bay Area (California) USA, R&D at the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*Star, Singapore), and academic teaching and research at the University of Newcastle (Australia). Previously at A*STAR (Singapore) he has a patent on photocatalytic degradation of halogenated compounds. His research areas include remediation of contaminated sites, ecological rehabilitation of degraded land, and environmental sustainability of industries to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Recently, he is actively collaborating on: the use of a hyperaccumulator plant (Sedum alfredii) to remove heavy metals in contaminated agricultural sites in Southern China; restoration of damaged peatlands in Sumatra, Indonesia; and benchmarking sustainable development of key global industries. Topic of Keynote: Development of An Environmental Sustainability Ranking Tool (ESRT) for Industries

Keynote Lecture

September 7 | 12:15 PM - 1:05 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Fabiana Corami, CNR-IDPA, ltaly

Battery Characterization and SOC/SOH Estimation
Dr. Ahmed Fahmy, Senior Geotechnical Engineer at AECOM, NJ, USA

Dr. Ahmed Fahmy is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer at AECOM, NJ. He has extensive practical experience working with several employers in Canada, the United States, and the middle east, including AECOM, 30 Forensic Engineering, Golder Associates Ltd., Geoterre Ltd., Dar Al Handasah Consultants, and Geo-Consultants Group. He has provided engineering support services on a wide variety of large scale projects, and was involved in numerous forensic investigations related to legal and insurance claims.

In addition to his practical experience, Dr. Fahmy served as assistant professor (LDA) and research associate at the University of Western Ontario where he taught graduate and undergraduate level geotechnical engineering design courses. He is also a former assistant professor at Dhofar University.

Dr. Fahmy is an active member of the executive education committee of the Canadian Geotechnical Society and the deep foundations committee of ASTM international. He has received several awards, has several publications, and has served as a reviewer for multiple geotechnical journals and conferences.

Session

September 7 | 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Fabiana Corami, CNR-IDPA, Italy

Environmental I

Session

September 7 |1:15 PM - 1:45 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Muntasir Billah

Civil Engineering I

Keynote Lecture

September 8 | 9:00 AM - 9:50 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Charles Lee, The University of Newcastle, Singapore

Performance-Based Seismic Design of Bridges: Challenges and Opportunities
Dr. Muntasir Billah, Lakehead University, Canada

Dr. Muntasir Billah, P.Eng., is a tenure track assistant professor in The Department of Civil Engineering at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Canada. Before joining LU, he worked as a structural (bridge) engineer at Parsons, Vancouver, BC. He received his PhD and MASc in structural engineering from the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is the recipient of many awards and scholarships. He was awarded the 2016 UBC Governor General’s Gold Medal—one of Canada’s most prestigious academic awards. He has authored and co-authored 27 journal papers and 42 conference proceedings. He is the secretary of the Engineering Mechanics and Materials (EMM) division of CSCE, member of ACI Committee 341, Earthquake-Resistant Concrete Bridges, Associate Member of American Society of Civil Engineers and Structural Engineers Association of British Columbia. Dr. Billah’s research is focused towards improving our understanding of the behaviour of civil infrastructures under various extreme load conditions. His research is drawn towards the development and application of advanced and novel materials in civil engineering structures and its experimental investigation, advances in numerical and experimental earthquake engineering along with development of advance modeling tools and techniques. His research interests include seismic design and retrofit of buildings and bridges, performance-based seismic design, application of high performance materials (e.g. shape memory alloys), and multi hazard analysis of bridges.

Keynote Lecture

September 8 | 9:50 AM - 10:40 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Charles Lee, The University of Newcastle, Singapore

Long term performance of magnesia-based binders in contaminated soil remediation
Dr. Fei Jin, Cardiff School of Engineering, Cardiff University, UK

Dr. Fei Jin is a Charted Engineer (CEng) in the UK and joined the School of Engineering at Cardiff University in July 2020. He obtained his PhD degree from University of Cambridge in 2014 working on MgO-bearing cementitious materials. After that he continued to work as a research associate in Cambridge on the technical and commercial development of magnesia-bearing binders for land remediation and energy infrastructure. In 2017, he joined University of Glasgow as an Assistant Professor in its Singapore campus. As an Editorial Board Member for the ICE-Environmental Geotechnics and guest editor for Environmental Pollution, he has reviewed for more than 30 international journals covering material science, geotechnical engineering and environmental engineering. He is the recipient of the Canadian Geotechnical Journal Fredlund Award in 2019 and serves as Scientific Committee Member in a number of international conferences. His research interests include: 1. Sustainable binders and reuse of waste materials; 2. Magnesia cements; 3. Alkali-activated cements; 4. Soil/water remediation.

Keynote Lecture

September 8 | 10:45 AM - 11:35 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Charles Lee, The University of Newcastle, Singapore

Effects of the Environment on Infectious Diseases
Dr. Noelle Samia, Northwestern University, USA

Noelle I. Samia. B.S. (Valedictorian) in Mathematics, Notre Dame University, Lebanon; M.S. in Actuarial Science, University of Iowa, USA; Ph.D. in Statistics, University of Iowa, USA. Dr. Noelle I. Samia is an associate professor in the Department of Statistics at Northwestern University, USA. Her research work focuses on introducing and developing new statistical linear and nonlinear (threshold) models for count time-series and spatial data. Her work is both, theoretical and applied in nature. Through crossdisciplinary collaborations, these advanced and often new statistical methodologies are tailored to each specific application with the aim of explaining the dynamics of complex biological systems, particularly in the areas of infectious diseases and epidemiology, statistical ecology, and biomedical research. Her fields of research include nonlinear (e.g., threshold) spatio-temporal modeling, count time-series data, statistical inference for infectious diseases, statistical ecology, and statistical applications to biomedical research.

Keynote Lecture

September 8 | 12:45 PM - 1:35 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Noelle Samia, Northwestern University, USA

Sources and pathways of small microplastics (<100 µm) in terrestrial ecosystems
Dr. Fabiana Corami, CNR-IDPA, ltaly

Dr. Fabiana Corami, PhD, MSc Researcher at the Institute of Polar Sciences, National Research Council CNR-ISP, Venice – Italy Master Degree in Biology and PhD in Environmental Sciences, her current research field is on microplastics in the environment and in biota. She is working on developing preanalytical and analytical methods for quantification and simultaneous identification of microplastics via Micro-FTIR. Science communicator, co-author of contributions in monographs, author of several papers on peer reviews journals, she has attended to national and international conferences, also as invited keynote speaker. She is a member of the Board Committee of the Venetian District for Research and Innovation, DVRI, and is a member of the Leonardo Group of Science Gallery Venice.

Session

September 8 | 11:40 AM - 12:15 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Sahar Ghanem, Eastern Kentucky University, USA

Civil Engineering II

Session

Septmeber 8 | 1:35 PM - 2:00 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Hussein Mohamed Nabil, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Egypt

Environmental II