Toward a Sustainable Society
Within the College of Engineering Technology, our 'Toward a Sustainable Society' research initiatives are building the foundational technologies for a resilient and environmentally conscious future. Our work encompasses vital areas like ensuring food packaging and safety, enhancing system safety and resilience, securing cyber-physical systems with AI, designing intelligent smart infrastructure, and innovating sustainable transportation, alongside transformative efforts that educate future innovators.
Featured Faculty
Research Summary
My research focuses on the development and application of advanced multiphysics numerical models to simulate the coupled thermal–hydro–mechanical–chemical (THMC) behavior of geomaterials and infrastructure materials. I investigate long-term degradation and failure processes in critical civil systems, such as nuclear waste repositories, where thermal radiation and high-pressure gradients compromise the integrity of engineered concrete and bentonite barriers; thawing soils, where freeze-thaw cycles, permafrost degradation, and seismic activity alter the mechanical stability and permeability of foundation systems; and concrete pavements, where cyclic traffic loading, elevated temperatures, and environmental exposure lead to spalling, delamination, and fracture. The goal is to enhance predictive models that inform safer, more resilient design of infrastructure exposed to climate, seismic, and energy-related stressors.
Broader Impact
This work addresses urgent challenges in infrastructure resilience, environmental protection, and energy safety. It contributes to the sustainable design and long-term performance assessment of systems that must operate reliably under climate-induced stressors, seismic activity, and material degradation, particularly in contexts such as nuclear waste containment, roadway and pavement systems, deep foundation engineering, geothermal energy facilities, and energy infrastructure exposed to extreme thermal or mechanical loading. By improving our understanding of multiphysics interactions in geomaterials, this research informs safer, more adaptive, and longer-lasting civil infrastructure.
Research Summary
Improve the safety, efficiency, cost, resilience, sustainability of transportation and energy sectors, smart cities, drivers, passengers and construction workers through asphalt paving material innovation, systems optimization, mechanics and engineering integration, and artificial intelligence.
Broader Impact
Nuclear waste can come from substances emitted by powerful reactors; they can also be the radioactive materials used for medical procedures such as cancer therapies. This Waste is moved to secured storage areas, most underground—common nuclear industry practices in the U.S., Japan, and Europe. As a Principal Investigator of a multi-institutional team, my research project sponsored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission aims to study high temperature and seismic response of concrete lining structures and clay for safe nuclear waste disposal. In deep geological spent fuel repository environment, high temperature, radiation, ground water and seismics constitute potential risk to the safe storage of spent fuel and nuclear waste. Understanding concrete behavior and performance going through thermal, hydro, mechanical, and chemical processes is the key for design and safety management of geological repository for spent fuel and nuclear waste.
Research Summary
Design and simulation of the packaging materials and structure in the supply chain for improving the barrier and physical protection.
Broader Impact
Packaging science is relevant to sustainability and food security.
Research Summary
My research focuses on the design and development of sustainable biopolymer-based films, coatings, and packaging materials derived from starch, cellulose, lignin, and other natural polymers. The primary goal is adding value to agricultural and food industry waste by transforming it into functional biopolymers for food and packaging applications. Overall, the research aims to mitigate food waste and enhance resource efficiency by maximizing the utilization of fruit and vegetable byproducts in advanced, biodegradable packaging solutions.
Broader Impact
Through this work, I aim to tackle two global challenges: plastic waste and food loss. By turning agricultural waste into biodegradable, active/intelligent packaging, my research supports a circular economy, reduces environmental impact, and helps keep food fresh longer, minimizing losses along the supply chain.
Research Summary
My research focuses on the characterization of transport dynamics and the development of packaging systems that enhance unit load stability and reduce product damage during distribution. I investigate how packaging interacts with real world hazards such as vibration, shock, and compression, and develop simulation protocols to replicate these conditions in the lab. This work supports the design of more resilient and sustainable packaging systems across various supply chain environments.
Broader Impact
Packaging plays a critical role in reducing food loss and waste, improving supply chain efficiency, and supporting sustainability goals. My research addresses the global challenge of minimizing product damage and waste during transportation, especially as e-commerce and global logistics continue to expand. By improving packaging performance and simulation accuracy, we contribute to more sustainable material use and reduced environmental impact.
Research Summary
I focus on creating practical, field-ready solutions for transportation infrastructure. My research tackles critical problems in three main areas: enhancing pavement durability and sustainability, developing fast and reliable pavement evaluation methods, and improving safety in highway construction. A more recent area of focus is engineering education, specifically how to integrate sustainability concepts into the curriculum.
Broader Impact
By developing durable and sustainable pavements, I'm helping to lower the environmental footprint and lifecycle costs of our road networks. My work on non-destructive evaluation (NDE) enables more efficient infrastructure management, which in turn leads to safer and more reliable transportation systems for everyone. My research into using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze highway construction accidents is crucial for improving safety and saving lives on job sites.
Research Summary
Organizations and communities alike face escalating risks related to the impacts of their activities on people and the environment, as well as vulnerabilities associated with existing and emerging social, technological, economic, environmental, legal and political conditions. Many EHS and sustainability programs in organizations and communities operate in silos—often reactive, compliance-driven, or narrowly focused, and lacking integration with strategic decision-making. There is a need for building organizational and practitioner capacity for holistic, strategic, and proactive risk management to support organizational and community resilience.
Broader Impact
My research aims to strengthen how organizations and communities anticipate and manage environmental, health, safety, and sustainability risks, and how they prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruption by integrating international standards and strategies for sustainability and resilience into both practice and pedagogy. This helps organizations implement more integrated, proactive EHS and sustainability systems that go beyond compliance toward strategic value creation and sustainable development. It helps cities to prepare for, respond and recover from disasters and disruption. It also equips students and early-career professionals with the tools to apply standards, design and assess systems, and bridge gaps between technical solutions and long-term planning – ultimately supporting development of more adaptive, responsive, resilient, and future-ready organizations and communities.
My approach applies systems-based frameworks to integrate EHS, sustainability, and risk management into organizational and community practices, and to engage students to apply these frameworks in the context of their courses. I focus on applying and analyzing international standards across these domains—bringing academic rigor to the study of private governance, and developing educational strategies that reflect the complexity of managing sustainability and resilience in real-world contexts. This dual-track model—practice and pedagogy—creates feedback loops that strengthen both.
Research Summary
My research focuses on developing advanced field robotics systems for unstructured and dynamic environments, particularly in the agricultural domain. Specifically, I design and develop automated data collection systems, including physical soil core sampling, environmental data collection, and integrate with unmanned systems such as unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to enhance efficiency, precision, and sustainability in the agricultural research field.
Broader Impact
My research addresses pressing challenges such as sustainable agriculture, automation in environmental monitoring, and resource-efficient applicable systems. By integrating robotics and AI, my work contributes to global priorities including climate resilience, sustainable agriculture practices, and workforce transformation in the age of automation.
Research Summary
I collaborate with industry and conduct research in the areas of bridge resiliency and sustainability, aging infrastructure evaluation, innovative construction materials, and engineering education, and have been a subject matter expert regarding bridge safety and integrity.
Broader Impact
Bridges are important in transportation systems by connecting road networks and communities, reducing travel time and costs, fostering economic growth, facilitating trade, enabling access to jobs and resources, and supporting disaster responses. Resilient design of bridges is critical for public safety and emergency services.
