Dr. Hussam N. Mahmoud

Bashir grew up in Kunduz, Afghanistan. He completed his B.S. in Civil Engineering at Colorado State University (2014) on a U.S. Department of State Scholarship. After finishing his Bachelor’s Degree, Bashir he has been working as a Research Engineer at Structural Laboratory at the Engineering Research Center at Colorado State University with Dr. Mahmoud’s Research Team on fracture and fatigue related research projects. His current research focuses on evaluating the strength and fracture characteristics of CFRP-retrofitted plates under elevated temperature. Bashir enjoys hiking, running, submission grappling and watching Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and other martial art sports.

Akshat was born and grew up in New Delhi, India. He did his B.S. in Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Delhi (IITD). He recieved his M.S. at CSU working on developing a new suspended slab building system for earthquake mitigation. He is currently workiing on developing a bio-based optimization approach for sturctures subjected to multi-hazards. In his free time he likes to listen to music, play video games and sketch.

Mona was born and raised in Iran. She received her M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees from Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran. Her main research interests are Performance Based Earthquake Engineering, Structural Dynamics, Fire following Earthquake. Now, she is working on developing a Physics-Based Probabilistic Ignition Models for the Sequential Hazards of Earthquakes and Fires.

Aura Lee grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan in Evanston Illinois and completed her B.S. in Civil Engineering with a secondary major in Chinese and Japanese Studies at Valparaiso University. She is now working towards her M.S. in Civil Engineering, with research looking at eliminating deck joints in concrete bridges. Aura Lee also loves the big outdoors, books, art and theater.

Lena was born and grew up in Stuttgart, Germany. She got her Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering at Duale Hochschule Baden-Wuerttemberg in Mosbach, Germany. After finishing her bachelor she worked for two years for a software company doing crash simulation in the field of occupant safety. She is interested in structural engineering therefore she decided to get her master degree in Civil Engineering at CSU. Now she is investigating the Post-Fracture Residual Capacity of Two-Girder Steel Bridges using Abaqus.

Assal was born in Iraq. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Technology. He admitted at CSU in Fall 2013 as PhD student. He is interested in extreme loading events with focus on the behavior of composite wall systems under blast loading. He likes reading, biking, and soccer.

Mazin was born and raised in Libya. His research focuses on redundancy and alternative load path in steel bridges. Mazin likes travelling, reading, internet, and spending time with his friends and family.

Tim was born and raised in Morgantown, WV and earned his bachelors degree in civil engineering from West Virginia University in 2011. Tim worked for a small civil engineering consultant in Pittsburgh, PA for about three years after his undergraduate education and is now pursuing his PhD in structural engineering at CSU. Tim’s research is in the area of building construction technology to support resilient communities. Other interests include snowboarding, mountain biking, and running.

Stephanie grew up in New Hampshire and received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and M.S. from CSU. Her current research interests include predicting loss and communicating risk and vulnerability to the public for natural hazard events. While at CSU, she has developed a new Hurricane Impact Level Ranking System using an artificial neural network framework, which could be utilized as a predictive tool for estimating losses. Stephanie is also an avid storm chaser and a big fan of college football.

Emad was born and raised in the fascinating city of Cairo, Egypt. He received his B.S degree from Cairo University, Egypt (2011) in the field of structural Engineering. In addition, he obtained his M.Sc. (2015) working on "Behavior of cold-formed steel in moment resisting frames". He worked as a teaching and research assistant at Cairo University from 2012. His research interests include multi-hazard response, cold-formed steel applications, earthquake engineering, and fracture mechanics.

Santiago was born in Colombia and grew up in between Bogota, Colombia and New York City. He graduated cum laude as a Civil Engineer and is now pursuing his M.S. in Structural Engineering at CSU. His research focuses on experimentally assessing fatigue propensity and rates of joint degradation under multiaxial stresses. Santiago likes to read and spends his spare time with friends and family as well as climbing and swimming.