Underground Construction - August 2021 - 27

Recent CUIRE Graduates
Dr. Amin Darabnoush Tehrani graduated in
August 2020. He is currently a project manager
at ASFI Construction (Sanger, Texas) and a
Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the CUIRE.
He is experienced in development, structural
testing, evaluation, and design of pipes and their
rehabilitation using Spray Applied Pipe Liners
(SAPL). He served as a Co-Principal Investigator
(CO-PI) of multiple funded research studies and is a
voting member of multiple technical committees,
including AWWA's M28, M81, and M77, as
well as ASCE's Younger Member Engagement
Committee (YMEC). Dr. Darabnoush Tehrani has
co-authored more than 18 peer-reviewed journal
and conference papers. He is a recipient of the
International Society for Trenchless Technology's
(ISTT's) Academy Award in 2019 for his endeavors
in SAPL structural design development.
CUIRE Names New
Program Manager
Roz Javadi Zadeh joined CUIRE as a
Program Manager and Graduate Research
Assistant in January. She has a bachelor's
in civil engineering degree from
Isfahan Azad University in Iran and is
currently working on her master's in
construction management at UTA.
Before joining CUIRE, Zadeh had
more than five years of work experience
in the field of construction, as sales
and trade manager, quality control
specialist and laboratory technician. In
a short time since joining CUIRE, she
has excelled at managing conferences
and workshops, and working with
CUIRE members and other graduate
students to conduct research and
testing at the CUIRE laboratory.
She is president of the North American
Society for Trenchless Technology-UTA
Student Chapter and a student member
of the American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE). She can be reached
at (817) 272-9177 or cuire@uta.edu *
Ukendran Gopi graduated in May 2021 with
a master's in Construction Management. As a
graduate research assistant, he worked at CUIRE
on the SAPL project conducting testing operations.
He is currently a construction estimator at
Bluenative Landscape and Irrigation, Key West, Fla.
Dr. Vinayak " Vinny " Kaushal, PACP, M. ASCE,
graduated in Summer 2019 with his Ph.D. in
civil engineering and a focus on construction
engineering. He is currently an assistant
professor of instruction in the civil engineering
(CE) department at the University of Texas at
Arlington (UTA). Dr. Kaushal conducts trenchless
technology research and has previously served
as a post-doctoral research associate and
an adjunct professor at CUIRE and UTA.
Dr. Zahra Kohankar Kouchesfehani graduated
in August 2020 with a Ph.D. in civil engineering,
focused in Construction Engineering. She
currently serves as an Engineer at Hazen and
Sawyer, Dallas, Texas, and is an active member
of ASCE, NASTT and American Water Works
Association (AWWA) Standard Committees.
She serves as the Chair of the Publications
Subcommittee of AWWA's Water Main Condition
Assessment Committee. Her expertise is
trenchless technology, pipe rehabilitation,
inspection, and condition assessment. She
has co-authored more than 18 peer-reviewed
journal and conference papers. In 2019
she received the International Society for
Trenchless Technology's (ISTT's) Academy
Award for her role in SAPL structural design
methodology development. For this award, Dr.
Kohankar Kouchesfehani was recognized by
ISTT as an expert who has made exceptional
contributions to trenchless technology.
Dr. Reza Malek graduated in July 2019 with
a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and a focus in
Construction Engineering. He has been with
Plummer Associate Inc., (Fort Worth, Texas)
as an Engineer in Training III on the Water
Planning team since October 2019. He has
been involved in several projects such as, Texas
Regional Water Planning; TMCRWS (Ten Mile
Creek Regional Wastewater System) Corrosion
Management Plan; Fort Worth and North Texas
Industrial, Commercial, Institutional (ICI) Program
Implementation; and North Texas Municipal Water
District (NTMWD)-Long Range Water Supply Plan.
Suhas Patil received a master's oinConstruction
Management at the University of Texas at
Arlington in May 2021. During his graduate
studies, he worked as a Graduate Research
Assistant on several research projects
at CUIRE and served as president of the
NASTT Student Chapter at UTA. He is
currently working as a project engineer
at Stacy and Witbeck constructing a
transit station in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Dr. Ramtin Serajiantehrani graduated with
a Ph.D. in civil engineering (construction
engineering) in December 2019. He works as
a project manager/estimator at Reyes Group
Ltd., in Dallas, Texas. Earlier he served as an
adjunct professor and a post-doctoral research
associate at CUIRE. He has published more
than 20 papers in high-impact factor journal
and conference proceedings and is involved in
industry research projects on underground utility
and infrastructure, water technology, wastewater
treatment, stormwater management, pipelines,
and trenchless technology methods. A member
of ASCE and NASTT, he is a reviewer of several
journals, including ASCE's Journal of Pipeline
Systems-Engineering and Practice and Journal
of Performance of Constructed Facilities.
Dr. Amir Tabesh, P.E., graduated in 2018
with a Ph.D. in civil engineering (construction
engineering) and, since then, has been working
with DAL-TECH Engineering in Dallas, Texas. He
received his professional engineering license
last April and was promoted to an engineering
manager position. Currently, he is working on
his MBA at the University of North Texas and
is expected to graduate in Summer 2022. *
UCONonline.com | AUGUST 2021
27
http://www.UCONonline.com
Underground Construction - August 2021

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