Faculty

Christine E. Wittich, Ph.D.

Dr. Wittich joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in January 2017 and established this lab focused on structural engineering for natural hazards and extreme events. She holds a Ph.D. (2016) and M.S. (2012) in Structural Engineering from the University of California, San Diego, and a B.S. (2010) in Civil Engineering from Lafayette College in Easton, PA. As the PI of this lab, her research interests focus on enhancing fundamental knowledge of how structural systems behave individually and how they interact at the community level during and after natural hazards and extreme events. In addition to her research efforts through this lab, she teaches undergraduate courses in structural engineering and steel design as well as graduate courses in structural dynamics and remote sensing. More information on her research and teaching can be found by visiting the tabs at the top of this page.

Graduate Student Researchers

Khalid Al-Kady

Khalid is currently pursuing his Ph.D. under the advisement of Dr. Wittich and began his studies at UNL in summer 2019. He is concurrently working to conclude his M.S. degree in Structural Engineering from Cairo University, where he also received his B.S. degree in May 2017. His current research is in two primary areas with one focusing on traffic-induced vibration during phased construction and the other focusing on non-contact remote sensing for structural damage identification. Khalid's anticipated graduation is Spring 2023.

Seyed Mohammadreza Farooghi Mehr

Mohammadreza is currently pursuing his Ph.D. under the advisement of Dr. Wittich and began his studies at UNL in Fall 2019. He received his M.S. Civil Engineering with a focus in Earthquake Engineering from Imam Khomeini International University in 2017, where he previously also received his B.S. in Civil Engineering. His current research focuses on the seismic response of steel storage silos and the impact of agricultural structures on rural community resilience. Mohammadreza's anticipated graduation is Fall 2023.

Gabriela Yáñez González

Gabriela is currently pursuing her Ph.D. under the advisement of Dr. Wittich. She previously received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez in May 2021. Gabriela got her start in the research group as an REU student with Dr. Wittich in summer 2019.

Luis Tuarez

Luis is currently pursuing his M.S. under the joint advisement of Drs. Wittich and Wood. His research focuses on the structural analysis and vulnerability assessment for an ancient Maya temple in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. He received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in May 2021. He got his start in the research group as an undergraduate working on the large-scale shake table.

Undergraduate Student Researchers

Coming Summer 2023

 

 

ALUMNI: MS/PhD Students

M. Khalid Saifullah, Ph.D. 2022

Dr. Saifullah graduated with his Ph.D. in Civil (Structural) Engineering under the advisement of Dr. Wittich in December 2022. Prior to this, he received the M.S. degree in Structural Engineering from Istanbul University in Turkey with an emphasis on earthquake engineering and seismic isolation and the B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, in Pakistan. His dissertation research focused on freestanding structural systems, particularly precariously balanced rocks, and he leveraged full-scaled shake table testing and discrete element modeling to achieve his research goals. He is currently employed with Kinemetrics in Pasadena, CA. 

During his time at UNL, he authored multiple journal articles, conference papers, and presentations/posters. Visit Dissemination for links to his works published at UNL.

Andrew Ruder, M.S. 2022

Andrew graduated with  the M.S. in Civil (Structural) Engineering in December 2022. His thesis was entitled "Empirical Fragility Functions and Numerical Parametric Study for Buckling of Steel Grain Bins under High Wind Loads," under the advisement of Dr. Wittich. He currently has two journal articles in preparation and in review. Prior to joining the Wittich Research Group, he completed her B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in December 2021. He now works at HDR, Inc. in Omaha, NE.

Shuyah Ouoba, M.S. 2021

Shuyah graduated with her M.S. degree in Civil (Structural) Engineering under the advisement of Dr. Wittich in August 2021. Her thesis was titled "Fragility Functions of Manufactured Homes under Earthquake Loads." Shuyah was a member of the Fulbright Student Program from Burkina Faso and began her studies at UNL in Fall 2019. She previously received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2iE). Her thesis research focuses on the seismic response of manufactured houses and she is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at the Unviersity of Arkansas.

Marie Wagner, M.S. 2021

Marie graduated with her M.S. in Civil (Structural) Engineering in August 2021. Her thesis was entitled "Probabilistic Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Freestanding Historic Monuments," under the advisement of Dr. Wittich. She published her research at the 12th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering. Prior to joining the Wittich Research Group, she completed her B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in December 2019. She is currently at Olsson Associates in Omaha, NE.

Taylor Knickerbocker, M.S. 2019

Taylor graduated with her M.S. in Civil (Structural) Engineering in August 2019. Her thesis was entitled "Probabilistic Analysis of Slide-Rocking Structures Under Earthquake Loads," under the advisement of Dr. Wittich. She published her research at the 12th Canadian Conference on Earthquake Engineering and currently has one journal paper in preparation. Prior to joining the Wittich Research Group, she completed her B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in December 2017. She is currently at Amentum (formerly AECOM) in Denver, CO.

Kanchan Devkota, M.S. 2019

Kanchan graduated with his M.S. in Civil (Structural) Engineering in May 2019. His thesis was entitled "Full Scale 13-Story Building Implosion and Collapse: Effects on Adjacent Structures," under the advisement of Dr. Wittich and Dr. Richard L. Wood. He published his research in the ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities and at the 2019 ASCE Structures Congress. Prior to joining the Wittich Research Group, he completed his B.S. in Civil Engineering at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is currently at HDR in Omaha, NE.

ALUMNI: Undergraduate Students

 

Jeannette Uzamukunda
Summer 2021 -
Spring 2022

Jeannette is currently pursuing a B.S. in Community and Regional Planning and is expected to graduate in May 2022. Jeannette joined the Wittich Research Group in summer 2021 and conducts research into the functionality recovery of transportation systems, particulary those in rural areas.

Nick Kleinschmidt
Spring 2021 -
Spring 2022

Nick is currently pursuing a B.S. in Civil Engineering and is expected to graduate in May 2022. He has assisted with large-scale experimentation on phased construction bridges as well as with shake table testing of precariously balanced rocks. In addition, he is conducted research into the use of point clouds to quantify the evolution and damage to specimens throughout earthquake testing. 

Evi Troulis
Summer 2021

Evi was an undergraduate researcher in the Wittich Research Group as part of the REU Site: Sustainability of Horizontal Civil Networks in Rural Areas for summer 2021. Evi's research focused on the recovery of functionality in rural areas following severe windstorms, with particular application to steel grain bins and the August 2020 derecho in Iowa. A paper focused on the results of this research is currently in preparation for submission.

Arman Moussavi
Spring - Fall 2020

Arman is currently pursuing his B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He joined the Wittich Research Group in January 2020 and conducted research into methods to improve digital reconnaissance for the structural assessment of rural infrastructure to natural hazards. For Summer 2020, he was a member of the Summer Nebraska Engineering Research Program (SNERP). His research was accepted for publication at the ASCE Forensics Congress (postponed until 2022).

Simone Williams
Summer - Fall 2020

Simone was an undergraduate researcher in the Wittich Research Group, where she started out as part of the REU Site: Sustainability of Horizontal Civil Networks in Rural Areas. As part of her summer research and continuing through the Fall semester, she worked to develop a machine learning model to aid in digital reconnaissance of rural areas. She graduated with the B.S. in Civil Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Spring 2021 and is currently employed at Odeh Engineering in North Providence, Rhode Island. 

Luis Tuarez
Fall 2020 - Spring 2021

Luis was an undergraduate researcher during his final year pursuing a B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Luis dedicated most of his time to assisting in the large-scale shake table facility and working with Ph.D. researcher Khalid Saifullah. He is currently pursuing his M.S. in Civil (Structural) Engineering at UNL under the advisement of Drs. Wittich and Wood.

Aleece Barnard
Spring - Fall 2019

Aleece was an undergraduate researcher and a McNair Scholar at UNL, while pursuing her B.S. in Civil Engineering. She joined the Wittich Research Lab in Spring 2019, was a full-time undergraduate researcher over the summer, and continued through her graduation in December 2019. She conducted scaled shake table tests analyzing the impact of interface geometry on rocking or uplifting structures. Her reserch was presented at multiple national venues, including the Fall 2019 AGU Virtual Poster Session and the 2019 Conference for Undergraduate Women in the Physical Sciences. In addition, she is the second-author on a current submission to the 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. She is currently employed at Black & Veatch in Kansas City, MO.

Gabriela Yáñez González
Summer 2019

Gabriela joined the Wittich Research Group for summer 2019 as part of the REU Site: Sustainability of Horizontal Civil Networks in Rural Areas. As part of her summer research, she conducted scaled shake table tests looking at the impact of material flexibility on the overturning of rocking systems, which is motivated by the dynamic response of steel silo structures. She presented her research at the 2019 Conference for Undergraduate Women in the Physical Sciences. She is currently pursuing a B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez.

Andy Loken
Fall 2018 - Spring 2019

Andy was an undergraduate researcher in the Wittich Research Group during the 2018-2019 academic year. As part of his research, he conducted a digital (virtual) reconnaissance of natural hazard events for calendar year 2018 in an effort to study the impact in rural areas. He published his research in the ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. He graduated with his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in May 2019 and is currently pursuing his M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at UNL.

Lianne Brito
Summer 2018

Lianne was an undergraduate researcher in the Wittich Research Group during summer 2018 as part of the REU Site: Sustainability of Horizontal Civil Networks in Rural Areas. As part of her research, she conducted a digital (virtual) reconnaissance of natural hazard events for summer 2018 with a focus on rural areas and agricultural systems. She also conducted finite element analyses looking at the buckling capacity of steel grain bins. She published her research at the 2019 ASCE Structures Congress and co-authored an article published in the ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. She graduated with her B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Central Florida in May 2019 and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 2021, Lianne was awareded the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship!