Akram Jawdhari, Ph.D, P.Eng., M. ASCE

Our team participated in the UHPC beam Student competition during the Fourth International Interactive Symposium on Ultra-High Performance Concrete in Des Moines, Iowa, June 14-17, 2026. SDSU team members were PhD students Mazen Hassan, Pramashis Kar, and Hamidul Bari, and MSc student Behnam Hooshyari.

The student competition featured 15 teams from the United States and overseas, who designed and built an ultra-high-performance concrete beam and then had it tested. The SDSU entry was among nine that advanced to the finals. The SDSU team received the People’s Choice Award based on the team’s presentation at the poster session June 14.

Our team participated in the Fourth International Interactive Symposium on Ultra-High Performance Concrete in Des Moines, Iowa, June 14-17, 2026. The team delivered four presentations and published four conference papers, co-authored with PhD students Mazen Hassan, Pramashis Kar, and Hamidul Bari, and former MSc student Amr Ashmawi. The papers are available online as follows;

Kar, P., Jawdhari, A., (2026) "Tensile Strength of Adhesive Anchors in Thin UHPC Panels", International Interactive Symposium on Ultra-High Performance Concrete Papers 4(1): 25730, 1-9. doi: https://doi.org/10.21838/uhpc.25730.
Ashmawi, A., Jawdhari, A., Nguyen, P., (2026) "Predicting the Flexural Capacity of RC Beams Strengthened with UHPC Overlays using ML Techniques", International Interactive Symposium on Ultra-High Performance Concrete Papers 4(1): 25746, 1-8. doi: https://doi.org/10.21838/uhpc.25746.
Bari, H., Jawdhari, A., (2026) "Mitigating Debonding Failures in FRP-Strengthened RC Members Using UHPC Overlays", International Interactive Symposium on Ultra-High Performance Concrete Papers 4(1): 25735, 1-8. doi: https://doi.org/10.21838/uhpc.25735.
Hassan, M., Ashmawi, A., Jawdhari, A., (2026) "Development and Evaluation of a Precast Bridge Deck System Integrating UHPC Overlay and FRP Stay-in-Place Form", International Interactive Symposium on Ultra-High Performance Concrete Papers 4(1): 25724, 1-9. doi: https://doi.org/10.21838/uhpc.25724.

Our team presented at the PCI 2026 Convention in Kansas City an experimental study involving more than 70 test specimens of adhesive anchors embedded in thin ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) panels. The work examined the effects of anchor diameter, panel thickness, fiber type (steel and synthetic), fiber volume fraction, and related parameters on anchor performance. The experimental program and testing efforts were led by PhD student Pramashis Kar.

Publication alert: this paper investigates the effects of strain rate on the bond behavior between FRCM composites and concrete substrates. Special thanks to former MSc student, Lucas Gervais, for leading the experimental program and carrying out the testing with exceptional rigor. Thank you to our graduate team members for their contributions, as well as our industrial partners, Simpson Strong-Tie and Kyowa Americas Inc, for in-kind support.

The collaboration with NEx: An ACI Center of Excellence for Nonmetallic Building Materials in the development of the FRCM guideline was instrumental in identifying the research gap addressed in this study.

The article is available with free access for 50 days using the following link:

https://lnkd.in/gwdJjjSX

New publication alert: State of the art review of machine learning applications for bridge inspections; thanks to Amr Ashmawi, and Dr. Phuong Nguyen, Ph.D. for their outstanding contributions to this work.

The SAR paper reviewed over 60 technical articles and summarized various advanced inspection tools—such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), digital imaging, and fiber optic sensors—as well as ML and AI models for data processing and damage detection used in bridge inspection and maintenance. The review demonstrated ML’s ability to integrate these advanced tools to improve data accuracy, decision-making, and inspection efficiency, while also highlighting the challenges that still remain.

New Publication Alert: Rubberized Concrete Columns – Free Access for 50 Days!

A joyous start to 2024, four of our articles were published this January in reputable journals, focusing sustainability and resilience of the built infrastructure, for example investigating hybrid members made of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) and conventional concrete, UHPC beam-column joints under cyclic loading. Credit goes to the students and collaborators whose hard work and dedication made this possible.

Title#1: Experimental investigation on UHPC-NSC composite beams

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.istruc.2024.105885

Title#2: Cyclic behavior of UHPC corner beam-column joints under bi-directional bending

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.istruc.2024.105857

Title#3: RC Deep Beams with Vertical Openings: Behavior and Proposed Mitigation Techniques

https://doi.org/10.1061/PPSCFX.SCENG-1328

Title#4: Buckling and Post-Buckling Behavior of Top Flange Coped I-Beams with Slender Web Panels

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2024.111640