Plenary & Keynote Speakers

6th International Conference on Civil Engineering Fundamentals and Applications (ICCEFA 2025)

It is our pleasure to announce our plenary and keynote speakers for ICCEFA 2025:

Dr. Qingli (Barbara) Dai

Michigan Technological University, USA

Plenary Speaker

Abstract Title:

Wet-Carbonation of RCA for Improved Carbonation Efficiency and Mechanical Properties of RCA and Recycled Concrete

Dr. Qingli (Barbara) Dai is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering at Michigan Technological University, specializing in alternative and low-carbon cementitious materials for sustainable infrastructure. With a joint background in mechanical and civil engineering and an M.S. in Engineering Mechanics, she brings deep expertise in composite materials and cementitious system behavior. Her research focuses on the development and performance evaluation of innovative materials such as recycled aggregate concretes, rubber-modified mixtures, and fiber-reinforced composites, all aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of construction. Dr. Dai has led or co-led numerous projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), state Departments of Transportation, and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). She has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers and serves as Associate Editor for the ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering. Combining experimental methods with statistical modeling, her work emphasizes durability, structural performance, and life cycle cost analysis. Her leadership in ACI and ASCE technical committees supports advancements in material standards and infrastructure resilience.

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Dr. ML Kavvas

UC Davis, USA

Plenary Speaker

Abstract Title:

Extensions of Navier-Stokes-Euler Governing Equations of Fluid Flow to Fractional Time and Multi-fractional Space

M.L. Kavvas is a Distinguished Member and Fellow of ASCE and Distinguished Professor at Hydrologic Research Laboratory, Department of Civil & Envr. Engineering, University of California, Davis. His specialties and research interests cover i) coupled numerical modeling of atmospheric-hydrologic processes at continental, regional and watershed scales for computing water balances, hydrologic/atmospheric extremes, and environmental conditions, ii) stochastic methods for the determination of the time-space probability distributions of hydrologic and hydraulic processes, iii) fractional calculus for the development of the governing equations of hydrologic and hydraulic processes in fractional time-space, and iv) Lie symmetry methods for determining scaling relationships in hydrology-hydraulics.

Title: Extensions of Navier-Stokes-Euler Governing Equations of Fluid Flow to Fractional Time and Multi-fractional Space

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Dr. Kara Kockelman

University of Texas at Austin, USA

Plenary Speaker

Abstract Title:

Shared Autonomous Electric Vehicle (SAEV) Fleet Operations: Range,
Ride-sharing, and Smart-charging Decisions

Kara Kockelman is a registered professional engineer and holds a PhD, MS, and BS in civil engineering, a master’s in city planning, and a minor in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. She has been a professor of transportation engineering at the University of Texas at Austin for 27 years, and is Associate Site Director of the NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Efficient Vehicles and Sustainable Transportation Systems. She has received an NSF CAREER Award, Google Research Award, MIT Technology Review Top 100 Innovators Award, Vulog’s Top 20 of 2020 Influential Women in Mobility, and various ASCE, NARSC, TRF, and WTS awards. She is an MIT Mobility Fellow and served as President of the North American Regional Science Association. She sits on various editorial boards, as well as the Eno Center for Transportation’s Advisory Board, TRB’s Autonomous Vehicles Committee, and the International Association of Travel Behavior Research’s Board. She has authored over 240 journal articles (and two books), and her primary research interests include planning for shared and autonomous vehicle systems, the statistical modeling of urban systems, energy and climate issues, the economic impacts of transport policy, and crash occurrence and consequences. Pre-prints of these articles (and book contents) can be found at www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman. Please also join her on August 6 & 7 for the world’s only carbon-free and cost-free Bridging Transportation Researchers conference: https://bridgingtransport.org/, which she help found 7 years ago.

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