Hamed Ebrahimian
Ph.D., P.E.
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Nevada, Reno (UNR)
Research Team
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Post Docs
Vahid Jahangiri
I joined UNR in Summer 2021 as a postdoctoral scholar. My current research focuses on development of a novel digital twinning technique for monitoring of offshore wind turbine drivetrain system. Prior to joining UNR, I obtained my Ph.D. degree from Louisiana State University where my research was focused on development of cost-effective solutions to mitigate and identify structural damage on offshore wind turbines. I am a big fan of soccer and I enjoy watching movies and travelling.
Additionally, here is a link to his personal website.
Mansureh Nabiyan
I joined Professor Ebrahimian’s research group at the UNR as a postdoc researcher in Spring 2021, working on the structural identification of wind turbines in the field of Structural Health Monitoring. I received my Ph.D. from Amirkabir University of Technology in Structural Engineering in December 2020. Before that, I received my MSc in structural engineering and BSc in civil engineering from Sharif University of Technology. I am enthusiastic about Bayesian statistics, model updating, estimation theory, and stochastic filtering.
Ph.D. Students
Niloofar Malekghaini
Masood Vahedi
Masood Vahedi (Ph.D., Student): Masood Vahedi is a Ph.D. student in Structural and Earthquake Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. He obtained his Master's degree in Structural and Earthquake Engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran. His Master’s research focused on designing Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connections in steel structures and also structural systems in high-rise buildings. His Ph.D. mainly focuses on innovative solutions to improve the safety of pile shaft and slurry wall rebar cages. The final goal of his research is to provide design guidelines and best practices for handling rebar cages during construction. He also working on research on the seismic performance of precast bridge columns with iron-based shape memory alloy (Fe-SMA) bars for recentering.
Abdelrahman Taha
My main research interest is Earthquake Engineering. Therefore, I joined the Structural and Earthquake Engineering PhD program at UNR in Fall 2021. In my research, I am working on soil-structure interaction modeling using a probabilistic model updating technique. Before that, I did my master’s in Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics at the University of Sheffield. In my thesis, a new semi-active control algorithm was developed for use with friction dampers.
I joined the University of Nevada, Reno in January 2020 as a Ph.D. student. Currently, the main focus of my research is on the development of a new solution framework for operational monitoring and damage diagnosis of bridges under traffic load. For this purpose, the Bayesian model updating technique is used to integrate the nonlinear mechanics-based finite element models of bridges with vehicle tracking data, obtained from computer vision techniques, and bridge vibration responses. The updated finite element models are referred to as the bridge digital twin and are utilized to remotely estimate the location, severity, and mechanism of damage. My Master’s degree is in earthquake engineering, from Sharif University of technology. Prior to starting my Ph.D. studies, I was working in the industry with the collaboration of European consultant companies from 2017 to 2020.
Mohammad Valikani
Kasra Shamsaei
Nataliia Igrashkina
I received a B.Sc. degree in Material Science and Engineering at the University of Tabriz and got an M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering (in the field of railroad rolling stock) at Iran University of Science and Technology. I joined the University of Nevada, Reno in fall 2021. I am working on developing Digital Twin of wind turbine to assess the health and condition of the system and to perform diagnostics and prognostics. My research interests include structural health monitoring, data assimilation, computational mechanics, Bayesian inference, uncertainty quantification, signal processing and scientific machine learning.
As a Ph.D. student who joined UNR in Fall 2021, Kasra is serving the LEAP-HI project to comprehensively assess the performance and limitations of the current state-of-the-art wildfire simulation platform. During his Ph.D. journey, Kasra will develop different data assimilation approaches to integrate real-world measurements in the wildfire simulation model to improve wildfire simulation capabilities. Prior to joining UNR, Kasra received his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from K.N.Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
I joined the University of Nevada, Reno in Spring 2022 as a Ph.D. student. My master’s degree is in structural and earthquake engineering earned at the University at Buffalo in 2019. Between 2019 and 2022, I was employed as a senior engineer in CKTI-Vibroseism Ltd. performing seismic analysis of buildings and structures.
Master's Students
Pawan Acharya
Pawan Acharya is a master’s student at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in the Earthquake and Structural Engineering program. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the Institute of Engineering at Pulchowk Campus of Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He joined UNR in the spring of 2020 as a graduate research assistant. His research is focused on the application of polyurea elastomers for bridge strengthening and retrofitting. He is actively involved in the development and characterization of the polyurea material and fiber mixes for structural applications. He wishes to learn about the modern seismic engineering practices here in the U.S. and introduce them back to Nepal to improve the earthquake-resistant design practice there. Apart from studies, he enjoys meeting new people and learning about different cultures.