Adjunct Faculty

Adjunct faculty, Geotechnical Engineering

Email: aabbaspo@gmu.edu

Aiyoub Abbaspour is a research associate in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure at George Mason University with more than 8 years of experience in academic research. His expertise includes areas of geoenvironmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, geochemistry of recycled material, groundwater hydraulics, and hydraulic structures. At George Mason University, he is involved with multiple research projects including the field phase of the research on the use of RCA as base course/subbase layer, the resiliency of geosynthetics in contact with recycled waste, and new design technologies for MSE walls constructed using RCA. Prior to joining academia, he worked as a consultant for more than 8 years in the U.S. as a geotechnical engineer and abroad as a hydraulic structures engineer.

Adjunct faculty, Construction Engineering

Email: sbenton@gmu.edu

Rich Benton is a consultant to the engineering and construction industry providing consultant services and training to owners, design professionals, and contractors; focusing on design-build and job order contracting best practices, acquisition strategy, proposal development, contracting for public works projects, and leadership development programs. Previously he held executive positions with the Pernix Group (formerly Telesource International, Inc.), and Centennial Contractors Enterprises, Inc., following a full 23-year career with the US Army Corps of Engineers. He has been teaching in the construction engineering curriculum in the department since 2008. His varied background and experience in the construction industry, coupled with extensive teaching experience allows him to bring practical knowledge into the curriculum.

Adjunct faculty, Transportation Engineering Headshot

Email: ccristei@gmu.edu

Cerasela Cristei is a civil engineer with more than 20 years of experience in design and engineering ranging from residential subdivisions to Metro line extension projects. Her experience with both design-bid-build and design-build delivery methods allows her to provide keen insight to the process of coordination between agencies and consultants. Currently she is an operations manager at T3 Design Corporation in Fairfax, Virginia. Cristei is a member of the Civil Engineering Institute Board and serves on the Women’s Transportation Seminar-DC Chapter as a professional development chair.  She is also the vice president of ASHE – Potomac Section. She brings her insights and design experience in both land development and transportation engineering into the classroom.

Director, Engineers for International Development

Adjunct faculty, Water Resources Engineering

Email: mdoyle1@gmu.edu

Matthew J. Doyle is a senior project manager at the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, Fairfax County, Virginia, with more than 20 years of engineering experience in the private and public sectors. He is currently overseeing the construction of the Enhanced Nutrient Reduction Program for the Norman M. Cole Jr. Pollution Control Plant. Doyle has taught in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering since 2008, bringing his firsthand understanding of water treatment and distribution, waste water treatment and collection, fluid mechanics, open channel flow, and river hydraulics to the classroom. He illustrates theory with practical applications.  Doyle is a past winner of the Volgenau School of Engineering Adjunct Faculty Member of the Year Award.

Adjunct faculty, Transportation Engineering

Email: afaghri@gmu.edu

Alex Faghri is a transportation professional with 17 years of progressive experience in the public and the private sectors specializing in supply demand congestion management.  He is integral to the traffic engineering and land development sections of the Virginia Department of Transportation. He’s responsible for detailed review of traffic impact studies, resolving issues concerning engineering soundness of design, and recommending measures to mitigate the impact of land development projects on the transportation network. 

Prior to VDOT, he led a diverse set of traffic engineering projects at Jacobs Engineering Group including coordination and quality control of all engineering, safety and operational analyses to improve traffic flow, and corridor management and signal timings. His academic and research expertise lies in travel behavior of transit-oriented developments where he developed discrete mode choice utility models to predict mode choice behavior of travelers. Faghri brings this extensive practice experience into the CEIE classroom teaching traffic engineering at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Adjunct faculty, Geotechnical Engineering

Email: fguler@gmu.edu

Erol Güler has more than 30 years of experience in the field of geotechnical engineering. He has combined his academic experience to perform research and conduct multi-faceted geotechnical designs. His areas of expertise include foundation design with emphasis on pile foundations, slope stabilization, soil improvement, reinforced soil structures, soil stabilization and soil dynamics. He has performed a large number of geotechnical investigations in various parts of Turkey for more environmental agencies as well as private contractors. Güler is a leading geotechnical engineer in Turkey with respect to his academic background, work experience and innovative practice in the field of geosynthetics. He has successfully implemented his research studies performed in England and the United States to practical problems in Turkey. He is particularly well known for his geosynthetic applications within the geotechnical engineering community

Adjunct faculty, Structural Engineering

Email: shajilar@gmu.edu

Dr. Shahin Hajilar has nearly 10 years of collective experience in the industry, research, and Teaching. He is also a professional engineer (PE) in Civil Structural licensed in multiple States. His engineering experience includes structural analysis and design of various complex highway bridges (e.g., multi-span continuous systems, curved girders, skewed bents, integral abutments, link slabs, integral steel pier caps, rigid frames and arches, buried bridges, etc.), retaining walls, culverts, and light poles. He also has progressive experience in bridge load rating and forensic evaluations. His project management assignments include quality assurance and quality control assessments, reviewing and evaluating the scope of work and budgets, and providing construction phase support services while adhering to quality, budget, and schedule. He has worked on a multitude of projects for public sector agencies including VDOT, MDOT, DDOT, NYSDOT, CTDOT, MDTA, IADOT, and Port Authority of NY & NJ.

He completed his Ph.D. with a major in Structural Engineering and a minor in Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University in Spring 2018. He received his BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Tehran in 2011 and MSc in Civil Engineering with a focus on Structural Engineering and Mechanics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2014. To date, he has published 13 peer-reviewed journal articles in high-impact engineering and science journals, and 5 peer-reviewed conference papers; and has presented his work at more than 10 international and national conferences and symposiums. Dr. Hajilar was recognized by the Iowa State University (ISU) Graduate College to be student marshal for the Fall 2017 graduate student commencement. At ISU, he won both the Research Excellence Award (2017) and the Teaching Excellence Award (2016).  He also won the Best Poster Presentation Awards at the CCEE Graduate Student Research Showcase and Poster Competition (2016) and the Iowa Better Concrete Conference (2017).

Adjunct faculty, Structural Engineering

Email: skenned7@gmu.edu

Sean Kennedy is a principal at BEI Structural Engineers, Inc., in Fairfax, Virginia, with more than 19 years of experience in the structural design of a wide range of commercial and private buildings. Kennedy is also a long-time member of the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue where he has been deployed as a structural specialist to assist with the rescue efforts as a result of disasters around the world, including to Japan in 2011, Haiti in 2010 and 2008; and Hurricane Katrina damage areas in 2005. He is currently the lead structures specialist for the team and is also an elected member of the structures sub-group for Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), which dictates the qualifications and policies for all of the structural specialists on all 28 urban search rescue teams within the FEMA system. He joined the CEIE adjunct faculty in 2011, bringing the benefit of his extensive and varied design experience into his teaching of structural design.

Adjunct faculty, Structural Engineering

Email: kkhanvil@gmu.edu

Kaustubh Khanvilkar is a director in Baker Concrete DC and has 15+ years of experience in structural engineering, design and construction, and project management. Prior to Baker Concrete, he worked for Thornton–Tomasetti Engineers, Bechtel Corporation, HDR and Parsons Corporation.  

His structural engineering portfolio includes the design of various unique and diverse structures ranging from high rise buildings, hospitals, fusion and fission nuclear power plants, solar power plants, oil and gas power plants, and transportation structures. Some notable projects are, One Comcast Centre (1000 ft tall), Tri – Alpha Fusion Reactor Building, Ivanpah Solar Plant and Dulles Metro Station.

He has a Master’s Degree from Stanford University in Civil Engineering and Geo-mechanics and has expertise in seismic, wind, finite element analysis, structural dynamics, steel and concrete design.

Adjunct faculty, Water Resources Engineering

Email: jmanous@gmu.edu

Dr. Joe Manous serves as Director of the Institute for Water Resources (IWR), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) a multi-disciplinary Field Operating Agency that supports USACE’s Civil Works (water resources) missions through water resources planning, policy, and decision-support model development; hydraulic and hydrological engineering; dam and levee safety; and training and national/international interface with academia, professional societies, and non-government organizations.

This work is accomplished through IWR’s seven centers that include the Water Resources Center (WRC), Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC), Risk Management Center (RMC), Navigation and Civil Works Decision Support Center (NDC), Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center (WCSC), Collaboration and Public Participation Center of Expertise (CPCX), and International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM).

Dr. Manous is a civil and environmental engineer specializing in the areas of water resources engineering and environmental security issues associated with water. Previously he served as Academy Professor and Environmental Engineering Program Director at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he taught courses in environmental engineering, water resources, environmental security, engineering economics, and leadership.

Adjunct faculty, Computer-Aided Design

Email: hrodrig4@gmu.edu

Harold Rodriguez, an alumnus of the department, is a senior civil engineer at a government agency. Rodriguez is responsible for the design and review of major government infrastructure projects. He specializes in projects involving stormwater management, flood plain analysis, water distribution design and modeling, and sanitary sewer pump stations and force mains. His oversight of engineers and technicians gives him experience that translates well to computer-aided design teaching with civil engineering applications.

Adjunct faculty, Structural Engineering

Email: sroudsar@gmu.edu

Dr. Sayyar works as a senior structural engineer in the private sector in the Washington metropolitan area. He received his Ph.D. at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, NC in 2020. His research interests include real time monitoring, control and optimization of infrastructural system, intelligence structures, resilient and sustainability modeling of infrastructural systems, and finite element methods (FEM). He has more than 8 years of experience in structural design and analysis as well as experience in the forensic investigation of structures.

Adjunct faculty, Construction Engineering

Email: aelsaye5@gmu.edu

Amr El-Sayed has 25 years of civil engineering teaching, research, design and construction experience in wide range of projects. He graduated from Virginia Tech University with a PhD in civil engineering in 2006 and has been a visiting assistant professor in Virginia Tech’s civil and environmental engineering department from 2006 to 2008 where he has been teaching water resources and CAD applications and doing research in the field of groundwater modeling. In 2012, he joined Lane Construction Corporation after working with Lane’s Joint Venture Company in Dubai (National Contracting & Transport Co.) for four years. El-Sayed exhibits proficiency in project management skills, including cost estimation/control, project scheduling, quality control, and highway geometric design.

Adjunct faculty, Public Works Engineering

Email: eteitelm@gmu.edu

Eric M. Teitelman has more than 23 years of experience in executive public works management and civil engineering, providing visionary leadership, and specializing in progressive areas of transportation including multimodal design, transit-oriented development, integration of land-use and transportation planning, neo-traditional street design, sustainable growth, and urban redevelopment. He also has extensive experience in areas of public works policy, advancing new alternatives and paradigm changes for municipal governments, and helping to establish sustainable policies and standards that will accommodate future growth in a rapidly changing global environment. He brings his diverse public works experience to students, teaching undergraduate students in the senior design capstone program, and teaching on infrastructure management and finance in the graduate program.