Chairman Steve Rowe had the pleasure to present a check to Nima Khodadadi, Ph.D., winner of the ESCSI John Ries Scholarship in Academic Year 2023-24, this summer. Dr. Khodadadi is a Research Assistant in the Department of Civil & Architectural Engineering at University of Miami, and he works under the esteemed mentorship of Professor Dr. Antonio Nanni and Professor Francisco de Caso y Basalo, PhD, LEED, A/P (pictured below with Rowe and Khodadadi).
Dr. Khodadadi’s winning proposal introduced a novel machine learning (ML)-based method to accurately model the compressive strength of geopolymer recycled aggregate concrete (GRAC), a promising solution by replacing traditional Portland cement. His primary research interests include artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP), concrete, and metaheuristic algorithms.
On being selected as the John Ries Scholarship recipient, Dr. Khodadadi’s wrote the following: “Thank you so much, Expanded Shale, Clay, and Slate Institute, for this incredible honor. I look forward to continuing my research and making further contributions to the field of civil and architectural engineering.”
