NC State
Construction Safety Laboratory

 

Alex Albert

Assistant Professor and Director
Dept. of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
alex_albert@ncsu.edu

Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University and Director of the North Carolina Construction Safety Laboratory (CSL). His research focuses on addressing safety challenges experienced in the construction industry.


Current Students

 

Abdullah Alsharef

Ph.D. student in Construction Engineering & Management. Abdullah was raised in Riyad, Saudi Arabia. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering at King Saud University. While at North Carolina State University, he earned his master’s degree by investigating factors that affect let date and designed model approaches to predict construction expenditures for transportation megaprojects. His current research interests include construction safety management, payout curves prediction, and developing best practices in construction. Abdullah is an avid soccer fan, he plays weekly and tries to watch his favorite teams’ games.

 


Alumni

Dr. Idris Jeelani, M.S., Ph.D. Ι 2014 – 2019

Assistant Professor at University of Florida

Idris completed his master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from NC State University with an emphasis on Construction Engineering and Management. Prior to joining the research team here, he had a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Silchar, India. His research objective is to leverage his expertise in construction safety, computer vision, visual data analytics, and the cognitive sciences to support the building of the next-generation of safe and smart infrastructure.

 

Dr. Carlos M. Zuluaga, Ph.D. | 2015 – 2018

Project Engineer at Harkins Builders, Inc.

Carlos completed his Ph.D in 2018. Carlos earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from EAFIT University in Medellin, Colombia. Subsequently, he relocated to the state of Pennsylvania to work for 3 years as a project engineer for a general contracting firm. His industry experience includes various projects with governmental agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Park Service. During his career, he has had involvement in numerous phases of construction including, but not limited to, estimating, design, project scheduling, procurement and jobsite safety, equipment, and personnel management. His dissertation work entitled “Protecting Bridge Maintenance Workers: Evaluating Fall Protection Supplementary Devices Using Virtual Prototyping and Wearable Technology” seeked to increase the safety, efficiency, and productivity of the bridge maintenance workers.

 

Bhavana Pandit, M.S. | 2017 – 2018

Associate Project Engineer at Fluor Corporation

Bhavana completed her master’s degree in 2018. She earned her bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India. She later joined the design and project management firm Atkins as an Assistant Engineer engaged in multidisciplinary projects and infrastructure development schemes for the U.K. Bhavana joined NC State in august 2017 to pursue her master’s degree in Construction Engineering and Management where she focused on studying “Safety Climate” and “Behavior based Safety”. Bhavana completed her Master’s Thesis on “Empirical Evaluation of Safety Leading Indicators in Construction”, which focused on the investigation of the relationship between the leading indicators of construction safety performance, namely – Hazard Recognition, Safety Risk Perception, Safety Climate and Safety Communication Patterns among construction workers.

 

Dr. Mostafa Namian, Ph.D. | 2014 – 2017

Assistant Professor at Western Carolina University

Mostafa completed his Ph.D. in 2017. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Buali-Sina University in 2007. He continued his education in construction, engineering, and management at Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic). Mostafa studied fuzzy expert systems to apply them in construction for his master’s research. Following graduation in 2010, he worked in a construction field for several years until he moved to the United States in 2014 to continue his academic journey pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy degree in construction engineering at North Carolina State University. During his Ph.D., Mostafa studied the factors that impact construction workers’ hazard recognition performance and safety risk perception.

 

Parth Malhotra, M.S. | 2016 – 2017

Project Engineer at Del-Sano Contracting Corp.

Parth completed his master’s degree in 2017. He earned his Bachelor of Technology degree in Civil Engineering from Charotar University of Science and Technology, where he developed a profound interest in construction management. To augment his knowledge in this discipline, Parth decided to join North Carolina State University in 2016.  Parth has always been interested in learning the nuances of construction project management, and has always been intrigued by the various elements of a construction project. He has always wanted to gain a comprehensive understanding of factors that lead to successful projects, which are executed within time and budget, along with highest levels of safety.