El-Gohary Named CAS Fellow

1/23/2015 Kristina Shidlauski

Assistant professor appointed Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study.

Written by Kristina Shidlauski

CEE Assistant Professor Nora El-Gohary has been appointed a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study (CAS) for the academic year 2015-2016. The appointment will provide El-Gohary with one semester release-time in order to advance her research on big data fusion and analytics for improving civil infrastructure system operation and maintenance.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, America’s overall infrastructure can be rated as poor and one in nine bridges is considered to be structurally deficient. The estimated cost to restore and improve these bridges far outweighs the resources being invested. Determining cost-effective and sustainable methods for maintaining/improving infrastructure and deciding how to prioritize these operations are therefore critical challenges facing society. El-Gohary’s research will investigate ways in which big data from many disparate and scattered sources can be collected, integrated and analyzed to better understand the factors contributing to deterioration and to prioritize the operations necessary to maintain the reliability of our infrastructure system. 

“Restoring and improving our infrastructure is a grand societal challenge,” El-Gohary said. “Big data analytics tools open unprecedented opportunities for improved decision making by turning the massive amounts of data we have into useful information, and further into crucial knowledge that we can act upon.”

The CAS encourages and promotes scholarship at the University of Illinois across all disciplines by identifying and supporting the most productive and innovative faculty members. Research appointments are awarded, on a competitive basis, to outstanding junior and senior faculty members pursuing innovative and path-breaking research. 


Share this story

This story was published January 23, 2015.