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UC Civil and Environmental Engineering

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Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Canterbury is rated in the top 1 per cent of civil

01/09/2026

📢 We're very pleased to welcome Professor David Airey from the University of Sydney. David is hosted by Prof Misko Cubrinovski and Dr Mark Stringer in the Geotech Cluster.

Originally from the UK, He earned MA, MPhil and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge. He moved to Australia in 1987 initially working on problems of soil characterization for offshore oil and gas platforms around Australia and related pile design.

Since 1989 he has been at the University of Sydney. His research has been in the broad area of experimental geomechanics, including laboratory element testing of soil and rock, environmental geotechnics, and model and field testing. He has published over 250 journal and refereed conference papers on these topics.
He is currently supervising projects into foundations for solar farms, improving energy efficiency in excavation, intelligent compaction, screw piles, offshore soil characterization for submarine landslides and developing a free fall penetrometer for remote site investigation.

During his short time at UC, until end of October, he plans to revisit the problem of cargo liquefaction, a problem in the seaborne transport of iron ore and nickel laterites. Interestingly just this week a large bulk carrier transporting iron ore capsized and sank in the Bay of Bengal with the loss of all but two of the crew.

28/08/2026

🎓💚

Yesterday, we had the privilege of celebrating our newest PhD graduates at our department’s Toki Ceremony.

The Toki pounamu is presented by supervisors to their graduating students as a symbol of the knowledge, perseverance and dedication that have gone into the PhD journey. It’s a particularly special moment for our graduates, and for the supervisors, colleagues, whānau and friends who have supported them along the way.

We were proud to celebrate Tudor Hnat and Mohammad Eskandarighadi, supervised by Assoc Prof Chris McGann; Moeen Gholami, supervised by Professor Aisling O’Sullivan; Mehdi Bashiri, supervised by Prof Greg MacRae (with thanks to Assoc Prof Anthony Abu for stepping in for Greg); Vivian Ye, supervised by Assoc Prof Anthony Abu; Jinjiang Liu, supervised by Prof David Dempsey and Dr Rebecca Peer; Baptiste Hamon, supervised by Assoc Prof Tom Cochrane; Ha Linh Nguyen and Yuanqi Zheng, supervised by Chin-Long Lee; and Hadi Vatankhah and Rafaella Canessa Figueroa, supervised by Assoc Prof Jannik Haas.

Behind every PhD is a story of persistence, late nights, and plenty of moments of doubt, but also growth and achievement. Yesterday was a chance to pause and recognise just how far they have come.

To all our graduates: congratulations! 🎓 Your hard work has brought you to this moment, and we’re incredibly proud to call you part of our CEE whānau. We can’t wait to see where your passion takes you next.

27/08/2026

📢We are pleased to welcome Professor Tomer Toledo from the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Transportation Research Institute at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Tomer earned a Ph.D. in Transportation Systems from MIT in 2003. He was previously a Visiting Professor at MIT and Northeastern University and an Adjunct Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur.

His research focuses on the areas of traffic modeling and simulation, driving and travel behavior and demand modeling, intelligent transportation systems, dynamic traffic management systems, and transportation network analysis. His current research centers around integration of machine learning methods and artificial intelligence tools to facilitate design and planning task. Specifically, such approaches are implemented to automate the process of demand model development and estimation to include domain-knowledge and requirements, and to design optimal traffic signal control plans that incorporate public transportation priority and pedestrian and bicycle actuation functions.

He has been teaching various classes on the related topics of traffic flow theory and traffic simulation, demand modeling and discrete choice analysis. He currently serves as an Editor for Transportation Research Record and International Journal of Modelling and Simulation. He was a past editor for Transportation Science and a member of the editorial board of Transportation Research part C: Emerging Technologies. He has authored over 100 journal papers and book chapters and more than 100 conference papers and presentations.

Within his half-year Sabbatical visit to UC, he aims to collaborate with researchers at the CTS lab who are at the forefront of traffic flow theory and traffic management research worldwide. He is also looking forward to exploring beautiful Aotearoa New Zealand during his time here.

26/08/2026

👩‍🔬

PhD candidate Viên Minh is from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, one of Southeast Asia's largest and fastest-growing metropolitan areas, where rapid urbanisation and industrial development continue to place increasing pressure on wastewater treatment systems. Growing up in this environment inspired her to pursue an Engineering degree in Water Supply and Sewerage Engineering before continuing her PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. With this vision in mind, she is pursuing research that she hopes will one day contribute to improving wastewater treatment in her home country.

Under the supervision of Associate Professor Ricardo Bello Mendoza and Associate Professor Hamish Mackey, Viên's research explores an innovative approach that combines two promising technologies. First, purple phototrophic bacteria are remarkably versatile microorganisms capable of adapting to diverse environments while recovering valuable resources from wastewater. Second, granular sludge is well known for its excellent settling ability and superior treatment efficiency compared with conventional activated sludge processes. By integrating these two approaches, her research aims to understand how hydrodynamic conditions influence the granulation process, ultimately contributing to the development of a more efficient biological wastewater treatment process.

One of the most rewarding aspects of Viên Minh's PhD journey has been discovering that setbacks sometimes lead to unexpected discoveries. Experiments that initially appeared to have "failed" sometimes revealed entirely new research directions. This experience has reinforced her belief that progress in research should not be judged solely by successful results, but also by curiosity, perseverance, and a willingness to learn from mistakes.

Viên is continuing her research and is currently writing her PhD thesis, which she hopes to submit next year.

"Research has taught me that mistakes are not always failures. Sometimes they are simply another path towards discovering something you never expected to find."

24/08/2026

📢 Welcome to Xinwen Liang who joined us last week as a joint supervised PhD visiting scholar from College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University.

Xinwen's research is specialising in earthquake and structural engineering. She will be here with us for two years, working with Professor Rajesh Dhakal, Head of Department. Xinwen is funded same as many of our visiting Joint PhD students, by a China Scholarship Counsil (CSC) scholarship. Her overseas supervisor is Professor Ying Zhou.

Xinwen’s doctoral research examines the seismic behaviour of self-centring wall structures, particularly the response and interaction of non-structural components within these systems. More broadly, she is interested in floor response spectra, nonlinear structural modelling, seismic design, and the resilience of non-structural components. Her research aims to better understand how buildings and their components perform during earthquakes and how this knowledge can support safer, more resilient, and more functional buildings. During her time here she will continue to investigate the seismic response of structural and non-structural systems, with a particular focus on floor response, non-structural components, and building functionality.

In her spare time, Xinwen enjoys reading and writing, playing musical instruments, cooking, and exploring new places on foot. She is looking forward to discovering Christchurch and experiencing life in New Zealand during her stay.

21/08/2026

👏👏👏

Congratulations to Emma Gardiner for successfully defending her PhD thesis titled, "Influence of Pumice on the Response of Liquefiable Deposits."

Emma’s research investigated how pumice-rich soils behave during earthquakes, using laboratory testing and dynamic centrifuge experiments to examine their liquefaction resistance and ground deformation. The research found that increasing pumice content can reduce a soil’s resistance to liquefaction, while pumice-rich soils respond differently to conventional sands, with earthquake-induced deformation distributed more evenly through the soil. These findings will help improve the assessment of liquefaction risk and support more resilient infrastructure design in pumice-rich areas of New Zealand.

Thank you to Emma’s supervisors, Dr Mark Stringer, Professor Misko Cubrinovski and Associate Professor Chris McGann, for their guidance and support throughout her PhD and exam chair: Associate Professor Eric Scheepbouwer.

Acknowledgements: Family, friends, Admin staff and Sean Rees, Geotechnical Research Engineer.

20/08/2026

📢 A big welcome to our new Senior Specialist Systems Support, Kavitesh Kumar, who will be working alongside Paul Strange in our department’s IT team.

Kavi has been seconded to us from UC Digital Services, where he has worked for eight years, based at the Matariki building and supporting staff and students with a wide range of IT services.

“One of the things I enjoy most about my role is being able to help people solve problems and make their day a little easier. I also enjoy learning about new technology and finding better ways of doing things.”

Outside work, Kavi is a car enthusiast, enjoys travelling and watching movies.

19/08/2026

Last Thursday, Dr Ke Jiang organised a site visit for 17 of our final-year undergraduate students to Fletcher Residential Living Superlot 13, hosted by Ruamoko Solutions and Fletcher Living.

The $30 million central-city development is a great example of large-scale structural engineering in practice, featuring a five-storey apartment building and three three-storey townhouse buildings. Students had the opportunity to see how structural engineering concepts come together on a live project, including earthquake-bracing systems, composite steel floors and ground improvement to address liquefaction.

The visit also gave students the chance to hear directly from engineers about the realities of working on a major project – from the structural design process and client communication to the technical challenges that can arise along the way.

With AI rapidly changing the engineering profession, hands-on learning and real-world experience are becoming more important than ever. Opportunities like this help our students connect what they learn in the classroom with the work they will go on to do in industry.

A big thank you to Ruamoko Solutions and Fletcher Living for hosting our students and sharing your knowledge and experience. We hope to see more opportunities like this in the future! 👏👏👏

17/08/2026

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was delighted to host Professor Juhui Zhang and Associate Professor Qiong Liu, Head and Associate Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST), China. It was a pleasure to discuss opportunities for strengthening academic collaboration between our two institutions, with a particular focus on the potential development of a joint Master's degree programme between the University of Canterbury and USST.

We also explored opportunities for possible collaboration in research, and other academic initiatives. We look forward to building on these productive discussions and developing a formal partnership that will strengthen collaboration in research, education, and innovation for the benefit of both institutions. 🤝

hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag Rajesh Dhakal Mofreh Saleh, Ph.D, P.E., F.ASCE.

13/08/2026

UC Civil Students Win Innovative Design Award at fib Congress👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

At the 2026 fib Congress held in Lisbon, Portugal, teams of students from universities around the world were challenged to design and construct a 3D-printed structural concrete element that balanced lightweightness, energy absorption, and a target ultimate load.

Postgraduate students Zahir Azimi, Banujan Balaskandan, and Oliver Cadrain from the Concrete Research Group, under the supervision of Dr Giuseppe Loporcaro, spent six months preparing an optimised model for the competition.

Their innovative design earned them the award for the most innovative solution of the competition.

The judging panel independently evaluated each team based on four criteria: Aesthetic quality, uniqueness/originality, highlighting a unique and/or innovative feature on the use of 3D-printing solutions and technical merit as described in the report-paper.

The team with the highest overall ranking was selected as the winner.

Congratulations to Zahir, Banujan, Oliver, and Dr Loporcaro on this outstanding achievement!

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