Staff

Aftab A. Mufti, C.M. Ph.D., P.Eng., FRSC, FCAE, FEIC, FCSCE, FASCE, FISHMII, FIFCC, FIABSE, FRSA
Director – SIMTReC Group / Emeritus Professor – University of Manitoba

aftab.mufti@umanitoba.ca

Dr. Aftab A. Mufti is an Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is also the former Scientific Director and President of the Innovative Structures with Intelligent Sensing Canada Research Network, a Network of Centres of Excellence. His research interests include FRPs, FOSs, FEM, bridge engineering, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). At the University of Manitoba he introduced new research area of Civionics Engineering to monitor deteriorating infrastructure. He has authored or co-authored 5 books, plus provided chapters for 2 others, edited 9 books, and written more than 350 technical publications. Dr. Mufti is the recipient of 24 awards. He is the holder of several patents on the steel-free bridge deck concept, of which he is the principal developer. He has been involved in the writing of bridge design codes since 1992, and was the Chair of the Technical Sub-Committee on the Fibre Reinforced Structures of the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code, published in 2006. He is a fellow of 9 societies. On November 2013 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) and on July 1, 2010 he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada, highest civilian honour bestowed on Canadian citizens, for his contribution to and leadership in the field of civil engineering, notably for researching the use of advanced composite materials and fibre optic sensors in the construction and monitoring of bridges and other infrastructures.


Douglas Thomson, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Associate Director – SIMTReC Group / Professor – University of Manitoba

douglas.thomson@umanitoba.ca

Dr. Douglas Thomson is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Manitoba. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University (1986). He has held positions as Chief Technology officer (97-2000, MFI Technologies), Assoc. Dean (99-2004), Professor and Director of the ISIS Canada support centre. He has over 100 Refereed Journal Articles over 150 Conference Papers/Presentations, 7 patents. He has been 2006-2010 ISHMII council (Council overseeing ISHMII, which is the only international society devoted to the structural health monitoring of civil infrastructure) 2003-2009 Member of the ISIS Canada (NCE) Research Management Committee – ISIS Canada is a research network dedicated to finding solutions to Canada’s civil infrastructure problems, Director 2003-2004 for the Composite Innovation Center (Non Profit Corp. set up to assist local industry with composite material related research). His work was the basis for a new product, introduced by SUSS Microtech (Munich), for use in testing next-generation microelectronic devices (IBM, AMD) with nominal 65nm features (Test and Measurement World 2005). Served as the Chief Technology Officer and member of the board of directors for a Silicon Valley startup (MFI Technology). Recently developed wireless sensor technology, two patents on this technology have been granted and a license has been granted to a Canadian company, which has manufactured over 4000 of these sensors for use the rail industry.


Charleen Choboter
Project / Research Coordinator

charleen.choboter@umanitoba.ca


JunHui Zhao, Ph.D.
Research Associate

junhui.zhao@umanitoba.ca


Baidar Bakht, C.M, D.Sc., P.Eng.
Consultant

bbakht@hotmail.ca

Baidar Bakht retired from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO), Canada, in 1997 as its Principal Research Engineer. He has been involved in the writing of bridge design codes since 1976, and was the chair of the Technical Committee of the first edition of Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code, published in 2000.

With a D.Sc. from London University, Baidar Bakht has written and edited several books on various aspects of bridge engineering, including ‘Bridges: analysis, design, structural health monitoring’ (Springer International Publishing, Switzerland). His many publications in bridge engineering include those dealing with bridge analysis, structural health monitoring, soil-steel bridges, timber bridges and the use of fibre reinforced concrete in bridges.  During his tenure with MTO and later, he has monitored the performance of least two hundred well-instrumented highway bridges. In 2014, he was appointed as a member of the Order of Canada.