Celebrating excellence: ICT faculty leads receive prestigious awards

Four Illinois Center for Transportation faculty leads recently earned distinguished honors for their contributions to civil engineering and student mentorship. Their achievements underscore ICT’s ongoing commitment to research innovation and academic excellence.

Al-Qadi honored with 2025 College Award for Graduate Student Mentoring

The Grainger College of Engineering has named Imad Al-Qadi, Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and ICT director, as the recipient of the 2025 College Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring.

The award recognizes faculty who have demonstrated sustained excellence in mentoring graduate students, supporting both their academic and professional development.

Over the course of his career, Al-Qadi has mentored more than 50 doctoral students, 40 postdoctoral researchers and numerous master’s students. His approach to mentorship emphasizes academic rigor, personal growth and professional readiness — creating a supportive environment for students of all backgrounds.

As the founding director of ICT, established in 2005, Al-Qadi has built a center known for cutting-edge research and student engagement. Under his leadership, students have contributed to high-impact transportation projects, gaining hands-on experience with real-world challenges and advancing innovations in the field.

This award honors Al-Qadi’s remarkable impact as a mentor and researcher, highlighting his dedication to shaping the next generation of civil engineering leaders.

Grainger Engineering recognized Al-Qadi at the Annual Engineering Awards Convocation on April 28. Lama Abufares, an ICT doctoral student who submitted the nomination on behalf of Al-Qadi’s students, accepted the award on his behalf along with graduate students Lara Diab, Javier García Mainieri and Yihan Chen.

“We nominated Professor Al-Qadi for this award because his mentorship goes far beyond academics,” Abufares said. “I’m grateful that our heartfelt letters conveyed the deep admiration we have for him. Whenever the PhD-plus-life combination became overwhelming and I felt like quitting, he always found a way to lift me back up. Today, I’m one step closer to achieving my dream, and I owe that to him.”

Golparvar receives 2025 College Award for Excellence in Translational Research

Grainger Engineering has named Mani Golparvar, CEE professor and ICT’s AI in construction lead, as the recipient of the 2025 College Award for Excellence in Translational Research.

The award honors faculty who demonstrate exceptional achievement in translating research into practical applications that significantly benefit society, including entrepreneurial activities, technology transfer and impactful product development.

Golparvar specializes in computer vision and machine learning for a broad range of construction and operations use cases in the built environment. His research has led to the development of techniques that automatically generate 3D reality models from photos and videos captured on construction sites.

He has pioneered the underlying concepts and theories for integrating these models with Building Information Model and project schedules to produce actionable insights on progress and quality deviations. His innovations have been deployed on thousands of construction projects worldwide, spanning major transportation infrastructure to commercial and industrial facilities.

Golparvar is leading a new initiative within the Grainger Engineering to establish an Institute of AI for the Built Environment. He also serves as co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Reconstruct Inc., a company launched from his research group in 2015 that leverages reality capture and digital twins for construction progress monitoring. Reconstruct has raised over $30 million in venture funding and is recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the construction technology sector.

Grainger Engineering recognized Golparvar at the Annual Engineering Awards Convocation on April 28.

Roesler receives 2025 Collins Award for Innovative Teaching

Grainger Engineering named Jeffery Roesler, Ernest Barenberg Professor in CEE and ICT rigid pavements lead, as the recipient of the 2025 Collins Award for Innovative Teaching.

The annual award honors faculty who demonstrate outstanding development or use of new and innovative teaching methods. It is named after W. Leighton Collins, a former Illinois faculty member and executive director of the American Society for Engineering Education, who helped shape engineering instruction nationwide.

Roesler has been a faculty member in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering since 2000. He teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, including pavement and materials engineering, geometric design of roadways and professional practice. His instructional approach emphasizes project-based learning and the integration of real-world engineering challenges into the classroom.

A three-time Illinois graduate, Roesler earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering.

In addition to his teaching and research, Roesler has held numerous leadership roles, including associate head and director of graduate studies and research for CEE from 2014 to 2022. He is a registered professional engineer in California and a past president of the International Society of Concrete Pavements. He remains active in professional societies, including TRB and ASCE.

Grainger Engineering recognized Roesler at the annual Engineering Awards Convocation on April 28.

Tutumluer recognized as ASCE Distinguished Member

The American Society of Civil Engineers has named Erol Tutumluer, Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering and ICT’s transportation geotechnics lead, a Distinguished Member. This is the highest honor ASCE bestows, reserved for civil engineers who have achieved eminence in the profession.

A global leader in transportation geotechnics, Tutumluer has served as a CEE faculty member at since 1996. His research focuses on pavement and railroad track geomaterials, sustainable construction practices, geosynthetics and advanced technologies such as AI, smart sensors and imaging for infrastructure monitoring. He has led over 125 research projects, published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers and graduated 27 doctoral and 47 master’s students.

Tutumluer also serves as the Director of International and ZJUI Education Programs in Civil and Environmental Engineering, helping lead Illinois’ global academic initiatives. He is the founding editor-in-chief of Transportation Geotechnics and has held leadership roles in major professional organizations, including the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, International Geosynthetics Society, American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, Transportation Research Board and ASCE.

His career includes numerous awards, such as the ASCE James Laurie Prize (2020), Geo-Institute’s Carl L. Monismith Lecture Award (2021) and the International Geosynthetics Society Award (2023). In 2024, he received the ASCE Francis C. Turner Award, delivered ISSMGE’s Proctor Lecture during the 5th International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics in Sydney, Australia, and was selected to chair a federal working group by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The ASCE Distinguished Member honor celebrates Tutumluer’s enduring impact on the field, his commitment to mentoring future engineers and his leadership in advancing transportation infrastructure worldwide.

ASCE will honor Tutumluer during the annual convention in Seattle, Washington. They will formally induct the Distinguished Member Class of 2025 at the Celebration of Leaders Luncheon on Thursday, October 9. 

You can learn more at https://convention.asce.org/.