Student spotlight: Mouna Krami Senhaji

Mouna Krami Senhaji graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a master’s degree in civil engineering in May 2017. She also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Ecole Centrale de Lille, Lille, France, in systems engineering.

During her graduate studies at UIUC, Mouna focused her research on the sustainability assessment of transportation infrastructure systems, life-cycle assessment (LCA) for pavement maintenance and rehabilitation projects, and the development of LCA decision making tools. She was a major contributor to the Illinois Center for Transportation research team that led the Federal Highway Administration-sponsored “Life Cycle Energy Use of In-Place Recycle Techniques” project.

 “Being party of this study has added a lot to my knowledge,” says Mouna. “I gained experience communicating and coordinating with pavement project stakeholders, including contractors, transportation agencies, and researchers from other universities; developing a methodology to analyze environmental impacts and energy use of in-place recycling techniques and conventional methods; and analyzing fuel usage for in-place recycling techniques.”

 The project was also a great opportunity for Mouna to expand her experience in using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) for data management and tool development as well as pay items for pavement maintenance and rehabilitation, and to increase her awareness of the challenges and perspectives associated with the pavement industry in particular and transportation infrastructure industry in general.

 About the best part of being a graduate student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UIUC, Mouna says that she had particularly appreciated “the opportunity of working under the guidance of experts and outstanding scholars, being exposed to multiple disciplines, and having the chance to work with top students from all over the world.”

 After graduation, Mouna accepted an offer with Jacobs Engineering Group in New York City where she serves as a Graduate Civil Engineer. In this capacity, she works on bridge design, develops BIM models, and conducts construction estimates and site inspections.