Contact Info

Biography

Research with Rowan

Website: http://users.rowan.edu/%7Emehta/

Rowan CREATEs Website: www.rowancreates.org

Education:
Research Associate, The University of Florida, 1999-2001
Ph.D., Civil Engineering, Penn State University, 1999
M.S., Civil Engineering, The University of Oklahoma, 1994
B.S., Civil Engineering, The University of Bombay, Mumbai, India, 1993

Impactful Research Areas:
Sustainability
    Renewable Energy
Connectivity
    Digital Engineering
    Infrastructure & Transportation

Research Expertise:
Construction materials; pavement design and rehabilitation; transportation engineering

Dr. Mehta developed a Center for Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering (CREATEs) with funding from state of New Jersey. He developed a collaboration with US Army Corps of Engineers to acquire a $3 Million Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS). Dr. Mehta was involved with the Evaluation of Precast Systems in the state of New Jersey, conducting accelerated pavement testing using HVS on thin composite flexible overlay, and developing innovative construction materials for the Arctic Region.

Honors and Awards:
Rowan University Entrepreneurship Award, 2022.

South Jersey ASCE Distinguished Engineer Award, 2018.

ASCE-NJ Educator of the Year Award, May 2014.

Rowan University Research Achievement Award 2014 for outstanding research record and the national recognition in the field of Transportation Engineering.

New Jersey DOT Research Implementation Award (2012) Project Title: Correlation of MSCR to Polymer Modified Binder.  This project funded by New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Aviation Research Award (2012) American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE). Research project title: Evaluation of Load transfer Efficiency of Concrete Pavements

New Jersey DOT Research Implementation Award (2012) Project Title: High Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) in Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA). 

High RAP in HMA project funded by New Jersey Department of Transportation was one of the sixteen projects out of 120 that were selected for the 2012 High Value Research Award by the AASHTO Research Advisory Committee (RAC).

2012 Louis J. Pignataro Memorial Transportation Engineering Education Award

Mid-Atlantic American Society of Engineering Education Section Distinguished Teaching Award, West Point, 2008.

New Jersey DOT Research Implementation Award (2010) Second Place.  Project Title:  Development of Pavement Catalog and the Calibration of Alligator Cracking Model

Professional Memberships:
American Society of Civil Engineering
American Society of Engineering Education
Transportation Research Board
Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering
Adviser, Engineers-without-borders, Rowan University Chapter – 2015-Present
Volunteer- NCEES FE exam Civil Engineering, 2015-present
Section Chair, ASCE GeoChina Conference, 2016
Associate Editor, ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering, 2015- present
Editorial Board Member, Journal of Solid Technology and Management, Modern Traffic and Transportation Engineering Research (MTTER), 2015-present
American Society for Engineering Education, Division Chair, 2014-2015, Awards Chair, 2017-2018.
Transportation Research Board:
     Committee Member, AFD70, Pavement Rehabilitation Committee, 2009-2012.
     Committee Member, AFD60, Flexible Design Committee, 2012-2015.

Recent Publications:
Revelli, V., Kabir, S., Ali, A., Mehta, Y., Cox, B. “Understanding the Storage Stability of Polyethylene Modified Binders: A Laboratory Case Study Using Waste Plastics”, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 36 (4), 04024038 2024.

Alfalah, A., Ali, A., Mehta, Y., “Estimating tensile strength ratio of asphalt mixtures using Surface Free Energy (SFE) and Fourier Transform Infrared Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR-ATR)”, Journal of Construction and Building Materials 409, 133900 2023

Hewage, S, Tang, C, Mehta, Y, Zhu, C. “Investigating cracking behavior of saline clayey soil under cyclic freezing-thawing effects,” Journal of Engineering Geology 326, 107319 2023

Ali, A., Kabir, S., Ali, A., Elshaer, M., Mehta, Y., and Nazzal, M. “Compactability and Performance of Warm-Mix Additives at Lower Than Traditional Compaction Temperatures”, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 35 (12), 04023475 2023.

Khan, Ali, Ali, A., Mehta, Y., and Fatigue Performance Evaluation of Fiber Reinforced Asphalt Mixtures with Four-Point Bending Beam and Uniaxial Fatigue Tests. Journal of Transportation Research Record, DOI: 10.1177/03611981241243313