Faculty and Staff

Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Ackerman received a BSCE from Virginia Military Institute in 1993, an MSCE specializing in Geoenvironmental Engineering from West Virginia University in 1995, and a Ph.D. specializing in Construction Engineering and Management from Virginia Tech in 2014. 

A registered professional engineer in Virginia since 1999, Dr. Ackerman has over 20 years of engineering and project management experience with a large variety of local, state, and federal projects and facilities.  Dr. Ackerman also received his Registered Roofing Observer (RRO) thru Roofing Consultants Institute (RCI) in 1995.   

Dr. Ackerman is the Assistant Program Director and Faculty Advisor for Keydets Without Borders Rotaractors, VMI’s international service program.  In addition, Dr. Ackerman has assisted with engineering service projects in Uganda, Bolivia, & Guatemala.

Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Tanjina Afrin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Military Institute (VMI).  She received her Ph.D. from Clemson University, SC in Civil Engineering in 2016. In 2012, she obtained her Masters from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Being a native of Dhaka, Bangladesh, she always is very much interested to apply her engineering knowledge to come up with a better solution for urban issues including a better understanding of stormwater management structures and air quality of urban areas. 

She is passionate about teaching. Before joining VMI in 2017, she taught at Tri-County Technical College, Clemson University, and Stamford University, Bangladesh. She enjoys exploring new areas of research and mentoring students. 

Area of Expertise

• Stormwater Management
• Low Impact Development (LID)
• Computational Fluid Dynamics

Courses Taught 

• CE 109: Introduction to Civil Engineering
• EGR 269: Engineering skills and disciplines (Tri-County Technical College, SC)
• CE 309: Fluid mechanics
• CE 341: Fluid Mechanics Lab (Clemson University, SC)
• CE 322: Water Resources Engineering
• CE 319W: Water Resources Engineering lab

Areas of Interests 

• LID for developing countries
• Hydraulic characteristics of Green Infrastructures (GI)
• Community participation in stormwater management
• Engineering Education
• Women in Engineering
• Education and Learning Strategies
• Air Quality for urban areas

Related Links and Media

Website:   https://sites.google.com/g.clemson.edu/tanjinaafrin/

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanjina-afrin-phd-e-i-t-360b2776/

Afrin Resume

Adjunct Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Douglas M. Caldwell, a native of Southwest Virginia, joined the VMI Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty as an Adjunct member in 2015, following his retirement in June 2014.

In the fall of 1966, Caldwell entered VA Tech as a Civil Engineering major.  He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering in June 1970.  During the summer of 1970, he interned with the VA Department of Health’s Bureau of Sanitary Engineering in the Department’s Central Office in Richmond.  This brief internship offered invaluable practical engineering experience in the drinking water and domestic wastewater fields.  This experience encompassed the technical review of engineering plans, specifications, and reports, conducting sanitary surveys of public waterworks and wastewater systems, the technical training of waterworks and wastewater treatment system operators, and the opening and start-up of a newly constructed waterworks that included a conventional water treatment plant.

The award of financial aid by the U.S. Public Health Service made it possible for Caldwell to pursue graduate studies in the Civil Engineering Department at VA Tech beginning in the fall of 1970.  His thesis work concentrated in the drinking water field and specifically addressed optimization of the removal of the aesthetics contaminants, iron, and manganese, from source waters.  He was awarded a Master of Science degree in Sanitary Engineering in the fall of 1971.

Following graduate school, an offer of employment by the VA Department of Health’s Bureau of Sanitary Engineering was accepted, and Caldwell was assigned to the Lexington Regional Office that served 19 counties and 10 cities in the Shenandoah Valley and Central Virginia.  Although wastewater responsibilities were shared by the Health Department and the VA State Water Control Board early in Caldwell’s career, the majority of his years of service concentrated on drinking water source development, treatment, storage, and distribution.  The Health Department’s drinking water responsibilities focused on the enforcement of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Act in Virginia, made possible by Federal funding to carry out this mandate.

Mr. Caldwell has been licensed as a Professional Engineer in Virginia since April 1974.

Although limited in experience in the teaching field, Mr. Caldwell endeavors to offer his students the benefits of his experiences from his 43-year career in public health engineering, and to advocate for life-long learning with an emphasis on dedicated service to those dependent on the efforts of others.  

Area of Expertise

Environmental – Drinking Water – Emphasis on Public Health Protection

Courses Taught  

C.E. 319W – Water Resources Engineering Lab (Writing Intensive)

Areas of Interests

• Water Loss in Potable Water Distribution Systems
• Membrane Filtration of Drinking Water Sources
• Disinfection By-Products in Drinking Water and Control Strategies
• Protection of Water Sources from improper disposal of Prescription Medications and Personal Care Products 

Caldwell Resume

Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Area of Expertise

• Structural Engineering
• Anti-Terrorism and Protective Design
• Infrastructure Engineering
• Small-scale farming

Courses Taught  

• CE203 Statics
• CE206 Solid Mechanics
• CE417X Infrastructure:  Foundation of Civilization

Areas of Interests 

• Infrastructure and Society
• Infrastructure Resilience
• Distributed infrastructure systems, in particular, distributed agriculture

Hart Resume

CV

Wakeel I.A. Idewu, a native of New Orleans, joined the VMI faculty in 2009. He received a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a master of science in engineering science from Louisiana State University. He also earned a doctorate in civil engineering from Louisiana State University.

With over 10 years of experience postgraduate teaching and transportation engineering, Idewu is an expert in simulation modeling using the Vissim platform and provides creative solutions to both common and uncommon transportation engineering problems. The broad scale of his past work includes the design and analysis of a new rail line in Anacostia, innovative pedestrian signals and intersections, and reconfigurations of work zone lane closures.

At 19, Idewu traded in his football cleats for engineering books. His athletic feats in high school gave him recognition as the best linebacker in the city of New Orleans at the time and earned him a scholarship to play football at the collegiate level. However, his dreams of playing football professionally were eventually overshadowed by his aspirations of becoming an engineer.

Drawn by the creative freedoms of a career in engineering, Dr. Idewu merged his profession with his past, by combining the creativity, adaptability, and perseverance he learned in football. 

He now employs those same life lessons in his family life and work. Idewu primarily focuses on interdisciplinary academic mentoring and interdisciplinary research in transportation engineering. Working across disciplines, Idewu continues to mentor students from 10 different majors helping them increase their academic scores and professional potential. Students have also worked with Idewu to conduct transportation research related to psychology, chemistry, mechanical engineering, computer science, and electrical engineering.

Although a registered engineer in Virginia, his proudest accomplishment to date is growing with his wife, Roslyn, through tough and happy times as they raise their four young children. He, along with his wife and family, is in continuous pursuit of a self-prescribed mission: Investing their God-given gifts in people and creatively using opportunities to fuel potential in every generation.

Area of Expertise

Traffic Control and Operation

Courses Taught 

• Introduction to Civil Engineering
• Surveying Lab
• Properties of Engineering Materials
• Introduction to Transportation Engineering
• Transportation Planning and Design

Areas of Interests

• Automated and Connected Vehicles
• Work Zone Traffic Control Configurations
• Congestion Decreasing Techniques at Intersections
• Education and Learning Strategies

Current and Past Project Topics in Engineering

• Design and Evaluation of Automated/Connected Vehicles
• Measuring and Modeling the Affects Vehicular Traffic on Nearby Neighborhoods Air Quality
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of Speed Monitors Placed on Low-Speed Roads  
• Work Zone Traffic Flow: Design and Analysis of Alternating Merge Maneuvers in Roadway Construction Areas
• Estimating Lane Capacities in Work Zones Using Hurricane Evacuation Data

Related Links

Transportation Engineering Video Lessons https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCja59bSZGROChAHISEte1zQ/featured

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wakeel-idewu-ph-d-p-e-9413a06 

Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Jung Resume

Adjunct Faculty
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Adjunct Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Kornegay Resume

Adjunct Instructor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Newhouse Resume

Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Professor
Department Head
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Rogers Resume

Adjunct Faculty
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Lecturer
Mechanical Engineering

Resume

Adjunct Faculty
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Saunders Resume

Visiting Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Shear Resume

Associate Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Matthew (Matt) Swenty earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.  He then worked as a bridge engineer at the Missouri Department of Transportation Bridge Office in Jefferson City, MO designing, inspecting, and rating bridges on the state inventory.  Upon obtaining his professional engineer's license (PE), he went to graduate school at Virginia Tech to earn his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in structural engineering.  His research included the analysis and physical testing of precast concrete connections and precast bridge components.  He was a Via Fellow and taught structural engineering courses while at Virginia Tech. 

Upon completing his education, Matt went to work as part of the bridge research team at the Department of Transportation, Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC).   There he contributed to research projects on differential vibrations on bridge structures, the characterization of materials used in precast bridge connections, the use of lightweight concrete in bridge girders, precast concrete connections, and the Long-Term Bridge program.  He continues to work as a consultant through PSI, Inc. on projects through TFHRC.

After working as a full-time bridge researcher, Matt returned to academics upon appointment to the Civil Engineering Department at VMI.  He finds it a privilege to work with the next generation of engineers by teaching structural engineering and engineering mechanics topics.  One of his favorite parts about VMI is working with the students on research projects and publishing and presenting their results through engineering groups such as ASEE, PCI, and ACI.   He is an active participant in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter at VMI and also serves on the National ASCE Committee on Licensure (COL) and Committee on Student Members (CSM). 

Area of Expertise

• Structural Engineering
• Reinforced Concrete, Prestressed Concrete, and Bridge Design
• Precast Concrete Bridges
• Civil Engineering Materials

Courses Taught  

• CE 109/110 - Civil Engineering Fundamentals I & II
• CE 206 - Solid Mechanics
• CE 302 - Engineering Dynamics
• CE 301 - Structural Theory
• CE 327 - Reinforced Concrete Design
• CE 402 - Advanced Mechanics
• CE 423 - Steel Design
• CE 428 - Topics in Structural Design (Prestressed Concrete & Introduction to Bridge Design)

Areas of Interests

Matt’s research interests include the investigation of innovative connections in precast concrete structures, the use of ultra-high performance concrete, and the analysis of the long-term performance of bridge structures.  Additionally, he enjoys working with engineering policies on licensure, civil engineering curriculum design, and innovative techniques used for teaching in higher education. 

Current and Past Project Topics in Engineering 

• “Characterization of Materials Used in Field-Cast Connections”
• “Effects of early age differential displacements on concrete–bar bond in the connections of staged constructions.”
• “The Use of UHPC as a Laminate for Tensile Reinforcement on Precast Concrete Beams”
• “Professional Licensure: The Core of the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge”
• “Methods of Correlating Precast Concrete Surface Roughness to Tensile Bond Strength in Connections”
• “Horizontal Integration of the Same Design Project in Multiple Structural Engineering Courses”
• “Engineers Guide to Pre-licensure Experience”

Swenty Resume

Associate Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Col. Timmes is a VMI graduate (Class of 1992) and professional engineer who served for over 25 years in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps.  As an Army Environmental Engineer, he conducted extensive drinking water and wastewater system characterizations and public health threat assessments throughout the U.S. and overseas in Macedonia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Italy, Germany, and Norway.  He commanded the Headquarters Company of the U.S. Army Chemical Activity-Pacific on Johnston Atoll during its closure as a chemical agent demilitarization site and served as a Jumpmaster with the 82d Airborne Division.  He taught a variety of academic subjects on the faculty at the US Military Academy (West Point) for six years.  Col. Timmes commanded the U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research in Fort Detrick, Maryland and served as the Director for Environmental Health Sciences and Engineering at the Army Public Health Center before retiring from Active Duty to join the VMI Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.

Area of Expertise

Col. Timmes has a Masters Degree and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, specializing in lead and copper corrosion control and coagulation pretreatment options prior to membrane filtration.  His academic and research interests include water quality, electrocoagulation, military field drinking water, water treatment plant optimization, and water system vulnerability assessments.

Courses Taught  

CE321 - Intro to Environmental Engineering
CE415 - Environmental Engineering Unit Processes Design
CE479 - Hazardous Waste Treatment and Site Remediation

Areas of Interests

Col. Timmes volunteers as the VMI Springboard Diving Coach, faculty representative with the VMI Chamber Strings, and Assistant Officer-in-Charge with the VMI Commandant’s Office.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-c-timmes

Timmes Resume