Professor and Director
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Sustainable Water Infrastructure Management (SWIM) Center
Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
Phone: 540-231-9420
Email: ssinha@vt.edu
Education
1. Ph.D. Degree (Sept. 1997 – Sept. 2000) |
Ph.D. in Civil and Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada |
2. M.A.Sc. Degree (Sept. 1996 – Sept. 1997) |
Master of Applied Science in Civil Engineering, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada |
3. B.E. Degree (June 1982 – June 1986) |
Bachelor of Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, Bihar, India |
Biography
Dr. Sunil Sinha is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of Sustainable Water Infrastructure Management (SWIM) Center at Virginia Tech. He is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award recipient in the area of sustainable infrastructure management systems. Dr. Sinha’s research, teaching, and consulting activities are focused in the areas of asset management, sustainability, pattern recognition, sensor informatics, and resilient infrastructure, especially urban systems. He has documented and disseminated the results and findings from research work in over 200 publications in technical referred journals, technical conference proceedings, and technical reports. Dr. Sinha was seed behind “90-minutes” PBS documentary titled “Liquid Assets: The Story of Our Water Infrastructure,” that throws light on a long-buried problem -- America’s aging water systems. He has given many NPR interviews and featured as a water infrastructure expert in a History Channel documentary.
Research Interest
Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Systems, Asset Management, Cyber Infrastructure, Pattern Recognition, Artificial Intelligence, Sensor Informatics, Information Visualization, Subsurface Utility Engineering, Rehabilitation and Renewal Engineering.
Scientific Activities:
Awards and Accomplishments
- Virginia Tech College of Engineering Faculty Fellow (2009 – 2012)
- National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award titled “Sustainable Water Infrastructure
- Management System (SWIMS), (2007- 2012)
- Liquid Assets: The Story of Our Water Infrastructure has been awarded the Engineering
- Journalism Award from the American Association of Engineering Societies (2008)
- NSF International Research and Education in Engineering (IREE) Award, (2007)
- Schreyer Institute InSPIRE Academy Fellow, Pennsylvania State University, (2006-2007)
- Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada -
- Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Canada, (2000-2001)
- Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada -
- Doctoral Postgraduate Scholarship, Canada, (1998-2000)
- Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada -
- Industrial Postgraduate Scholarship, Canada, (1997-1998)
- Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), Canada, (1999-2000)
- University Graduate Scholarship (UGS), Canada, (’00, ’99,’98,’97, & ’96)
- Outstanding Student Award, BIT, Mesra, Ranchi, India, (1984)
Publications
- Uslu*, B., Jung, Y.J., and Sinha, S.K., (2016). “Underground Utility Locating Technologies for Condition Assessment and Renewal Engineering of Water Infrastructure Systems,” ASCE Journal of Pipeline Infrastructure Systems and Practice, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 1 – 10, (DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)PS.1949-1204.0000221).
- Welling*, S., and Sinha, S. (2015). “WATERiD’s Novel Methodology for Condition Assessment Cost Data Collection and Visualization.” Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 9, pp. 419 - 428 (doi: 10.17265/1934-7359/2015.04.006).
- Ge*, S., and Sinha, S. (2015) “Effect of Various Bedding Conditions on Structural Integrity of Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe,” Journal of Materials Science Research, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 34 – 44 (doi: 10.5539/jmsr.v4n2p34).
- Ge*, S., and Sinha, S. (2015) “Effect of Mortar Coating’s Bonding Quality on the Structural Integrity of Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe with Broken Wires” Journal of Materials Science Research, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 59 – 75 (doi: 10.5539/jmsr.v4n3p59).
- Uslu*, B., and Sinha, S.K., (2015). “Subsurface Utility Engineering for Water and Wastewater Utilities,” International Journal of Engineering Research, Vol. 4, No. 11, pp. 625 - 630, (ISSN: 2319-6890)(online), 2347-5013(print).
- Angkasuwansiri*, T., and Sinha, S.K., (2015) “Development of a Robust Wastewater Pipe Performance Index,” ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 1 – 12, February 2015, CID: 04014042.
- St. Clair*, A.M., and Sinha, S.K., (2014) “Development of a Fuzzy Inference Performance Index for Ferrous Drinking Water Pipelines,” ASCE Journal of Pipeline Infrastructure Systems and Practice, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. August 2014, CID: 04014003.
- St. Clair*, A.M., and Sinha, S.K., (2014) Development of a Standard Data Structure for Predicting the Life and Consequence of Failure of Water Pipes,” ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, Vol. 28, No. 1, Jan. 2014, pp. 191-203.
- Jai*, J., Sinha, S. K., and Whittle, G., (2014) ‘Development of a Water Infrastructure Knowledge Database,’ ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems, Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2014, CID: 04013006.
- Gay*, L.F., and Sinha, S.K., (2014) “Stochastic Simulation Methodology for Resilience Assessment of Water Distribution Networks," International Journal of Critical Infrastructures (IJCIS), InderScience Publishers, Vol. 10, No. 2
- Ge*, S., and Sinha, S. (2014)."Failure analysis, condition assessment technology, and performance prediction of PCCP- a State-of-the-Art literature review," ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, Vol. 28, No. 3, May/June 2014, pp. 618-628.
- Angkasuwansiri*, T., and Sinha, S.K., (2014). “Development of Wastewater Pipe Performance Index and Performance Prediction Model,” International Journal of Sustainable Materials and Structural Systems, Inderscience Publication, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 244 – 264, (DOI: 10.1504/IJSMSS.2014.062767).
- Vemulapally*, R., S.K. Sinha, and S.M. Welling, (2014). “Standard Geospatial Data Model for Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Risk Assessment”, Journal of Harmonized Research in Engineering, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2014, pp. 346-359.
- Welling*, S.M., S.K. Sinha, (2014) “Cost Data Management Model for Wastewater Pipeline Renewal Engineering for the WATERiD Project”, International Refereed Journal of Engineering and Science (IRJES), Vol. 3, Issue 6, June 2014, pp. 39-51.
- Welling*, S., and Sinha, S.K., (2013). “A Cost Data Standard for Drinking Water Pipeline Infrastructure Renewal Engineering,” International Journal of Modern Engineering Research, IAJC Publication, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2013, pp. 18-31.
- Sekar*, V.R., Sinha, S.K., and Welling, S., (2013) “Web-Based and Geospatially Enabled Risk Screening Tool for Drinking Water and Wastewater Pipeline Infrastructure Systems,” ASCE Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice, Vol. 4, No. 4, November 2013, CID: 04013003.
- Rathor*, A., and Sinha, S.K., (2013). “Web-based Benchmarking Preliminary Analysis for Water Utilities in the United States,” Journal of American Water Works Association, AWWA Publication, vol. 105, no. 9, pp. E540-E552.
- Gay*, L.F., and Sinha, S.K., (2013) “Resilience of Civil Infrastructure Systems: Literature Review for Improved Asset Management," International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, InderScience Publication, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 330-350.
- Angkasuwansiri*, T., and Sinha, S.K., (2013) “Development of a Standard Data Structure for Wastewater Pipe Performance Prediction Wastewater Pipe Performance,” The International Journal of Strategic Engineering Asset Management, (Paper accepted for publication: April 23, 2013).
- St. Clair*, A.M., and Sinha, S.K., (2012). “State-of-the-Technology Review on Water Pipe Condition, Deterioration, and Failure Rate Prediction Models,” Journal of Urban Water, Taylor and Francis, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 85-112.
- Iyer*, S., Sinha, S. K., and Tittmann, B. R., (2012). ‘Ultrasonic Signal Processing Methods for Detection of Defects in Concrete Pipes,’ Journal of Automation in Construction, Elsevier Publication, vol. 22, pp. 135-148.
- Iyer*, S., Sinha, S. K., and Tittmann, B. R., (2012). ‘Evaluation of Ultrasonic Inspection and Imaging Systems for Concrete Pipes,’ Journal of Automation in Construction, Elsevier Publication, vol. 22, pp. 149-164.
- Jung*, Y.J., and Sinha, S. K. (2012). ‘Evaluation of Subsurface Utility Engineering for Highway Projects: Benefit–Cost Analysis,’ International Journal of Tunneling and Underground Space Technology, Elsevier, vol. 27, issue 1, pp. 111-122.
- Gay*, L.F., and Sinha, S.K., (2012). ‘Measuring the Energy Efficiency in Urban Water Systems Using a Mechanistic Approach, ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems, vol. 18, no. 2, June 2012, pp. 139-145.
- Jung*, Y.J., and Sinha, S. K. (2009). “Utility Impact Rating with Subsurface Utility Engineering in Project Development,” Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 36, pp. 1744–1754.
- Jung*, Y.J., and Sinha, S. K. (2007). ‘Critical Analysis of Modern Trenchless Technology Methods for Urban Infrastructure,’ ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 144-156.
- Sinha, S.K., and McKim, R. A. (2007). ‘Probabilistic Based Integrated Pipeline Management System,’ International Journal of Tunneling and Underground Space, Elsevier Publication, vol. 22, no. 5-6, pp. 543-552.
- Sinha, S.K., and Wang, M. C. (2007). ‘Artificial Neural Network Prediction Models for Soil Compaction and Permeability,’ Journal of the Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, Springer Publication, vol. 27, pp. 1573-1529.
- Sinha, S.K., Thomas, R. H., and Kulka, J. H. (2007). ‘Integrating Ethics into Engineering Design of Construction Process,’ ASCE Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education, vol. 133, no. 4, pp. 291-299.
- Pedrick, M., Iyer*, S., Tittmann, B. R., and Sinha, S.K., (2007). “Ultrasonic Discontinuity Detection in Thin-Walled Concrete,” Journal of Materials Evaluation, American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), vol. 65, no. 9, pp. 923-928.
- Sinha, S.K., and Fieguth, P. W. (2006). ‘Segmentation of Buried Concrete Pipe Images,’ Journal of Automation in Construction, Elsevier Publication, vol. 15 (1), pp. 47-57.
- Sinha, S.K., and Fieguth, P. W. (2006). ‘Automated detection of Cracks in Buried Concrete Pipe Images,’ J. of Automation in Construction, Elsevier Publication vol. 15 (1), pp. 58-72.
- Sinha, S.K., and Fieguth, P. W. (2006). ‘Neuro-fuzzy Network for the Classification of Buried Pipe Defects,’ Automation in Construction, Elsevier Pub., vol. 15 (1), pp. 73-83.
- Ok*, S. C., and Sinha, S. K. (2006). ‘Construction Equipment Productivity Estimation Using Artificial Neural Network Model,’ Journal of Construction Management & Economics, Taylor & Francis, vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 1029-1044.
- Thomas, R.H., Riley, D. R., and Sinha, S. K. (2006). ‘Fundamental Principles for Avoiding Congested Work Areas on Masonry Work – A Case Study,’ ASCE Journal of Practical Periodical on Structural Design and Construction, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 197-205.
- Iyer*, S, and Sinha, S. K. (2006). ‘Segmentation of Pipe Images for Crack Detection in Buried Sewers,’ Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, Blackwell Publication, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 395-410.
- Sinha, S.K., and Fieguth, P. W. (2006). ‘Morphological Segmentation and Classification of Underground Pipe Images,’ Machine Vision and Applications, Springer-Verlag Publication, vol. 17(1), pp. 21 – 31.
- Iyer*, S., and Sinha, S. K. (2005). ‘Automated Condition Assessment of Buried Sewer Pipes Based on Digital Imaging Techniques,’ The Journal of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India, vol. 85, no. 5, pp. 235-252. 12
- Lee, D., Pietrucha, M. T., and Sinha, S. K., (2005). ‘Application of Fuzzy Logic to Evaluate Driver Perception of Variable Message Signs,’ Journal of Transportation Research Record, TRB, 1937, pp. 96-104.
- Iyer*, S, and Sinha, S. K. (2005). ‘A Robust Approach for Automatic Detection & Segmentation of Cracks in Underground Pipeline Images,’ Journal of Image and Vision Computing, Elsevier Publication, vol. 23 (10), pp. 921-933.
- Iyer*, S., Sinha, S. K., and Schokker, A. J., (2005). ‘Ultrasonic Imaging of Post- Tensioned Bridges to Investigate Corrosion Status,’ Journal of Computer-Aided Civil & Infrastructure Engineering, Blackwell Publication, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 79-94.
- Sinha, S.K., and Knight, M. K., (2004). ‘Development of an Intelligent System for Underground Pipeline Management,’ Journal of Computer-Aided Civil & Infrastructure Engineering, Blackwell Publication, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 42-53.
- Iyer*, S., Schokker, A. J., and Sinha, S. K., (2003). ‘Ultrasonic Imaging-A Novel Way to Investigate Corrosion Status in Post-Tensioned Concrete Bridges,’ The Journal of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, vol. 82, pp. 197-217.
- Sinha, S.K., Fieguth, P. W., and Polak, M. A., (2003). 'Computer Vision Techniques for Automatic Structural Assessment of Underground Pipes,' Journal of Computer-Aided Civil & Infrastructure Engineering, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 95-112.
- Iyer*, S., Schokker, A. J., and Sinha, S. K., (2003). ‘Ultrasonic C-Scan Imaging: Preliminary Evaluation for Detecting Corrosion and Voids in Post-Tensioning Tendons,’ Transportation Research Record, TRB, no. 1827, pp. 44-52.
- Sinha, S.K. (2003). ‘Automated Condition Assessment of Buried Pipelines Using Computer Vision Techniques, Journal of the Institution of Engineers (India), Computer Engineering, vol. 85, pp. 38-43.
- Sinha, S.K., and Pandey, M., (2002). ‘Probabilistic Neural Network for Reliability Assessment of Underground Pipeline Systems,’ Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, Blackwell Publication, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 320-329.
- Sinha, S.K., and Karray, F. (2002). ‘Classification of Underground Pipe Scanned Images Using Feature Extraction and Neuro-fuzzy Algorithms,’ IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, vol. 13, no.2, pp. 393-401.
- Sinha, S.K., and McKim, R. A., (2000). ‘Artificial Neural Networks for Measuring Organizational Effectiveness,’ ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, vol. 14, no.1, pp. 9-14.
- McKim, R.A., and Sinha, S. K., (1999). ‘Condition Assessment of Underground Sewer Pipes Using Digital Image Processing,’ International Journal of Tunneling and Underground Space, Official Journal of the International Society of Trenchless Technology, Elsevier Science Publishers, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 29-37.
