Solving Construction & Infrastructure Projects

Welcome to Georgia Pavement and Traffic Research Center (GPTRC) at Kennesaw State University (KSU). Founded in 2009 at Southern Polytechnic State University (merged with KSU in 2015) in Marietta, Georgia, GPTRC has addressed many pressing issues related to civil and construction infrastructure at local, state, and national levels. At GPTRC faculty and student work together through various interdisciplinary and cross-border collaborations and funded projects for the advancement of scientific and technological research in the areas of transportation, road pavement, construction materials, and sustainability. While focusing on those areas, we always aspire to explore new research needs and to build long-term partnerships with other institutions  You can be our next team member or collaborator. Please consider joining GPTRC.

Thank you very much!  

Sunanda Dissanayake
Director of GPRC
Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Mission and Goals

Mission

The mission of GPTRC is to improve the safety, mobility, and productivity of transportation systems through innovative research focusing on the following themes. (1) Improve the safety, economy, and durability of highway pavement by conducting research in pavement materials, performance modeling, design, construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance. (2) Improve the safety and efficiency of transportation infrastructure by conducting research in innovative infrastructure systems design and management, active/proactive traffic management, and traffic control technologies.

The GPTRC’s mission directly aligns with the University’s research, scholarship, creative activities, and public service initiatives, which aim to expand and apply knowledge, contribute to economic development, and improve the quality of life in local communities, Georgia, the nation, and the world.

Goals

    • Serve the local and regional research needs with extensions to critically important issues at the national and international levels.
    • Foster multidisciplinary research through partnership or collaboration with other universities, research institutes, public agencies, industry, and individuals.

  • GPTRC aims to develop and offer certification and professional education/training programs in pavement and traffic engineering. GPTRC also provides laboratory and field test services and products evaluation to help expedite commercialization and adoption of new or emerging technologies. Those include, but not limited to:

    • Testing on pavement materials (e.g., asphalt, concrete, aggregate, and soils)
    • Performance testing of mix designs
    • Evaluation of evolving Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies, such as emerging vehicle detection technologies, adaptive signal control systems, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi based travel time systems, transportation initiatives related to smart cities.
    • Exploration of "Deep Learning" and “Big Data” applications in the field of pavement and traffic engineering.
  • Students in related fields will have opportunities to gain research and hands-on experience and financial support from the Center by participating in both externally and internally funded research projects.

Members

GPTRC Members are KSU faculty who span a wide spectrum of academic departments in all colleges at KSU, as well as the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Their areas of focus and research interests are aligned with one or more of GPTRC’s research goals.

  • Youngguk Seo
    Former Director of GPTRC and Associate Professor of Civil Engineering
    Faculty Webpage

    Tien Yee
    Associate Professor of Civil Engineering
    Faculty Webpage

    Richard Ruhala
    Professor of Mechanical and Systems Engineering
    Faculty Webpage

    JayHyun Kwon, P.E.
    Associate Professor of Civil Engineering
    Faculty Webpage

    Meng Han
    Associate Professor of Information Technology
    Faculty Webpage

    Jungkyu (Justin) Park
    Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
    Faculty Webpage

    Adeel Khalid, P.E.
    Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering

    Ying Wang
    Professor in Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering
    Faculty Webpage
     
    Chih-Cheng Hung
    Professor in Computer Science

    Min Wang
    Associate Professor in Mathematics

    Mahyar Amirgholy
    Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
    Faculty Webpage

    Parth Bhavsar
    Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
    Faculty Webpage.

    Da Hu
    Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
    Faculty Webpage

    Sunanda Dissanayake, P.E.
    Chair and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering 
    Faculty Webpage

Projects

The Georgia Pavement and Traffic Research Center boasts a number of archived and active projects that have received funding from the Georgia Department of Public Health, the Georgia Department of Transportation, the US Army and many more. Take a look at the sustainable and collaborative research we're doing!

    • Geo Economics System Modeling Project, Mahyar Amirgholy (PI), Funded by the Regents of the University of California - Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 2022 – 2023, $ 95, 532.
    • Training the Next Generation of County Environmental Health Specialists, Sunanda Dissanayake (PI) and Tien Yee (Co-PI), Funded by the Georgia Department of Public Health (GDPH), 2022-2023, $ 29,400.
    • Remote Bridge Health Monitoring for Scouring Using Cost-Efficient Sensing Technology, Funded by the Georgia Department of Transportation, Tien Yee (PI), Mahyar Amirgholy (Co-PI), and Metin Oguzmert (Co-PI), 2022-2025, $ 333,010.
    • Daytime Lighting in Short Tunnels, Funded by the Georgia Department of Transportation/ University of Georgia, Tien Yee (PI) and Mahyar Amirgholy (C0-PI), 2022 -2023, $43,000.
    • Independent Review of the C-FLEX and C-SLAB Programs, Funded by the US Army, Jayhyun Kwon, 2023-2024, $ 60,980.
    1. Geo-economics system modeling. U.S. Department of Transportation through Federal Highway Administration. Grant Number DE-AC02-05CH11231(In collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), 2020-2022
    2. Guidelines for Incorporation of Cement Stabilized Reclaimed Base (CSRB) in Pavement Design, GDOT RP 20-14, 2020-2022  
    3. Optimizing Winter Roadway Treatments For Georgia Pavements, GDOT RP 18-28 (Sub-Award from GA Southern University)​, 2019-2020
    4. Investigation & Guidelines for Drilled Shaft Excavation Inspections, GDOT 2019–2020 
    5. Project to Quantify Energy Savings by McCain Low-Voltage ATCC with Schneider BBS Compared to Existing High-Voltage Traffic Cabinet with BBS, McCain, Inc. and Schneider Electric USA, Inc., 2018-2020
    6. Reduce Carbon Emissions by Wireless Power Transfer (Phase II), SV–83935301, Environmental Protection Agency P3 Awards Phase II, 2018-2020
    7. FDR: Performance assessment and recommendations for best performance​, GDOT RP 18-22, 2018-2019
    8. Monitoring and Assessing Traffic Safety at Signalized Intersections Using Live Video Images, GDOT RP 14-29, 2016-2018
    9. A New Vehicle Concept To Provide Better Rapid Transit At Reduced Cost (Phase 1), GDOT RP 16-13, 2016-2018
    10. Reduce Carbon Emissions by Wireless Power Transfer (Phase I), SU–83679301, Environmental Protection Agency P3 Awards Phase I, 2016-2017
    11. GDOT Forensic Guide for Georgia’s Pavements, GDOT RP 14-13,  2014-2016
    12. Effects of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) Contents and Sources on Dynamic Modulus (E*) and Fatigue Performance of Asphalt Mixtures in Georgia, GDOT RP 14-12, 2014-2016
    13. Evaluation of Vehicle Detection Technologies for Applications in Georgia, GDOT RP 13-26, 2014-2015
    14. Development of Guidelines for Proper Selection of Finer Graded Aggregate Base for Georgia Infrastructure - Phase I, GDOT RP 13-28, 2014-2015.
    15. Sustainable Landuse and Planning based on Geomaterial Data and GIS, A Nationwide Consortium for Remote Sensing Education, Research, and Geospatial Application, America ViewSM, 2013-2018
    16. Measurements of Dynamic and Resilient Moduli for Roadway Test Sections -  Phase I, GDOT RP 12-07, 2012-2013
    17. Determination of Coefficient of Thermal Expansion for PCC Pavements for MEPDG Implementation, GDOT RP 10-04, 2010-2012

Membership

The membership is open to all KSU faculty and trainees and to faculty members, engineers, and scientists outside of KSU. Access to the GPTRC resources requires membership. Applying for membership is easy and requires the completion of a short questionnaire about research interests related to the main goals of the center and the uploading of CV.

  • Full membership is open to KSU faculty in any series and includes:
    • Notification of GPTRC updates and all enrichment activities of the center.
    • Facilitated working group sessions to foster collaborative research projects.
    • Inclusion in all GPTRC communications (e.g., events, funding opportunities, news).
    • Provision of opportunities to network with potential collaborators and mentors.
    • Eligibility for mentored grant reviews.
  • Associate membership is open to all KSU trainees, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and research staff or specialists, and to faculty members as well as engineers and scientists outside of KSU who have research interests in the field of road and transportation engineering. 

 If you are interested in becoming a GPTRC member, please complete the form linked below. 

Request Membership

News and Events

  • 05 Oct. 2020 - Call for papers for a special issue "Advances in Recycling Technology for Sustainable Pavement (IF: 2.5 +)." To view the scope and aims of this issue, please see the MDPI Article. This is one of open access journals and can be an excellent venue to promote the visibility of your work globally.

    25 Sep. 2020 - We had a Teams meeting with KSU’s Strategic Communications & Marketing department to discuss the redesign of our website. A new website will introduce new elements to our website that will not only boost the attractiveness of our center's virtual “front door,” but also make the website more manageable and useful for current students. 

    21 Sep. 2020 - Final draft report for Optimizing Winter Roadway Treatments For Georgia Pavements (GDOT RP 18-28) submitted for GDOT panel review.   

    26 Aug. 2020 - We are pleased to announce that contract for the GDOT research project RP 20-14: “Guidelines for Incorporation of Cement Stabilized Reclaimed Base (CSRB) in Pavement Design” has been fully executed by GDOT and this project is active now for a two-year exciting journey. 

    02 Aug. 2020 - !!!WANTED!!! The Civil and Environmental Engineering Department is looking for a part-time lecturer that can teach Construction Materials for undergraduates. If interested, please contact Dr. Youngguk Seo at yseo2@kennesaw.edu.

    01 May 2020 - All labs and offices of GPTRC are closed due to a year-long building renovation.

    20 Jul. 2020 - Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) positions are available (qualified international students are welcome to apply).