Saman Farhangdoust

Growing up in a developing country, Saman Farhangdoust recognized that using innovative technologies to build smart and resilient infrastructures was key to improving quality of life and safety. His drive to become a scientist centered around his desire to make a lasting impact on society. Through his passion for academic achievement, Saman received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, then his master’s degree, and was the top-ranked graduate in railway engineering at Iran University of Science and Technology. He received a one-year research/job scholarship at Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, and before pursuing his Ph.D., he received his second master’s at FIU in civil engineering. 

FIU gave Saman the opportunity to work collaboratively across disciplines, leading to national contributions including the development of guidelines for the inspection of accelerated bridge constructions. He has collaborated with the Florida Department of Transportation in infrastructure resilience and worked on advanced energy harvesting and structural health monitoring concepts in a mentoring program through Boeing Research and Technology, resulting in several U.S. patent applications. 

Saman has been appointed a conference co-chair at the SPE Smart Structures and NDE Symposium, published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and technical reports and co-authored a textbook in Farsi on engineering acoustics. His numerous honors in 2021 include the FIU Outstanding Scholar Award, the FIU Dissertation Year Fellowship and the U.S. Department of Transportation Outstanding Student of the Year Award. After graduation, he hopes to take an international leadership position as a faculty member or a senior scientist in a governmental role to develop innovative solutions for smart and resilient infrastructures. Outside of academia, he enjoys doing gymnastics and playing the piano. 

By Elizabeth Calzadilla 
Director, Marketing and Communications 
College of Engineering & Computing