Project Area Faculty Leads

Dr. Vartenie Aramali

Dr. Vartenie Aramali currently holds the position of Assistant Professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at California State University, Northridge, and stands out for her unique combination of industry experience and scholarly achievement. Her academic journey includes a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in engineering management with a specialization in project and program management. In 2022, she earned a Ph.D. in civil, environmental, and sustainability from Arizona State University. Recognized as a PMP^® certified industry professional by the Project Management Institute, Dr. Aramali has leveraged her experience in EPC turnkey contracting to make substantial contributions to the industry practices and is dedicated to infusing her industry experience into her scholarly endeavors including teaching and student mentoring. Her passion for research, practical research, and published works are a testament to her understanding of the field. She has published many articles in refereed journals and conference proceedings. Her research interests are earned value management systems, group-based research methods, EPC contracts, project delivery, project bidding, safety, engineering education, contracts, social sciences, and other advanced project and construction management topics. She can be contacted at vartenie.aramali@csun.edu.

Faculty Profile: https://academics.csun.edu/faculty/vartenie.aramali

Dr. Ricardo Medina

Dr. Ricardo Medina is currently an Assistant Professor in the Civil Engineering and Construction Management Department at California State University Northridge. Before his appointment as assistant professor at CSUN, Dr. Medina worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Orange County Water District, where he worked on several projects including one project using innovative temperature sensing technology to estimate the rate of water infiltrating through a recharge basin. Additionally, Dr. Medina worked on the testing and identification of several granulated activated carbon and ion exchange media for the treatment and removal of PFAS from the groundwater. Dr. Medina’s academic preparation includes a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (water resources) from the University of California Irvine, M.S. in Civil Engineering (water resources) from the California State University Los Angeles, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering (water resources) from the University of California Davis. Dr. Medina’s current research interests are in the field of hydrology, groundwater flow and modeling, physico-chemical processes in fracture flow, engineering education, and reducing equity gaps.

Faculty Profile: https://academics.csun.edu/faculty/ricardo.medina

Dr. Silvia Carpitella

Silvia Carpitella obtained a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain) and a Ph.D. in Technological Innovation Engineering from the University of Palermo (Italy) along with the title of Dottore Europaeus in 2019. She has gained experience in teaching and research in various countries, including the United States, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Spain, England, Germany, and Italy. She currently holds the position of Assistant Professor at California State University Northridge, where she teaches the courses “Introduction to Data Analytics for Engineering Managers” and “Knowledge Discovery from Databases and Data Visualization for Engineering Managers”. Her main research interests focus on the integration of engineering and mathematics, with particular attention to decision support systems, the treatment of uncertainty affecting human assessments, mathematical modeling, and optimization of safety and logistics management in industrial contexts. She developed over 80 scientific publications, including articles published in indexed journals and proceedings of international conferences, book chapters, and educational articles. The quality of her research activities has been internationally recognized through the Otto Wichterle Award, awarded to outstanding young scientists (under 35) by the Czech Academy of Sciences. Her doctoral thesis has been awarded in the area of industrial plants by the Italian Foundation Luigi De Januario, and in the area of sciences by the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

Faculty Profile: https://academics.csun.edu/faculty/silvia.carpitella

Dr. Md Sahabul Alam

Dr. Md Sahabul Alam is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Before that, he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Systems and Computer Engineering Department at Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada with prestigious Canadian Government FRQNT Fellowship. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), Montreal, QC, Canada. Prior to PhD, Dr. Alam obtained his M.Sc. degree in Telecommunication Engineering from INRS-EMT, Montreal, QC, Canada, and B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET), Khulna, Bangladesh where he also served as a Lecturer for more than three years. In Ph.D., Dr. Alam awarded the Governor General of Canada Gold Medal which is the highest distinction in graduate level. He has authored and co-authored over 20 journal articles and 15 conference papers in the filed of wireless communications. He has served/is serving as the TPC member of various prestigious IEEE conferences and reviewer of several major journals of IEEE communications society. His current research interests include reliable wireless communications in non-Gaussian noise environments, PHY layer techniques for terrestrial and aerial communications.

Faculty Profile: https://academics.csun.edu/faculty/md-sahabul.alam