From the Head of the Department

The last two years have been a period of consolidation and visible output for the Department of Civil Engineering at Central University of Kashmir. What began as a small teaching unit now teaches, researches and builds — often all three at once, and often on our own campus.

Our faculty have not confined themselves to the classroom. The Central Workshop, the kitchen and dining facility at the Arts Campus, and the subgrade for the upcoming Science Block were each designed and supervised in-house by members of this department. That work saved the University substantial cost, but more importantly it gave our students a live construction site to learn from, a few hundred metres from their lecture hall.

On the research side, the Department holds a HEFA CSR research grant on seismic resilience for the Kashmir Valley, five published patent applications and a granted patent. Our three faculty members between them bring experience from IIT Roorkee, IISc Bangalore, the University of Sheffield and the University of Edinburgh — and that exposure feeds directly into what our M.Tech and PhD scholars work on.

Dr. Asif Hussain Shah
Head, Department of Civil Engineering

Dr. Asif Hussain Shah

Head, Department of Civil Engineering; Assistant Professor
Specialisation: Structural Fire Engineering
Email: asif.shah@cukashmir.ac.in  |  Phone: +91 9797760882

Dr. Shah holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from IIT Roorkee, where his doctoral research examined the fire performance of earthquake-damaged structures, and both his M.Tech in Structural Engineering (Gold Medallist) and B.Tech in Civil Engineering from NIT Srinagar. He has previously served as Assistant Professor and Head of Civil Engineering at the Islamic University of Science & Technology, as Assistant Professor at Shaqra University in Saudi Arabia, as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Sheffield, and as Assistant Professor at NIT Srinagar. He was awarded the MSCA Seal of Excellence by the European Commission for the proposal “Development of All-Waste Fire-Resistant Sustainable Concrete”, holds four published Indian patent applications in fire-resistant structural systems, and supervises five doctoral scholars. He is the Founder of WASINFRA SOLUTIONS LLP (incorporated March 2023).

Education

Professional Experience

Research Interests

• Structural fire engineering; fire effects on concrete; full-scale experimental testing
• Sustainable concrete and sustainable construction; geopolymer concrete
• Evaluation, strengthening and durability of concrete structures
• Traditional and vernacular construction systems (Dhajji-Dewari)

University Responsibilities

• Head, Department of Civil Engineering (since Jan 2024)
• Officer In-Charge, Central Procurement Unit
• Coordinator, Central Workshop and Central Facilities
• Nodal Officer, SWAYAM / NPTEL
• Nodal Officer, IUINDRR – NIDM
• Assistant Executive Engineer

Professional Memberships

• American Concrete Institute (ACI) — Associate Member; ACI-TMS Committee 216, Fire Resistance and Fire Protection of Structures
• International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS)
• American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
• Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), UK

Courses Taught

Engineering Mechanics · Structural Analysis-I · Design of Steel Structures · Solid Mechanics · Structural Dynamics · Construction Techniques & Management · Civil Engineering Project Management · Advanced Structural Analysis · Continuum Mechanics · Fire Resistant Design of Structures

Doctoral Supervision — 5 scholars (ongoing)

Tawzia Manzoor · Sualiheen Ahmad Peerzada · Zulqarnain John · Tabassum Ali · Sana Shabir Khan

Journal Peer-Review Service

Construction and Building Materials (Elsevier) · Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities (ASCE) · Physics of Fluids · Structures and Buildings (ICE)