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Academic Staff - Civil Engineering
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Dr Yaqub Rafiq
School of Civil and Structural Engineering, Tel: +44 (0)1752 233662 |
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| Introduction 1968 - 73: BSc ( Hons - First Class) Civil Engineering, Kabul University, Afghanistan. The Faculty of Engineering within Kabul University was taught by American Professors. 1973 - 75: Design Engineer, Ministry of Water and Power, Afghanistan. 1976: Design Engineer, Crippen International Engineering Company, Canada. 1976 - 77: Design Engineer, Ministry of Water and Power, Afghanistan. 1977 - 81: Engineer, Project Engineer and Senior Design Engineer, Water and Power Engineering Company of Afghanistan. 1982 - 84: MSc in Civil Engineering - Structures, University of Strathclyde. 1984 - 88: PhD Structural Engineering, University of Strathclyde. 1988 - 92: Engineer, Thorburn plc, Glasgow. 1992 - date: Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering, University of Plymouth. 1992 - 1993: Certificate of Accreditation as a Teacher in Higher Education from the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), England. 1992 - 1993: Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, University of Plymouth. |
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| Teaching Since I joined the University of Plymouth as a senior lecturer, I have been involved in the teaching of Structural Analysis and Design to all levels of MEng / BEng (Hons) and HND courses. I am currently a stage tutor for the MEng Civil Engineering course. I believe that the teaching of Structural Analysis must reflect the needs of the industry and university graduates must be equipped with the essential skills that industry expects from them. I believe that in the teaching of Structural Analysis in the university we must give priority to skills which the graduate students immediately uses once in the industry. In this connection I have developed methodologies in which IT plays an important role in the teaching of Structural Analysis. In this approach more emphasis is placed on the understanding of the behaviour of the structure, thus establishing links between Analysis and Design. The technique also utilizes appropriate analytical models and teaches an understanding of how to validate computer models and how to verify computer results. In the School's recent round of Quality Assessment (QA) these ideas have played a useful role. Our graduate students appreciate the importance of the skills learned during their university studies. I have published two education papers on peer assessment. One of these papers was published in the Journal of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education and the other by the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA). The ideas presented in these papers are widely implemented within the department. My major area of teaching are Structural Analysis, Structural Design, Computer Application and Engineering Analysis (applications of FEA to solve civil engineering problems). I have developed a number of Computer Aided learning packages which are used in the teaching of various modules within the School. |
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| Research My general research interest is the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in civil engineering with particular interest in Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) and its application to the structural design of buildings. The title of my PhD was "Artificial Intelligence Techniques for the Structural Design of Buildings". A major part of my PhD work was focused on the integration of design activities. One of my major research interests is the application of Genetic Algorithms to model problems related to the structural design and general civil engineering environment. I am currently supervising a PhD project which uses a structured Genetic Algorithm (sGA) to develop an integrated computer aided decision support tool to assist designers at the conceptual stage of the design process. One of the aims of this project is to integrate the activities of various disciplines involved in the design of buildings (members of the design team) at the early stage of the design process. A number of journal and conference papers, on this work, have been published and presented internationally. Another area of interest is the application of Neural Networks in Design, and the integration of the GA and NN within a CAE environment. Initial studies have been promising. One aim of this research is to replace repetitive, long and tedious calculation processes within the objective function of the GA. This will lead to a reduction in computation time. Currently I am the director of studies for a PhD programme on the applications of neural network in modelling the behavior of masonry structures. I am also director studies for two other PhD programmes on masonry design. |
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| Publications My recent publications include: Easterbrook, D. J. and Rafiq, M. Y., The Use of Computers in Teaching 'Real World' Structural Engineering, Civil-Comp 99, The 7th International Conference on Civil and Structural Engineering, Oxford, Ed B. H. V. Topping and B. Kumar, Civil Comp Press Edinburgh, pp 9 - 13, September 1999. Rafiq, M. Y., Easterbrook, D. J. and O'Neill, B., Towards the Integration of the Architectural and the Structural Engineering Design Using Genetic Algorithms, submitted to CAD Journal. Rafiq, M. Y., Bugmann, G. and Easterbrook, D. J., Efficient Neural Network Design for Engineering Applications, submitted for publications in the International Journal of Advances in Software Engineering. Easterbrook, D. J. and Rafiq, M. Y., Paradigm Shift in Teaching 'Real World' Structural Engineering, submitted for publication in the International Journal of Computers and Structures. Rafiq, M. Y., Importance of Pareto Optimum Solutions in Making Informed Decisions in Engineering Design, Proc. of the 8th International Computing in Civil and Building Engineering, ICCCB-VIII, Stanford University, pp1325 - 1333, August 2000. Easterbrook, D. J., Rafiq, M. Y. and Williams, C., The impact of computers on teaching methods in Structural Engineering, accepted for publication in the proceedings of Civil and Structural Engineering Education in the 21st Century, Southampton, April 2000.
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Other Activities
Membership of Course Committees; Research, Computing and Laboratories Committees; MEng Stage Tutor; Head of Structures Group. Short courses attended:
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