Ahlam Ibrahim Shalaby

Biography

I am an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Howard University, Washington, DC. I have worked with Bechtel, NASA, and USDA/ARS in several academic and professional capacities. Since joining the faculty at HU in 1986, I have taught courses in Fluid Mechanics, Open Channel Flow, Hydraulic Project Research, Water Resources Engineering, Advanced Hydrology, and Probability and Statistics. I have served as a hydrology consultant to the World Bank in Washington, DC, and as a disaster specialist for Dewberry in Fairfax, VA. I have also served as an associate expert on remote sensing and hydrological models for forecasting for the World Meteorological Organization, United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. I have done extensive research with the US Army Corps of Engineers CRREL on the statistical assessment of distributed snow process modeling using remote sensing/satellite data, and analysis of risk information derived from geospatial data for the HEC-FDA model. I have authored a number of technical publications in refereed journals, and United Nations publications. I am the author of "Probable Maximum Flood Determination" in the hydrology textbook, Hydrologic Analysis and Design by Dr. R. H. McCuen.

During my career in civil and environmental engineering for the past 31 years, I have had the fortunate opportunity to serve in the various capacities of water resources engineering, including teaching, research, and consulting. As such, throughout my professional career, I have been involved in the diverse aspects of water resources, including remote sensing, hydrologic modeling, hydraulic-open channel flow modeling, statistical modeling, computer modeling, and writing and publishing. My passion for each of these facets of water resources engineering has culminated in the writing of this fluid mechanics textbook Fluid Mechanics for Civil and Environmental Engineers. I will now share with you the reasons why I decided to take on this long and arduous journey of writing this textbook. It was truly a labor of love.

My fascination with fluid flow phenomenon initially began while I was an undergraduate student, taking my first course in fluid mechanics. As I started to teach the subject to my own undergraduate students, the analytical and empirical mathematical modeling of fluid flow began to pique my interest. In a dual effort to satisfy my ever-growing curiosity, and to continuously improve my fluid mechanics notes, I began to delve deeper into the subject. After researching, teaching, and applying fluid mechanics in both academia and in the industry, I recognized three basic problems that I sought to address in writing this textbook. First, it become evident that the subject is overflowing with theoretical and empirical concepts, which may initially seem difficult for the student to grasp, and subsequently, to apply to real-world practical fluid flow problems. Secondly, it became clear that the conventional solution approaches for many practical fluid flow problems are filled with tedious and lengthy trial-and-error procedures. In spite of the numerous suggestions to use programming and computer application tools in order to alleviate this problem, only the end solution result is typically provided, without providing a step by step detailed solution to the problem. And, thirdly, it became noticeable that while the currently available textbooks in fluid mechanics may be successfully adopted in the various disciplines in engineering in general, very few address the topic of open channel flow in the great detail, which is of critical importance to the civil and environmental engineer.  In order to address these three problems facing the study and application of fluid mechanics, I wrote this textbook with the hope of making a contribution to the learning of fluid mechanics.

It is my humble hope that this textbook has provided valuable learning and teaching material for all disciplines of engineering. Furthermore, I hope that this textbook has contributed to bringing the study of fluid mechanics into the 21st century, by applying state-of -the art mathematical software to achieve efficient and detailed solution procedures. Moreover, I hope that this textbook has provided the necessary in-depth study of open channel flow that is essential for civil and environmental engineers. And, although the title of the textbook suggests that the intended audience are civil and environmental engineering students, this textbook may also be successfully adopted by other disciplines in engineering that teach fluid mechanics, such as mechanical, aerospace, nuclear, chemical and agricultural engineering. It is my sincere hope that providing an insightful and easy to understand approach in the presentation and application of the concepts in fluid mechanics, coupled with the use of state-of-the-art mathematical software in order to elevate the learning and teaching experience, will intrigue the curiosity of the student and professor in all engineering disciplines, and incite you to share my passion for the subject of fluid mechanics.

Education

Ph. D. Civil Engineering, Univeristy of Maryland, 1986
M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Maryland, 1982
B.S. Civil Engineering, Howard University, 1979

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics
Water Resources Engineering and Hydrology
Probability and Statistics
Geospatial Statistics
Remote Sensing and GIS
Hydrologic Modeling

Personal Interests

Hiking
Yoga
Movies

Books