Mohamad M. Hallal

Data Scientist • Geotechnical Engineering Researcher • Geostatistics Enthusiast


Eklutna Lake, Anchorage (09/2018)

I am an Assistant Teaching Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in data science and computation in the context of civil and environmental engineering. Our field is undergoing a quiet revolution, which is fueled by the proliferation of data, and the education of future engineers must match this perspective. As a teaching professor, I aim to equip rising civil and environmental engineers with state-of-the-art skills in data science and computation to address the most significant societal-scale challenges.

I am also a geotechnical engineering researcher and a geostatisitics enthusiast. I graduated with a PhD degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2022, along with dual MS degrees in Statistics in 2021 and Civil Engineering in 2019. My research focuses on integrating multidisciplinary tools to develop holistic methods spanning subsurface imaging and applications in natural hazards engineering with high societal impact.

Thanks for visiting!


HIGHLIGHTS

I am starting a new position as a Teaching Professor of Data Science and Computation in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley in 2023!

Excited to share that I earned my PhD in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas with a dissertation on earthquake engineering and geostatistical modeling

Our collaboration led by Elnaz Seylabi on using heterogeneous data assimilation for estimating in-situ damping and Vs has been published in Earthquake Spectra [Link]

I presented our study on "Multidimensional Site Effects at Treasure Island" during the 2022 Seismological Society of America (SSA) Annual Meeting in Bellevue, WA [Abstract]

Excited to share that I have successfully defended my PhD dissertation on "Using Data-Driven 3D Vs Models in Seismic Site Response." The recording can be found here

Humbled to have been awarded the 2021 Roy E. Olson Award from The University of Texas at Austin for distinguished academic performance and contribution

Our paper on improved implementation of travel time randomization has been published in SDEE

It was amazing to join the 2022 Girl Day STEM Festival at UT Austin and present activities on: The Engineering "Magic" of Soil

Our paper on state-of-the-art approaches to account for variability in 1D site response has been published in JGGE

Excited to have Kimberly Martin and Brian Freilich from Keller join us in our last Fall 2021 Geo-Institute Seminar Series

Excited to share that our paper received an honorable mention for the EERI 2021 Graduate Student Paper Award

Excited to have led the orientation of the new PhD and MS geotechnical engineering students at The University of Texas at Austin

Our paper on estimating unbiased statistics for f0 using spatially distributed HVSR measurements was published in JGGE

Honored to have been awarded the 2021 Student Presentation Award from the Seismological Society of America (SSA)

I am proud to share that I earned my MS from the Department of Statistics and Data Science at The University of Texas at Austin