I am a firm believer of enquiry-led learning, which is reflected in the courses I teach. My teaching activities are designed to engage students through practical work (using coursework, group projects, or tutorials). I utilise a range of teaching activities throughout to ensure these cater for the diverse range of students and are inclusive; e.g. a mix of lectures, tutorials, formative assessment tasks, laboratory sessions, and workshops utilising the experience gained through “Post Graduate Certificate for learning and teaching in Higher Education” which lead me to become a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

I strongly believe that we cannot develop successful Engineers unless we embed our latest research into teaching. Due to this reason, my lecture material are kept up to date incorporating the latest research and these reflect the current thinking, best practice industry guidelines, and codes of practice. I link the subject’s theory to real life examples, making it easy for the students to appropriately visualise the importance of the topic and hence engaging actively in the class.

I have developed my modules for e-learning environment and encourage out-of-class engagement for all students through discussion groups. I value the importance of continuously developing my teaching and always treat the student feedback very seriously, learn from them and aim to do better the next time round.

I completed my first degree, B.Sc. (Honors) Civil Engineering, from the University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan in 1999. I obtained first position out of a class of over 200 students and was awarded three gold medals on the basis of overall academic performance. I worked in an international consulting firm as ‘Design Engineer’ for a year where I was involved in the detailed design of buildings, bridges and overhead reservoirs.

Obtained my M.Sc. degree from the University of Surrey in 2001, where I secured first position in the Structural Engineering course. I joined the University of Surrey as a Lecturer in 2005 after completing my PhD at the same university. My PhD work was focused mainly on the development of a methodology for the integration of data obtained through health monitoring systems within the decision support system of a bridge management system. I have since worked on a number of projects in collaboration with Industry and Research councils within the broader research themes highlighted earlier. I taught the analysis and design based subjects at the University of Surrey, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate level and was also the Program Director for MSc in Bridge Engineering.

I joined the University of Brighton as a Senior Lecturer in 2013, was later promoted to Principal Lecturer in 2015. I have been the course leader for MSc Higwhay Engineering Management since 2014 and became the Deputy Head of School (Quality Assurance and Enhancement) in 2016. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and an active member of the International Association of Bridge Maintenance and Management (IABMAS).