Biography
Omar M. Nofal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Florida International University (FIU). His research integrates community resilience, multi-hazard risk assessment, and performance-based engineering to enhance the resilience of buildings and infrastructure against natural hazards such as floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes.
Over the past five years, Nofal has focused on developing physics-based and data-driven models to quantify risk, predict damage and losses, and simulate post-disaster recovery at both building and community scales. His work leverages emerging technologies including Digital Twins (DTs), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual and Extended Reality (VR/XR), and autonomous sensing platforms to create intelligent, immersive frameworks for hazard modeling, decision support, and resilience optimization.
Awards & Honors
- Rewarding Excellence in Teaching Incentive (RETI) Award, Florida International University, 2024
- Top Faculty Teaching Evaluation (SPOT) Recognition, Florida International University, 2023
- Travel Award for Natural Hazards Research and Reconnaissance (NIST RAPID/NSF NHERI), 2022
- Graduate Research Excellence Award, Colorado State University, 2021
- Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award, Colorado State University, 2020
Education
- Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Civil Engineering), Colorado State University, 2021
- MS, Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering), Cairo University, Egypt, 2017
- BS, Civil Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt, 2013