Hussain M. Shanaa, P.E., PhD

Hussain M. Shanaa, P.E., PhD, has been involved for the past thirteen years in teaching and research at the University of Bahrain. He taught basic and advanced courses in structural engineering, including reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, and structural analysis.

In addition to his teaching duties, he continues his professional practice in the Design Office of the University of Bahrain. As part of the engineering team, new college buildings are designed and constructed on fast track execution. His scope of works includes the complete structural design responsibility of all new construction at both campuses, including generation of all structural drawings and site supervision. Total construction value to date exceed 23 million Bahraini Dinars (US $60 million) with a total built up area exceeding 40,000 m² (430,000 ft²).

In 1997, Dr. Shanaa took a one year leave from university teaching to focus on the current engineering practices in the private sector in Bahrain. He was engaged as the Technical Director for Sediabena, a Malaysian based specialty construction company. He was also involved as Operations Manager for Seef Properties, overseeing the largest shopping mall in Bahrain and other properties. He assisted the company in its ongoing projects and future development including a new tower and mall extensions and modifications.

Earlier in his career at AEC Engineering, USA, he was one of the lead engineers responsible for producing analysis / design procedures and programs for specialized structural systems. During his last year there, he was promoted to an Engineering Supervisor overseeing a team of engineers and designers. He worked extensively on design of structures to resist the effects of accidental explosions, retrofit of billboard structures, design of overhead cranes and lifting equipment, and retrofit and upgrading of industrial buildings.

During his graduate studies, his research was in the area of reinforced concrete structures subjected to short duration loads such as impact and explosion. A numerical model was implemented to predict the response and failure mode of such structures, which was correlated to existing experimental data collected from the literature.

Dr. Shanaa served in a committee to establish the ACI – Bahrain Chapter, and currently serves as the president of the chapter.