STEER RESEARCH LAB

Director of the STEER Research Lab

Dr. Pegah Farshadmanesh

Assistant Professor of Teaching

Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Farshadmanesh is a faculty member in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Memphis and the Director of the STEER Research Lab. Her research focuses on engineering decision-making under uncertainty to enhance the safety and resilience of infrastructure systems facing natural and technological hazards.

Her work integrates probabilistic and data-driven methods, including machine learning, to support decision-support methodologies and examine how technical and social factors influence system performance. In parallel, she advances engineering education by connecting classroom innovation with industry practice to prepare future engineers for complex, real-world decision-making.

PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

  • Assistant Professor of Teaching, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, University of Memphis (2023-Present)
  • Affiliated Faculty, Institute for Intelligent Systems (IIS), University of Memphis (2025-Present)
  • Outreach Coordinator, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, University of Memphis (2025-Present)
  • Research Scientist, Socio-Technical Risk Analysis Research Laboratory, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2020-2023)
  • Research Associate, Socio-Technical Risk Analysis Research Laboratory, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2018-2020)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Socio-Technical Risk Analysis Research Laboratory, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2017-2018)

Research Team

Ariadna Mendoza, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

Alumni

  • Noah Jacob Bagley, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
  • Daniel Hernandez, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
  • Mohamed Abdoulkarim Noma Kaka, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
  • Xiaofeng Tan, Department of Mechanical Engineering
  • Ilham Yusuf Hussein Dinle, Department of Computer Science
  • Ellie Gevers, Department of Computer Science