SORONNADI NNAJI, Professor

EDUCATION

Ph.D. University of Arizona, Hydrology
M.S. University of Hawai'i , Civil Engineering 
M.S. University of Hawai'i , Agricultural Engineering
B.Sc. Israel Institute of Technology, Agricultural Engineering
 

E-mail: nnaji@eng.fsu.edu Tel: 850-410-6127

Chairman, Department of Civil Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Sept 1988 - Aug 1993.

INSTRUCTION AND STUDENT DEVELOPMENT

Dr. Nnaji is involved in a variety of activities designed to help students establish an early engineering identity and to assist them in navigating the transitional phases of their educational experience. He was the lead or co-lead of several student transition related activities funded through the NSF-Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education program. He directed a 5-year NSF sponsored project, Research Careers for Minority Scholars (RCMS), in which selected ethnic minority engineering students participated in faculty research and received academic enrichment. He currently teaches courses in engineering concepts and computation, numerical modeling, hydrology, hydraulics, hydraulic engineering and water resources engineering.

RESEARCH AND CONSULTING

Areas of interest:Dr. Nnaji's research and consulting interests are in the areas of Development and application of engineering decision support systems, Predicting and designing for natural and human-induced hazards, and Statistical analysis of large data systems.

Current research:

Determination of Horizontal Permeability of Undisturbed and Reconsolidated Soils (1999-2001) Funded by Florida Department of Transportation

Summary of recent research projects::

Inventory of Domestic Wastewater Residuals in Florida (1993 -1995) Funded by the Florida Dept of Environmental protection: The objectives of this project were to develop an inventory of domestic wastewater residuals in Florida and to develop a database that could be used as a tool by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to measure the effectiveness of its residuals management program and regulations as well as their consistency with federal regulations.

Hydrologic Decision Model for Lake Miccosukee (1993-1995) Funded by the Florida Fish and Game Commission: The primary uses of lake Miccosukee include fishing, game hunting and boating.The management practice adopted by the funding agency for meeting the requirements of these uses is lake level fluctuation. The objectives of the study were to develop decision rules for use in fluctuation (drawdown) decision making and to identify the data needs for implementing these rules.

Decision Support Systems Applications in Urban Transit Systems Management (1993-1994, 1994-1995) Funded by the USDOT/National Urban Transit Institute : Expert Choice, a decision support system software package, was adopted for analyzing and choosing between alternative courses of action in a variety of transit decision situations. First, a generic decision situation, defined to include a goal, a comprehensive set of transit management objectives and sub-objectives, and a set of alternatives, was structured in a hierarchy with the goal at the top and the set of alternatives at the bottom. The resulting decision hierarchy was coded in the software as the Generic model. For a given decision situation, a Case model may be generated from this Generic model by entering the goal and the alternatives particular to the situation.

Past Activities By Title: Evaluating Rules for Regulating Underground Motor Fuel Storage Facilities; Application of Expert Systems in Short Term Flood Forecasting; Statistical Analysis of Biscayne Bay Water Quality Data; Investigation of Heads of Tides in selected Florida Rivers; Preliminary design of new, replacement, or extension sewer and water systems for small communities.

Most recent publications:

Nnaji, S. and P. Mtenga "Decision Support System Applications In Urban Transit Systems Management" Proceedings of the First International Conference on New Information Technologiesfor Decision Making in Civil Engineering, Montreal, October 11-13, 1998...

Yazdani, N., S. Nnaji, M. Rambo-Rodenberry, "Conceptual breakaway swimming pool design for coastal areas", Journal of Coastal Research Volume 13, Number 1, pp 61-66, 1997

Nnaji S., N. Yazdani, and M. Rambo-Rodenberry, "Scour Impact of Coastal Swimming Pools on Beach Systems", Journal of Coastal Research, Volume 12, Number 1, pp 220- 232., 1996