Grad Profile: Adam Mouak, Ph.D'26
Graduate researcher and student Adam Mouak graduated from the CEAE department last month. Mouak has been at KU CEAE since 2018, completing his undergraduate degree and now, finishing up his doctorate.
Mouak’s path to his current field was shaped by a shift in interests early on in his academic career. A campus visit ultimately helped him solidify his decision to pursue a different concentration of engineering.
"Originally, I was going to do aerospace engineering and then I just realized I wanted to stay on the ground. I found buildings more interesting,” Mouak said. “Actually, it was when I went on a campus visit to Oklahoma State and some students were telling me about what they do that it really piqued my interest.”
Mouak was a part of various KU engineering clubs and organizations, such as the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and ongoing Research Projects.
“The USGBC was dying when I first started freshman year,” said Mouak, “but a senior recruited my friend and me to help revitalize it.”
Through his time at KU, he was a member of various professional organizations to enrich his passions for concrete design. He has a strong interest and connection with industry organizations and contributes to the standards that shape engineering practice.
“I like being involved in professional organizations like the American Concrete Institute (ACI),” Mouak said. “I was awarded a fellowship with ACI, so I got to see how they operate and how the code for concrete design is written. Hopefully, with this job, whatever niche I get into, I can take that and be a part of a related professional organization. It’s actually really rewarding because they write the code that you have to follow so you have a direct, measurable impact.”
Mouak has been researching American dams with a team of KU engineering student researchers and U.S. federal agencies. The five-year project deal is a partnership between KU, the Army Engineer Research and Development Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate.
“It’s a huge project that a ton of graduate students have come through and worked on,” Mouak said. “I actually was the first or second grad student to start on the project. I’ve seen it go all the way from the beginning until now, which has been really cool. We’re investigating new repair techniques for concrete dams using fiber-reinforced polymers. They’re basically big Band-Aids made out of carbon fiber.”
Mouak has done a lot of small-scale research on how conditions for repairing dams are different from traditional applications on bridges and buildings.
"There are some differences that need to be accounted for since they use different concrete and they’re huge compared to bridges and buildings,” said Mouak. “They’re more exposed to the environment, so I’ve done a lot of studies on how the environment affects the materials.”
Mouak noted that collaborating with fellow graduate students has allowed for conversations about engineering practices as well as some notes about them.
“Spending time with the other people on the project is one of my favorite things,” Mouak said. “The grad students sometimes sit in our office after meetings and just talk about anything. We’ve had important conversations and not so important conversations.”
Through his different experiences within the KU CEAE department, he noted that graduate school allows for new experiences, different from work.
“For students considering grad school, just do it,” Mouak said. “There isn’t a better time in your life because it’s hard to go to work, have a salary, have obligations, and then go back, particularly if you want to get a PhD, because you have to dedicate pretty much full-time to the lab. It’s hard for a lot of people, so there’s no better time than now to do it.”
Photos provided by Adam Mouak.