Surya S.C. Congress
Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), College of Engineering
Engineering Building, 428 S. Shaw Lane Rm 3566
Biography
Dr. Surya S. C. Congress is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Michigan State University. He is also an FAA Certified Drone Pilot and has flown many uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) missions to collect infrastructure condition data. Dr. Congress leverages his deep understanding of image processing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to develop ... innovative methods for inspecting infrastructure using uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) coupled with close-range photogrammetry techniques. His areas of research interest include stabilization of problematic soils, resilient and sustainable designs for transportation geotechnical assets, climate change effects on civil infrastructure and communities, structural health monitoring of infrastructure assets using digital twins, applications of uncrewed aerial vehicles for infrastructure asset management, machine learning and neural network models for feature extraction, and computer vision applications for solving real-world problems. Dr. Congress received funding from various federal and state agencies, including the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT), and multiple state DOTs. Beyond his research, Dr. Congress is actively engaged in the transportation research community. He serves on committees for the Transportation Research Board and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), including a Vice-chair position. He actively shares his expertise through presentations at national and international conferences. In his free time, Dr. Congress enjoys being active in nature, participating in outdoor sports and embarking on glacier hikes. This passion for exploration extends to his professional pursuits, as he continuously pushes the boundaries of infrastructure assessment through cutting-edge technologies.
Read MoreEducation
Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington 2018
M.S., Civil Engineering, Indian Inst. of Technology, Kharagpur 2014
B.S., Civil Engineering, JNTU, Kakinada 2012
Awards
2023 Quigley Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society for the best paper published in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal
The paper “Experimental Studies and Modeling of High Sulfate Soil Stabilization” published in the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering was nominated for both ASCE’s Norman Medal 2020 and Arthur M. Wellington Prize 2020.
The paper “Investigation of Thermal Conductivity and Prediction Model of Mucky Silty Clay” published in the ASCE Journal of Materials was featured on ASCE SmartBrief 2020
ISSMGE’s Geotechnical Engineers Bright Spark Lecture 2018 Awardee, GeoMEast 2018, Cairo, Egypt
... Read MorePublications
Congress, S. S. C., Puppala, A. J., Escamilla III, J., Jaladurgam, R., & Kumar, P. (2024). “Transportation bridge infrastructure asset condition monitoring using uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).” Transportation Geotechnics, 47, 101268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trgeo.2024.101268
Kumar, P., Puppala, A. J., Congress, S. S.C., & Tingle, J. S. (2024). “Resilient Moduli Characterization of Cement-Treated Silt at High Compaction Energy Conditions.” Transportation Research Record, 03611981241252769. https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981241252
Liu, X., Congress, S.S.C., Shen, J., Cai, G. and Chen, G. (2024). “A simple site amplification model originating from the NGA project for deep soft soil deposits in Suzhou, China. Natural Hazards, pp.1-23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-023-06178-5
Kumar, P., Puppala, A. J., Biswas, N., Congress, S. S.C., Tingle, J. S., & Little, D. N. (2024). “Assessment of Durability of Chemically Stabilized Soils Using Different Moisture-Susceptible Methods.” Transportation Research Record, 03611981241244795. https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981241244795
... Read More